Loaísa expedition

Did You Know?

• Loaísa died on 30 July 1526, Elcano a few days later, and Alonso de Salazar three weeks after that.
• Only Andrés de Urdaneta and 24 other men survived to land in the Spice Islands; they returned to Spain in 1536 under Portuguese guard, completing the second world circumnavigation.
• Maestre Anes (Hans von Aachen), a gunner on the Victoria under Magellan and Elcano, became the first man to circumnavigate twice, and later joined the Villalobos Expedition.

Origins

The Loaísa expedition had twin goals: find a lost ship and claim new lands. After the Victoria reached Spain in 1522, it reported that the Trinidad was last seen trying to sail east from the Spice Islands back to South America. Loaísa was told to follow that expected route, searching for the Trinidad or any clue about what happened to her. If that failed, he had to find and settle Magellan's Spice Islands, and also gather information about the biblical lands of Tarshish and Ophir, which Spanish scholars thought might lie near China. For this, Loaísa got seven ships and 450 men, including craftsmen and officials for a new colony.

Atlantic voyage

The fleet set sail from Corunna on 24 July 1525 with seven ships: Santa María de la Victoria, Sancti Spiritus, Anunciada, San Gabriel, Santa María del Parral, San Lesmes, and a patache, Santiago. De Loaísa was captain, along with Juan Sebastián Elcano. The fleet headed southwest to the Canary Islands, then south along Africa, and in November 1525 crossed west to Brazil, reaching Patagonia in January 1526. Finding no sign of the Trinidad, de Loaísa abandoned the search and continued toward the Spice Islands. Poor weather scattered the ships; Sancti Spiritus and Anunciada were wrecked, and San Gabriel deserted. The San Lesmes, under Francisco de Hoces, was driven south possibly to 57° latitude, where the crew noted an end of land that may have been the first European sighting of Cape Horn. Hoces rejoined the other three vessels, and on 26 May 1526 the diminished fleet of four ships passed through the Strait into the Pacific.

Pacific voyage

Bad weather continued in the Pacific, and the four remaining vessels lost sight of each other in heavy rain, unable to regroup after the storm passed on 1 June. The Santiago sailed north, reaching the Pacific coast of Mexico in July 1526 after a 10,000-kilometre voyage, achieving the first navigation from Europe to the western coast of North America; 50 people survived, some later joining Álvaro de Saavedra's expedition. The San Lesmes disappeared entirely; 20th-century speculation suggests she ran aground in the Tuamotus.

Theories of the wreck of the San Lesmes

Australian researcher Robert Adrian Langdon hypothesized that the San Lesmes, after being lost in a storm off South America, deviated through the Pacific, stopping in Tahiti, before being wrecked on the coast of New Zealand. French historian Roger Hervé claimed the caravel was diverted to Tasmania and then up the Australian eastern coast, captured by the Portuguese near Cape York. New Zealand filmmaker Winston Cowie assesses the theory in his books, adding the oral tradition of the Pouto Peninsula to Langdon's work, concluding there is a possibility the San Lesmes was wrecked on the Pouto Peninsula, with more research required.