EFEMÉRIDES MARÍTIMAS Y NAVALES

Colaboración del C. de N. Edgardo Loret de Mola

Responsable de la edición: Rosario Yika Uribe

Fuente: Cinco siglos del destino marítimo  del Perú, de Esperanza Navarro Pantac: Instituto de Estudios Histórico-Marítimos del Perú, 2016

Efemérides Navales de Hoy 14 Mayo

14 de mayo 1606: Pedro Fernández de Quiroz, en su expedición a las Islas Salomón, toma posesión de las islas cercanas a Australia. 

Quiros, Pedro Fernandez de (1563–1615)

Artículo tomado del Australian Dictionary of Geography que fuera publicado en el Volumen 2 en 1967 (http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/quiros-pedro-fernandez-de-2568)

Pedro Fernandez de Quiros (1563?-1615), navigator, was born at Evora, Portugal, but became subject to the King of Spain when the two countries were dynastically united in 1580. Quiros is the Spanish form of the name. He was a supercargo on Portuguese merchant ships and appears to have spent several years seafaring on the Pacific coasts of America. He was recognized as a competent and experienced navigator when in 1595 he was appointed chief pilot of an expedition of four ships under Alvaro de Mendaña setting out to colonize the Solomon Islands, which Mendaña had visited in 1567. They sailed from Callao, Peru, in April 1595 and in three months reached the Marquesas, which Mendaña at first thought were the Solomons. Quiros was most impressed by the natives, as was James Cook 180 years later; they were 'in all things so becoming that … nothing in his life ever caused him so much regret as the leaving of such fine creatures to be lost in that country'. However, they became importunate and many were killed, though Quiros thought 'such evil deeds' were 'not things to do, nor to praise, nor to allow, nor to maintain, nor to refrain from punishing if the occasion permits'.

The expedition left the Marquesas in August and, after passing several small islands, on 8 September sighted a large one which Mendaña named Santa Cruz. There he proposed to establish a settlement; but the Spaniards again fell out with the natives, many of the crews were sick and discontent was rife despite Quiros's constant efforts to suppress disorder and support Mendaña's authority. In October Mendaña died and next month Quiros, who had taken over the command, decided that the place should be abandoned. He sailed WSW for two days, but found no land and headed for Manila. He arrived on 11 February 1596 after a voyage in ships badly needing repair, against contrary winds, with a starving and dying company, and with difficulties intensified by the selfishness of Mendaña's widow. This was one of the greatest feats in the record of Pacific navigation and shows the great qualities Quiros possessed.

After eighteen months in the Philippines, he sailed for home. He reached Mexico in December 1597 and Spain next year. The expedition had given him the idea of discovering a great southern continent for Spain and for the church. He petitioned the king to send him on another expedition into the Pacific, and he took the opportunity of the jubilee of 1600 to go to Rome to seek Papal blessing for this enterprise. He stayed in Rome from September 1600 to April 1602, and in August 1601 had an audience with Pope Clement VIII. He greatly impressed the Spanish ambassador, the Duke of Sesa, who told the King of Spain that 'his only excess was that he was over-zealous for the service of Your Majesty'. Otherwise he was a 'man of good judgment, experienced in his profession, hard-working, quiet and disinterested'; there were, Sesa thought, few pilots so skilled in making charts or who knew so much mathematics. Quiros had invented two instruments to aid navigation, both highly praised by distinguished mathematicians, one to ascertain the variation of the declination of the compass needle to the NE. and NW., and the other to determine latitude, and his Treatise on Navigation, first written as a letter to the king in 1602, showed a marked knowledge of the theory and practice of navigation.

At last, in March 1603, Quiros was authorized to undertake another voyage to convert the heathen and extend the Spanish dominions. He was delayed by being shipwrecked in the West Indies but reached Callao on 6 March 1605. In December he set out into the Pacific, intending to sail to latitude 30°S., then to criss-cross the Pacific between 10°-20°S. until he reached Santa Cruz, whence he would sail SW. to 20°S. and then NW., with the object of discovering a 'mainland' which he was sure existed 1000 leagues from Peru near the Marquesas Islands. However, when he first reached latitude 26°S. he changed his plan, unfortunately, for otherwise he might have discovered New Zealand, and sailed WNW. and W., and then NW., missing the Marquesas but discovering the Duff group and the Banks group, before reaching the New Hebrides or what he called Austrialis del Espiritu Santo on 3 May 1606. There, in 'a land more delightful, healthy and fertile' than any that could be found, he proposed to form a colony to be called New Jerusalem, with its capital Vera Cruz, but after a few weeks his ship, when returning for the second time because of contrary winds from attempted exploration to the south-east, was driven out to sea. Instead of trying to return his ship sailed for Mexico, possibly when the discontented among the crew seized an opportunity created by their captain's ill health. The second ship, with the pilot Luis Vaez de Torres, was left behind.

Quiros reached Acapulco in November 1606 and Madrid in October 1607. For seven years he bombarded the king with memorials, at least sixty-five in number, asking to be sent on a third expedition, but the council thought that discoveries in the Pacific only weakened the mother country, and that Spain could not afford it. Quiros was employed as a cosmographer and the council forbade the publication of the memorials which reported his discoveries, lest other countries should benefit from them. At last in 1614 a new viceroy of Peru was told he could send out Quiros when he thought it convenient; Quiros sailed with him for New Spain, but died on the way in June 1615.

All who knew Quiros were impressed by his undoubted skill as a seaman and navigator, his sympathy with the natives of the islands, and his belief, in the last fifteen years of his life, in his spiritual mission; but though full of zeal and enthusiasm, he failed in the management of his men. Often weak and vacillating he had insufficient will power to control the turbulent and to cheer the half-hearted, and was by no means fitted for the task of forming new settlements.

In 1589 he married Dona Ana Chacon of Madrid, who bore him one son and one daughter.

14 de mayo 1861: Se decide llevar al lago Titicaca buques a vapor. El ministro de Marina envía al representante permanente del Perú en Londres instrucciones sobre la construcción de uno que desplazará 300 toneladas. Más adelante, el 29 de agosto de 1861, se cambia el pedido, para que se hagan dos buques de ochenta a cien toneladas, que se enviarían en piezas.(YAVARÍ arriba y PUNO -ex YAPURÁ- abajo. Mapa del Lago Titicaca de 1893 tomado de Olds Map On Line - Biblioteca de Universidad de Harvard)

THE HISTORY OF THE YAPURÁ

In 1861, the Peruvian Government of Ramon Castilla, ordered two small cargo-passenger “gunboats” for Lake Titicaca. Already enjoying the wealth from the guano industry on the coast, the Government looked to exploit the natural resources of the southern highlands or altiplano region around Lake Titicaca. Here lay the potential for trading Peruvian copper, silver, minerals and wool and timber and riches of the rainforest from Bolivia with manufactured goods from Europe. 

Through the agency of Anthony Gibbs & Sons, the Government commissioned the JAMES WATT FOUNDRY in Birmingham, England (where steam was first harnessed for industrial use) to build the ships that would collect goods from around the lake. Without a rail link to the lake at that time, all cargo had to be carried up on mule back. Therefore, the ships were built in kit form, with no piece weighing more than 3 ½ cwts, the maximum carrying capacity of a mule.

THE THAMES IRONWORKS AND SHIPBUILDING (located at the Victoria Docks) were sub-contracted to build the iron hulls of the YAVARI and the Yapura. The ironworks were also founders of London’s Premier League, West Ham United Football Club. Their nickname of “The Hammers” comes from their days of hammering rivets and is still used today.

On 15th October 1862, the “Mayola”, bearing the two ships and eight British engineers from London, having rounded the Horn, docked at Arica – a Peruvian port before the War of the Pacific – and discharged the packing cases and pieces of the YAVARÍ and the YAPURÁ. The Peruvian Navy then faced the daunting task of getting 2,766 pieces and two crankshafts transported to Lake Titicaca, 12,500 ft. (3,810ms) above sea level.

THE GREAT TREK

From Arica to Tacna 186 ft.(55 ms) above sea level, the packing cases travelled the 40 miles (64 kms.) on one of the oldest stretches of railway in South America. 

In Tacna the 2,766 pieces weighing a total of 210 tons were unpacked and arranged in order of how they should arrive at Puno on the Lake. Local muleteers and porters, who were to carry the crankshafts, competed for the work.

The route, though only 350 kms in length, would take them through the moonscape of the driest desert in the world, mountain passes higher than the highest European peaks and the sub-zero windswept wastes of the altiplano. Notwithstanding, the winner quoted a delivery date of six months. Buoyed by this prospect, the British engineers who were to help re-assemble the ships, went on ahead to build a jetty, slipway and machine shops in preparation.

Six months later, the contractor, hopelessly defeated by the task, was fired, leaving pieces of ship scattered between Tacna and Puno. Outside events seemed to conspire against the project as grumbling muleteers, an earthquake, a ‘peasants revolt’ and the threat of a second invasion of Peru by the Spanish, brought the expedition to a halt. Five years on it received fresh impetus. Requests were sent out for more muleteers and “1000 Indians” to help with the task and by 1st January 1869 enough pieces had arrived for the keel of the YAVARÍ to be laid.

Despite fatalities within the team, the British engineers and local workers painstakingly rebuilt the YAVARI, bit by bit. 

At 3pm on Christmas Day 1870 the First Lady of the Lake was launched. The amazing journey from the heart of Empire Britain to the spiritual heart of the Inca Empire was finally complete. The YAPURÁ since renamed BAP Puno followed in 1873.

The YAVARI, then 100ft long was powered by a 60 horse power (HP) two cylinder steam engine which, for want of more conventional fuel, was fired by dried llama dung…. She was also equipped as a two-masted sailer.

WORKING LIFE

By 1890, the cost of the War of the Pacific and the construction of some of the world’s greatest railways had impoverished Peru. In lieu of a debt repayment, The Peruvian Corporation was formed as a British company to run the trains and Lake Steamers. The YAVARÍ continued her vital service providing transport for the region’s exports and as a link between lakeside communities.

Known as “la Peruvian”, the Corporation extended the hull of the YAVARÍ to increase cargo space and in 1914 replaced the steam engine with a Swedish BOLINDER 4 cylinder hot bulb semi-diesel developing 320 bhp at 225 rpm. The oldest and largest of its kind in the world, this engine is a collector’s piece and was recently restored with sponsorship from Volvo Peru S.A. and Atlas Copco S.A.

The YAVARÍ had undergone several changes by the time The Peruvian Corporation was nationalised in 1975. At that time she passed via the State Railways (ENAFER) to the Peruvian Navy, who, for lack of resources and preferring the YAPURÁ, allowed her to lapse into disuse.

THE REDISCOVERY

It was ten years on, in 1982, when, believing the YAVARÍ to have been built by Yarrows, the yard founded by her great grandfather, Alfred Yarrow, Meriel Larken, already a Peruphile, discovered the old iron Lady slowly dying in a corner of Puno port. Although, in fact, the YAVARÍ was not a Yarrow ship, the vessel’s historic value and potential for attracting revenue to one of the most depressed regions of Peru were obvious. 

Mariel Larken commissioned a Lloyds Condition Survey which found that being in fresh water at high altitude, the iron hull was in excellent condition and it was deemed worthy of restoration. By 1987, The YAVARÍ Project (Registered Charity No. 298904) and La sociación Yavarí (non-profit making NGO) had been formed and on 17th February the YAVARÍ was bought from the Peruvian Navy.

At first work was slow due in part to Peru’s political instability and economic decline but in 1990 a change of government brought with it a rapid turnaround in the country’s fortunes. Since then we have been able to make steady progress on the YAVARÍ due entirely to the many friends, sponsors and volunteers she has attracted.
Today the YAVARI is open to the public daily. Free admission and guided tours. Donations on board are welcome!

For the enthusiast we love to start up the mighty 1914 Bolinder 4-cylinder hot bulb engine. The sight, sound and smell of a bygone era make this an unforgettable experience! Advance notice is r

14 de mayo 1896: En Iquitos, la Junta de Gobierno Federal instalada en el curso de la revolución del coronel Ricardo Seminario y Aramburú, discute y promulga el estatuto provisorio del flamante Estado Federal de Loreto. (El texto abajo ha sido tomado de "La frontera domesticada: historia económica y social de Loreto, 1850-2000” - El mapa del Perú es de la colección de David Rumsey. Fue dibujado en 1885 por Nicolas Estevanez y publicado por la Librería de Garnier Hermanos en París. En el figura Iquitos y Loreto. A pesar del año de publicación, el mapa considera Peruanos al Dpto de Tacna y a la provincia litoral de Tarapacá y a Bolivia NO la considera mediterránea. )

14 de mayo 1982: La Central de Procesamiento de Datos de la Marina cambia su nombre por el de División de Informática del Departamento de Sistemas de del Estado General Mayor de Marina.