By Monsi A. Serrano
Photo from https://www.cope.es/
The Philippines Quincentennial celebration will be more meaningful as the Spanish ship Juan Sebastian de Elcano is set to arrive in the Philippines on the very occasion of the first circumnavigation of the world.
In the statement sent to THEPHILBIZNEWS by the Embassy of Spain in Manila. the 93-year-old Spanish training flag ship Juan Sebastián Elcano will arrive in the country to commemorate one of the most significant achievements in the history of mankind, the 500th anniversary of the first circumnavigation of the world.
The Juan Sebastián Elcano, a four-mast brig-schooner built during 1928, will arrive in Guiuan, Eastern Samar on March 16 and will sail to Sulu and Homonhon Islands, as well as Cebu, the Embassy said in a statement.
“Navigation through the Philippines is a key part of the tour around the world that the Spanish training ship is making to commemorate the Magallanes-Elcano expedition route that made circumnavigation possible for the first time ever around the globe,” it said.
Interestingly, apart from the fact that the Spanish expedition was the first-ever done in the history of mankind and duly recorded circumnavigation around the globe made possible for the first time, it also proved that the Spanish sailing expertise and daring adventure paved the way to more opportunities for trading and possibility to explore the world through sailing.
Thus, the commemoration of the 500 years of the Magallanes-Elcano expedition is something that worth celebrating. The journey was a historical leap forward and a technical challenge for that time. Initially, 5 ships and 238 men departed Spain as part of the expedition and only 18 men and one ship made it back three years later,” the Spanish Embassy said in a statement.
The commonly known “Elcano” will arrive in Guiuan (Eastern Samar) on March 16 and it will be in Suluan and Homonhon Islands until March 18 and later in Cebu from March 20-22 in the very places where the expedition made the first visual contact, landing and human encounter on those very dates but only just 500 years later.
“The space and time coincidence will help to better visualize the special feeling that the expeditioners felt when arriving and gazing at the beauty of this country and discovered the humanity of its people,” the statement added.
This is a sort of reenactment of what transpired 500 years ago when the ship was named in honor of the Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano who traveled with Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan 500 years ago to sail all the way around the globe for the first time.
Consequently, the Portuguese explorer was killed by islanders in the Philippines two years into the adventure, leaving Elcano to complete the 3-year trip around the world.
For this historical occasion, the Embassy in collaboration with the ICTS Inc. will take aerial images from the ship that will be distributed to the media on the same day. The Embassy of Spain will also cover this commemoration extensively through its social media accounts on Facebook https://web.facebook.com/EmbSpainManila and Twitter @EmbassyESPinPH
