Mystery After

It’S Still A

370 Years

• The “Annual Dog Watch”, published by the Shi plover s’ Society of Vic toria at 5/6d a copy, is al ways good value for old salts and everyone else who likes to read yarns with the tang of the sea in them. In the latest issue, the 20th, is an article by Chris Halls on one of the Pacific’s earliest maritime mysteries. A sum mary of the article is pub lished below.

When the Spanish explorer

Alvaro de Mendana sailed from Callao, Peru, in 1595 to estab lish a settlement in the Solomons, his fleet comprised four ships: The San Jeronimo, San Felipe, Santa Catalina and Santa Ysabel.

THE pilot of each ship had a chart of the Pacific drawn especially by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, Mendana’s chief pilot. These charts showed the Peruvian coastline from Paita to Arica, but the Pacific itself was an empty desert for 1,500 leagues. In fact, only two points of the Solomons were shown, one in 7 deg. S. latitude and one in 12 deg. S.

With these crude charts, Mendana’s four ships had an eventful voyage across the Pacific—the Marquesas Islands, which Mendana named after

the wife of the Governor of Peru, being discovered on the way.

Early in September, 1595, when the fleet was in the vicinity of the Solomons, Lope de Vega, the master of the Santa Ysabel, asked Mendana for a boatload of fuel for use aboard his ship.

His crew, he said, was so short of fuel that they had begun hacking the vessel’s bulwarks away.

He also reported that they were seriously short of water, but although Mendana had more than 400 full casks in his own ship, he refused to hand over a single one to his companion.

However, Mendana did promise not to part company from the Santa Ysabel when Lope de Vega told him that, because of lack of ballast, his ship was cranky and could not carry much sail.

Soon after this, on September 7, the Spaniards sighted a mass of dark smoke ahead, which, unknown to them, was coming from the volcano on Tinakula.

By arrangement, the San Felipe and Santa Catalina went ahead to spy out any reefs or land, and when night came, the four ships kept in touch with each other by lantern signals. However, at 9 p.m., the Santa Ysabel lost contact with the other three and she was never seen again.

Next morning, the Santa Catalina sailed round Tinakula to see whether the missing ship had anchored on the other side, but returned with nothing to report.

A second, more extensive search from Santa Cruz, some time later was equally fruitless. Although several new islands were sighted, no wreckage was found nor any traces of survivors. A third search in the vicinity of San Cristobal also yielded nothing.

After an attempt to found a colony on Santa Cruz proved unsuccessful— Mendana having died in the mean time the expedition, under Mendana’s wife, was ordered to head for the Philippines. Two of the ships, the San Jeronimo and San Felipe, reached there in February, 1596.

But the Santa Catalina, which had parted company from them in December, did not make it. Accord ing to a report that eventually reached Manila, she was found with all sails set but everyone dead somewhere on the coast of the Philippines.

As for the Santa Ysabel, no clue to the mystery of her disappearance has ever been found. . . .