The Strait of Magellan, with its cold temperatures, unexpected geography, and unpredictable currents and winds seemed to be a great challenge for sailors and pilots at the beginning of the 16th century. Magellan's inaugural voyage had made it clear that this sea passage was the Door to the Pacific that Charles V had longed for, so getting to know and mastering its navigation appeared to be the key to systematizing access to the Moluccas. Consequently, between 1522 and 1540, the Spanish crown promoted a series of expeditions aimed at crossing the Strait and entering Pacific waters, either to reach the desired Spice Islands—Garcia Jofre de Loaísa and Sebastian Cabot—or to populate and make profitable the current Chilean territory—Simão de Alcazaba and Alonso de Camargo. It seems that in the 1520s, in addition to the Spanish fleets, other vessels flying Genoese, French and Portuguese flags clandestinely approached the Strait. All these expeditions, despite sharing an essentially commercial and economic motivation, advanced substantially in the knowledge of the navigation conditions of the Strait of Magellan. Proof of this are the many documents with technical-scientific content that they produced, among which stands out the rutter written by Martín de Uriarte, one of Loaísa’s fleet pilots.
During the 1550s both the driving force and the port of departure of the expeditions changed; now it was the governors of Chile, first Pedro de Valdivia and then García Hurtado de Mendoza, who sent two fleets from the ports of Concepción and Valdivia respectively, with the sole objective of exploring and recognizing the Strait. The expedition promoted by Valdivia departed in 1553, and had as its main protagonist Hernando Gallego, who commanded his ship to enter the Strait for the first time from the western mouth, reached the Atlantic entrance, and returned to Chile as the first man to travel the Fuegian channel in both directions. The enterprise sponsored by Hurtado de Mendoza raised sails in 1557, with Juan Ladrillero at the command; he became the second man to cross the Strait in both directions, and left for posterity an outstanding rutter which surpassed the one produced by Martín de Uriarte. Thanks to this document, the Door to the Pacific looked much more open to the Spanish crown, but the discovery of the Pacific Tornaviaje in 1565 pushed the Fuegian channel into the background… until the entrance onto the stage of the Pelican, captained by Francis Drake. To be continued… [José María Moreno]
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