In 1518, Governor Diego
Velazquez of Cuba chose Hernán Cortés to command a Spanish expedition into
Mexico. In a vague series of events that even 16th-century historians hotly
debated, Velazquez soon reneged on his choice of Cortés as expedition leader,
but the charismatic and politically savvy Cortés used his network of powerful
friends to maintain control of the expeditionary forces. Despite no longer
having Velazquez’s blessing, Hernán Cortés was able to pull together a fleet of
eleven ships and sign more than six-hundred men up for his expedition, of which
over five-hundred were conquistadors willing to fight on land. For much of his
preparations, Cortés had his headquarters in the city of Trinidad, but by the
first two months of 1519, Cortés decided to gather his ships and troops in a
southern Cuban port called Havana (not to be confused with the modern-day
city).
For whatever reason, Cortés led
his fleet out of Trinidad at night, with the leader of the expedition proudly spearheading
the convoy from his large flagship. As the fleet floated through the darkness,
the ships began to lose sight of each other. Nevertheless, each ship knew the
way and they were able to anchor in Havana separately. Yet, when the light of
morning arrived, the expedition quickly realized something was wrong. A single
ship was missing from their fleet and it happened to be the most important
vessel in the whole convoy—the large flagship of the expedition (and Hernán
Cortés) was nowhere to be seen. For at least seven days, the expeditionary
force worriedly waited in Havana without any sign of their commander. As every
day passed, new claimants tried to position themselves as possible replacement
captains of the expedition if Cortés remained missing.
Unbeknownst to the fleet,
their embarrassed leader was not far away. Hernán Cortes, the mighty leader of
the expedition that would eventually topple the Aztec Empire, had run his
flagship aground on a shallow bar of sand near one of the islands off the
southern coast of Cuba. No matter what Cortés did, he could not sail or row or
push his ship free. Therefore, he eventually started filling the flagship’s
smaller rowboats with his cargo and ferried the supplies to the nearby island. After
rounds of paddling back and forth from the ship to the island, Cortés finally reduced
the weight of the flagship enough for it to float free of the obstacle.
Although his ship was unstuck, his troubles were not over—all of his cargo was still
on the island. Therefore, Cortés anchored the ship in deeper water and hopped
into his rowboat to begin the frustrating task of ferrying all of his cargo
back onto his flagship. Finally, with his ship free and his cargo restored, the
much-delayed Hernán Cortés resumed his voyage to Havana and destiny.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Shipwreck
painted by Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
- The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hernan-Cortes
- https://css.history.com/topics/exploration/hernan-cortes
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cortes_hernan.shtml
- https://www.biography.com/people/hern%C3%A1n-cort%C3%A9s-9258320
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