A Secret Mission to Cross the Pacific
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2021
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
December 1, 1564. Spanish vessels left a secret port in Mexico about two weeks ago. Their goal: to sail across the Pacific and back, charting a new route for international trade, and giving Spain an edge against its chief colonial rival, Portugal. But today, when a storm hits, the smallest ship is separated from the rest of the fleet. Now, that ship, the San Lucas, is on its own. The following year, when the San Lucas makes it back to Mexico, against all odds, its pilot—a Black mariner—is accused of treason. How did the San Lucas—the smallest ship in the fleet—complete a near-impossible journey that would connect the world? And how did the trailblazing mariner Lope Martín get erased from the story?
Special thanks to our guest, Andrés Reséndez, author of Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The History Channel, original podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | History this week, December 1st, 1564. |
| 0:10.0 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 0:16.0 | Four Spanish vessels in the middle of the Pacific. |
| 0:20.0 | They left a secret port in Mexico about two weeks ago. |
| 0:24.0 | Their goal to sail across this vast ocean and back. |
| 0:32.0 | It's never been done before. |
| 0:34.0 | If these ships succeed, they'll open up a new trade and travel route that will change the relationships among many countries on Earth. |
| 0:41.0 | And they'll give Spain an edge in a long-running, high-stakes competition with its chief colonial rival, Portugal. |
| 0:50.0 | For a few days now, the smallest of the four ships has been at the front of the pack, the San Lucas. |
| 0:58.0 | It's been given the job of scoping out dangers that may lie ahead. |
| 1:02.0 | Perhaps because of the skill of its pilot, a man named Lopez Martín. |
| 1:11.0 | Martín is an unusual presence on these Spanish ships. |
| 1:14.0 | He's one of the people in charge, but he doesn't come from the upper classes. |
| 1:19.0 | In fact, his ancestors were enslaved. |
| 1:23.0 | He's one of just a few black mariners to rise through the ranks during the age of exploration. |
| 1:30.0 | On this first day of December, Martín's ship, the San Lucas, is quite far ahead of the others, which would be fine, except that night a storm comes in from the northeast. |
| 1:44.0 | The little San Lucas is getting swamped by big waves. |
| 1:47.0 | It can't slow down too much, or it might get dragged under the water. |
| 1:52.0 | It's dark, hard to get in touch with the other boats to let them know what's going on. |
| 1:57.0 | The captain orders that a land turn be placed in the stern of the boat to let the other boats know what they're doing. |
| 2:03.0 | They leave it out all night, but they don't hear from any of the other ships. |
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