Today in Philippine History (Philatelic Edition Series 2):
October 8, 1565
Spanish friar and navigator Andres de Urdaneta arrived in Acapulco, Mexico from Cebu, Philippines on October 8, 1565 aboard the galleon San Pedro.
Urdaneta found and plotted an easterly route across the Pacific Ocean, from the Philippines to Acapulco in the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1565.
This route made it easy for Spain to colonize the Philippines and it became the Manila galleon trade route for more than two hundred years.
Earlier, Spanish Conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi decided that it was time to attempt a voyage back to New Spain after the settlement in Cebu was established.
Urdaneta was the chief advisor while his grandson Felipe de Salcedo, was commander of their largest ship, the San Pedro.
They left Cebu on June 1, 1565, a day that was recommended by Urdaneta because it was the best time to catch the south-west monsoon winds while avoiding the typhoons that usually come later in the season.
The ship has a crew of 200 with food and water that would last for nine months, and a small cargo of spices from the Philippines.
Their journey began through the dangerous passages of the archipelago of the Philippines. The San Pedro then sailed northeast to the 38th parallel where the ship was met by favorable westerly winds which carried them across the Pacific.
On September 18, 1565, they saw Catalina Island and followed the coast and finally reached Acapulco.
The voyage took four months and eight days and most of the crew suffered from scurvy. Only 18 men were strong enough to sail the ship.
Andres de Urdaneta (1508 – June 3, 1568) was a maritime explorer for the Spanish Empire. He accompanied the Loaisa expedition to the Spice Islands and settled in New Spain in 1540. He became an Augustinian friar in 1552.
Fray Andres de Urdaneta accepted King Philip II's request asking him to join the Legazpi expedition headed for the Philippines.
(Design, concept, stamps and research: Richard Allan B. Uy) All rights reserved
Photo credit: alchetron.com
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