Guam of the late-18th century only had a population of about 2,000. The CHamoru people were in a state of recovery following many years of the ravages of disease and war.
Andrés de Urdaneta (1498-1568), a Spanish Augustinian friar born in Villafranca de Ordizia in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain, was a seaman, sailor, navigator and author who became the most knowledgeable European navigator of the Pacific, best known for his discovery of the Tornaviaje, or return sea route from the Philippines to the Americas.
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Although there are Chinese records from 1226 mentioning islands located in the area of the Philippines, no Chinese map referring to the area now called “Micronesia” is known to have survived the passage of the centuries.
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Louis Claude de Freycinet (1779 – 1841) was born in France, and at the age of 14, he joined the French navy. His early stint with the navy occurred during the tumultuous years of the French Revolution. He was an ardent supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte and shared Napoleon’s interests in science, exploration, and cartography.
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French explorer Jules Sébastien César Dumont d’Urville lead two French Navy expeditions into Oceania. Beginning in April 1826 to February 1829, d’Urville accompanied the corvette Astrolabe through Australia and Oceania.
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The Victoria was one of five ships of Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet during the expedition to find the Spice Islands (now the Moluccas) in the early 16th century. The expedition set sail from Spain in 1519, with the flagship Trinidad, the Victoria and the other three ships Concepcion, Santiago, and San Antonio.
The Trinidad was the flag ship of Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet in its expedition for the Spice Islands. It was the best and also the most inexpensive of the five ships (Victoria, Concepcion, Santiago, Trinidad and San Antonio), since its price (270,000 maravedies) was 65 percent lower than the Victoria.
The Nuestra Señora de la Concepción was a Spanish galleon operating as part of the lucrative Manila-Acapulco galleon trade when she wrecked off the southern coast of Saipan, an island north of Guam, in what is today the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Galleon: Concepción Read Post »
Just after three frigates under his command had captured the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Encarnacion (which he renamed Bachelor), British privateer Woodes Rogers arrived at Guam on 11 March 1710, asking that Governor Juan Antonio Pimentel enable him to replenish his ships – otherwise he would bombard the island.
Adventurer: Woodes Rogers Read Post »
William Dampier was an English buccaneer, sea captain, chronicler (he kept a detailed journal of his travels), and scientific observer in the 17th century. Considered by his contemporaries to be an erudite sea tactician and well-read writer — a Renaissance man of the high seas — Dampier’s early career, however, involved piracy; the 28-year-old was a product of nationalist sentiment.
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