The Spanish captain who decided the first circumnavigation of the world and who today is a complete unknown

On September 8, 500 years ago, eighteen famished and exhausted men arrived in Seville after spending three years making the first trip around the world. These few were greeted with uproar and joy, save for the relatives of the many who had not returned. Along the way, most of the members of a fleet originally made up of five ships and more than two hundred people had remained. In a country where it has cost God and help, if it has been achieved, to recover from oblivion such a leading figure as Juan Sebastián Elcano, captain of the ship that returned, it is a chimera to speak of the memory of those who were lost during the crossing or, simply, to those who arrived later. And that is precisely the quixotic work that Tomás Mazón Serrano has undertaken, an engineer who has been watering the Rutaelcano.com project for years and has now published his second book, ‘Espinosa: the last captain of the trip around the world’ (Ediciones Encuentro), to vindicate the importance of the man who made the decision for Elcano to return to Spain from the west, although due to fate he could not follow his path. This sailor was Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa, who started out as bailiff of the navy and ended up replacing his friend Magallanes as captain general. «He always acted in a straight and brave way when it was necessary to take a step forward. He acted with rectitude and fidelity to his word, both to friends and to people close to him, like Magellan », explains Mazón about his unexpected rise to command. “We know that he was serving the King before the expedition and he was probably a huntsman of the Royal Guard, because he came from this town of Burgos” On board the Trinidad, the captain had to stay behind on Tidore Island for a breakdown, while Elcano, at the head of the Victoria, began his own journey. Gómez de Espinosa headed east to try to reach Panama, but the Pacific overcame him. “Turning was something very difficult, which would take a long time to discover,” recalls the author of the book about the complication of crossing the Pacific without knowing the currents and favorable winds. With the ship destroyed by a storm and her crew sick, the few survivors were taken prisoner by the Portuguese and it took years before they could return to Spain. –How has such a big oversight been committed with this character? –It is something that has caught my attention since I began to approach the study of this history. The one who has the fame is Magellan, and the one we are trying to place on his level is Elcano, but along the way we are leaving behind the true substitute for Magellan as captain general of the expedition and under whose command the most important decisions of the return, including going around the world. He is a character to vindicate and one to talk about. He is a very relevant person in this story and, furthermore, someone with high values. How was the decision to go around the world made? -Espinosa was the captain general, while Elcano was only captain of the Victoria. Before Elcano left alone, both ships were scheduled to leave together heading west. What happens is that in the Trinidad he found a fault and it was decided that the ships would separate before the approach of a Portuguese fleet. What is certain is that Espinosa made all these decisions jointly. Unlike the authoritarian style of Magallanes, with Espinosa he radically changed decision-making. Among the group of main commanders who carried the weight of decisions were Espinosa, Elcano, the maestre de la Trinidad, a Genoese named Juan Bautista and also a notary from Seville, Martín Méndez. It is these four officers who mainly decided to go around the world during several meetings. The Victoria sailed immediately to avoid being caught. Those of Trinidad determined that they were no longer going to follow in Elcano’s wake, but would return through America. –Was that voyage without the discovered turnaround a suicide mission? -They could suspect the difficulty because during the outward journey they had always had favorable winds. Now, on the way back, they would need to look for favorable winds in other latitudes than the ones they had taken on the outward journey. What happens is that they did not expect in any case that they would have to deviate so far north in search of those winds, that they would never end up appearing. Magellan’s death at the Battle of Mactan. ABC –What makes Espinosa special? –On the one hand, we have a man-at-arms. He was not someone with the profile of Elcano or Magellan. He was a soldier, someone educated in the art of war and who volunteered to go as a constable in this army. We know that he served the King before the expedition and he was probably a huntsman of the Royal Guard, because he came from Espinosa de los Monteros in Burgos, which was the only place from where the guards who watched at night could be born. the bedroom of the King of Castile. That will of fidelity to the king was maintained throughout his life and he made a show of it. We will continue to see all of this throughout his long life after the trip. –What was the reason for his iron loyalty to Magellan? -I have tried to find out what this fidelity was due to and I have found that Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa was the first Castilian who met Magellan out of those who traveled with him. Espinosa was at the court of Valladolid in 1518, when Magellan first came to present his project to King Carlos. He then volunteered himself as bailiff for the expedition. “Why did the men choose him as captain?” -When Magellan died, Espinosa was elected not as captain general, but as captain of the ship Victoria, of which Elcano would later become captain as well. The captain general they chose at that time was a very experienced Portuguese, Juan López Carballo, the only one of the pilots who had not died and who already knew that area, to the point that he was an interpreter in the Moluccas Islands. What happens is that Carballo began to act badly in the service of his Majesty and then they removed him from his post. And that is where they finally chose Espinosa as captain general and Elcano as captain of the Victoria. Why? Well, because Espinosa had proven to be someone trustworthy. Espinosa had always stepped forward when things got ugly to defend people from him. At that time, when they were lost in those, in that swarm of islands between the Philippines, Borneo and the Moluccas, the main problem was meeting hostile people on land and it was Espinosa who could offer the most security. «We have many texts from his hand and there is a lot of documentation with testimonies that he gave after returning claiming from the King, who at first promised him a lot and then gave him very little» –In the end he has a not-so-triumphant outcome. –When the news reached Castile that he was imprisoned in Lisbon, money was quickly sent to him and ambassadors were sent to Lisbon to ask the King of Portugal to free him. But the King of Portugal made himself beg and it still took a few months to release him. When he finally arrived in Castile, he was received very well, he was honored and he received many favors. He received good money and was sent as captain again to the Moluccas in the expedition that was then being organized. However, before the King set sail, he agreed with Portugal to sell the Moluccas and, therefore, the expedition was annulled. From then on, they gave him a job at the Casa de Contratación de Indias in Seville and appointed him visitor, a kind of inspector for all the ships that wanted to cross to the Indies. And that’s the job he ended up doing for many years. -Now out of the limelight of history… -Yes, there are no longer any great adventures. But it is a job that gave rise to the knowledge of all the sailors who were involved in it, who left Seville and Sanlúcar de Barrameda for the New World. It was an important job that was highly valued. He lived in Seville, got married, had a son… After his death, this son went to the Indies, to Guatemala, where it seems that his wife had a brother. That’s where Espinosa’s lineage is perpetuated, his children, his grandchildren, great-grandchildren… –How did the chroniclers treat you? Better than Elcano? –Well, curiously, Pigafetta doesn’t mention him in his chronicles either. He does not name anyone who survived the journey, only the dead, probably because he wanted to make a name for himself. But well, the rest of the chroniclers of the Indies do speak well of Espinosa. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo even met with him, and he also left a lot in writing. That is a very nice part when it comes to investigating, because we have many texts from his hand and there is a lot of documentation with testimonies that he gave after returning demanding from the King, who at first promised him a lot and then gave him very little, that he comply with his word. In other words, throughout his life we ​​are going to find a lot of documentation in which he speaks, tells and gives his version of things. Related News HISTORY standard Yes V centuries of the first circumnavigation of the world: a Spanish commemoration without defeat César Cervera About to close the acts for the five centuries of the first circumnavigation of the world, we can speak of success in the objective of removing Elcano from the shadows thanks, above all, to civil society – Are you going to continue the pending debt with Espinosa, despite the book? -I hope it serves to make him known and do justice to him. I had a great interest in the book coming out just in September, when the Nao Victoria returned triumphant after circumnavigating the world. A moment in which precisely Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa was on the other side of the world, in the middle of the Pacific, trying to carry out that difficult and unsuccessful navigation. The maximum effort of these people from Trinidad and specifically of Captain Espinosa deserved recognition that hopefully this book helps to give.