Juan de Fuca

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Extending eastward from the Pacific Ocean into the Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca is named for Greek explorer Juan de Fuca (Greek: Ioannis Phokas) a man whose accomplishments have been the subject of debate since he purportedly became the first European to explore the Strait in 1592, claiming to have found the Northwest Passage.

How the Strait of Juan de Fuca came to be named after the Greek explorer dates not to 1592, but four years later, when de Fuca, also going by the name Apostolos Valerianos, was introduced to English merchant Michael Lok and related to him the story of his life and journeys.

De Fuca claimed to be a pilot and navigator for the Spanish Crown and during his forty years in the service of Felipe II of Spain, he had traveled to the Far East, China, the Philippines, and eventually, in 1587, New Spain.
In New Spain, de Fuca’s time was spent piloting the Spanish fleet between Acapulco and Manila, the Philippines, until 1588, when his galleon, Santa Ana, was seized by English privateer Sir Thomas Cavendish, losing him a personal sum of 60,000 ducats.

De Fuca was then asked by the Viceroy of New Spain, Luis de Velasco, 1st Marquess of Salinas, to take three ships and travel up the coast of California to find the Northwest Passage and fortify it for Spain. However, this trip ended in disaster as the 100 soldiers assigned to the Spanish ships mutinied, due to the “sodomie” of their Captain. De Fuca was not discouraged and in 1592, reembarked with a smaller vessel and crew.

This trip was reportedly successful, with de Fuca claiming to have found a large passage 30 or 40 leagues wide between the 47° N latitude and the 48° N latitude. He noted a high spiraled pinnacle rock on the Northwest coast. He sailed the strait for 20 days, passing many islands before coming to another large body of water that he surmised to be the Atlantic Ocean. De Fuca described a land teeming with gold and pearls, but also one that was inhabited by warlike tribes clad in animal skins. Lacking a martial force and feeling he had accomplished his mission, de Fuca returned to New Spain to await his recognition and reward from the Spanish Crown.

De Fuca claims to have gotten neither and so returned to his homelands embittered and destitute. Lok, an ardent believer in the Northwest Passage, eagerly set out to find funding and interest in an expedition led by de Fuca. However, lacking the personal funds and unable to drum up interest at home, Lok was never able to bring de Fuca to England and the explorer passed away on his home island of Cephalonia in 1602.

No further European attempts to explore the strait were conducted until 1787 when the strait was explored and named by British fur trader Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, who recognized it as the long lost strait made popular by Michael Lok’s efforts. Between 1788 and 1791, the strait was explored in detail by Manuel Quimper, José María Narváez, Juan Carrasco, Gonzalo López de Haro, and Francisco de Eliza.

Other explorers of the time, including George Vancouver, the first European to map the Northwest coast, were not convinced. Vancouver said of giving credit to de Fuca, “By my having continued the name of de Fuca in my journal and charts a tacit acknowledgment of his discoveries may possibly, on my part, be inferred; this, however, I must positively deny, because there has not been seen one leading feature to substantiate his tradition…”

There are numerous contradictions in de Fuca’s story. The actual strait lays 60 miles South of de Fuca’s reported latitude, he reported the high spiraled pinnacle, later named the Fuca Pillar, as being on the opposite coast, and far from being 30 or 40 leagues (104-138 miles) wide, the actual strait is only 3-5 (10-18 miles) wide.

Another major contradiction is, of course, de Fuca’s claim to have exited the strait into the Atlantic Ocean. It has been proposed that de Fuca actually sailed through the Strait of Georgia, around Vancouver Island, and exited into the Pacific via Queen Charlotte Strait. Although de Fuca’s advanced age, he was 56 at the time of the journey, and the general unreliability of 16th-century navigational tools have been cited, no explanation has been given as to how an experienced navigator like de Fuca mistook a generally North-Northwest route for one that ended due East.

Lastly, de Fuca’s expedition wasn’t recorded in contemporary sources, nor were follow-up expeditions undertaken by the Spanish. De Fuca’s name rarely appears in the archives of New Spain and there is no record of an expedition by him or any other Spanish ship heading North along the California coast until at least 1602. The Spanish Crown kept detailed records of colonial activities and it stands to reason that an expedition and discovery of the magnitude de Fuca claimed would have been recorded and pursued.

Whether de Fuca actually made his fabled journey is a matter of historical debate, but his indelible legend forever shaped and impact the naming conventions of the Pacific Northwest.

Bibliography:
Kingston, C.S. “Juan De Fuca Strait: Origin of the Name.” JSTOR, 1945. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/pdf/40486708.pdf?ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-5187_SYC-5188%2F5188&refreqid=fastly-default%3A692f1e288e579f90aa8fb9933650097c.
“Memoir, Historical and Political, on the Northwest Coast of North America, and the Adjacent Territories: : Greenhow, Robert, 1800-1854 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Washington, Blair and Rives, printers, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/memoirhistorical00gree_0/page/42/mode/2up.
TheBiography.us. “Biography of Juan De Fuca (1536-1602).” TheBiography.us. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://thebiography.us/en/fuca-juan-de.
Memorials of Juan De Fucaa Discoverer of Oregon.” Memorials of Juan de Fuca - Hutchings' California Magazine, 1859. Accessed November 8, 2020. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/Hutchings_California_Magazine/1859/September/Memorials_of_Juan_de_Fuca*.html.