6th Portuguese India Armada (Albergaria, 1504)

The Sixth India Armada was assembled in 1504 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Lopo Soares de Albergaria.

The 6th Armada was composed of 13 ships: approximately nine large nau or carracks, plus four small navetas (caravels) and 1200 men. The exact composition of the fleet differs in the various accounts.

The following list of ships should not be regarded as authoritative, but a tentative list compiled from various conflicting accounts.

No actual names of ships are known. Chronicles suggest most were carracks (naus), accompanied by three or four smaller ships (either navetas or caravels), denoted as nta in the list). The captains of three of the navetas are identified in all the chronicles, although there is some disagreement over the fourth (if there was a fourth). The above list of captains is principally based on João de Barros's Décadas (Dec. 1, Lib.7), Damião de Gois's Chronica, Castanheda's História and Quintella's Annaes da Marinha. The Relação das Naus da Índia introduces some of the name variations. As usual, Gaspar Correia differs from the others: he omits the fourth small ship of Pedro Dias (or Dinis) de Setúbal, and introduces instead two new small ships, one under Simão de Alcáçova, another under Cristóvão de Távora, bringing the total to fourteen. To get thirteen again, Correia asserts the captain-major Lopo Soares de Albergaria does not have his own ship, but is aboard the ship captained by Pêro de Mendonça (at least on outbound journey).

The admiral of the fleet (capitão-mor, captain-major) was Lopo Soares de Albergaria (sometimes called Lopo Soares de Alvarenga, or simply Lopo Soares). Albergaria was a middling noble, well-connected to the Almeida family, and had served a successful term (1495–99) as captain-general of São Jorge da Mina in the Portuguese Gold Coast (West Africa). Lopo Soares de Albergaria sailed either on his own ship or on the ship captained by Pêro de Mendonça. Lopo de Abreu da Ilha may have been designated vice-admiral, although D. Leonel Coutinho may have been a higher noble. Manuel Telles de Vasconcelos was the nephew of influential Portuguese courtier and royal advisor Duarte Galvão. Two of the captains are veterans of earlier expeditions: Pedro Afonso de Aguiar and Lopo Mendes de Vasconcellos had sailed in the 4th Armada of 1502.

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