Gabriel de Castilla (1577 – c. 1620) was a Spanish

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

and navigator. A native of

Palencia Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia. Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half o ...

, it has been argued that he was an early explorer of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

.Vázquez de Acuña, Isidoro. ''Don Gabriel de Castilla primer avistador de la Antártica'' en Revista de Marina 1993 N° 2, Valparaíso: Armada de Chile (p. 4).

Biography

In March 1603, Castilla was at the head of an expedition that weighed anchor from Valparaiso. Under his control were three ships: the galleon ''Jesús María'', of 600 tons and 30 cannons, ''Nuestra Señora de la Visitación'' (which had belonged to

Richard Hawkins Admiral Sir Richard Hawkins (or Hawkyns) (c. 1562 – 17 April 1622) was a 17th-century English seaman, explorer and privateer. He was the son of Admiral Sir John Hawkins. Biography He was from his earlier days familiar with ships and the s ...

) and ''Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes''. The expedition was entrusted by the

Viceroy of Peru The viceroys of Peru ruled the Viceroyalty of Peru from 1544 to 1824 in the name of the monarch of Spain. The territories under ''de jure'' rule by the viceroys included in the 16th and 17th century almost all of South America except eastern Brazi ...

Luis de Velasco, marqués de Salinas Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, to suppress the incursions of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

privateers A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

in the seas to the south of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Historians conjecture that they penetrated to a latitude of (64° S) in the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

, south of

Drake Passage The Drake Passage (referred to as Mar de Hoces Hoces Sea"in Spanish-speaking countries) is the body of water between South America's Cape Horn, Chile and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atla ...

. If correct, this would be the farthest south that anyone had travelled, at that time. Subsequently, several merchant vessels reported being blown south of 60° S rounding

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

in severe weather.

References

External links

The Spanish Antarctic station Gabriel de Castilla

Don Gabriel de Castilla, primer avistador de la Antártica
by Chilean historian Isidoro Vázquez de Acuña (Spanish language)
Revista Hidalguia num. 232-233 1992 p.356 et seq
This links to another, incomplete but substantial, version of the above. {{DEFAULTSORT:Castilla, Gabriel de 1577 births 1620s deaths Spanish explorers Spanish navigators Explorers of Antarctica 16th-century Spanish people 17th-century Spanish people People from Palencia Spain and the Antarctic Spanish people in the Viceroyalty of Peru

Biography

See also

References

External links