David Melgueiro
| David Melgueiro | |
|---|---|
| Born | Unknown date Porto, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Died | 1673? Porto, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Occupation | Navigator and explorer |
David Melgueiro (Porto, ? – Porto, 1673?) is supposed to have been a Portuguese navigator and explorer. He allegedly sailed across the Northeast Passage in 1660, travelling from Japan to Portugal through the Arctic Ocean at a time when Portuguese vessels were banned from Japan.
According to the story of a diplomat and French spy in Portugal, the Seigneur de La Madelène (or Madelleine), he found records that a Captain David Melgueiro, at the command of the Dutch ship Eternal Father, left the island of Tanegashima, Japan (Kagoshima Prefecture) on March 14, 1660, sailed north and entered the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait (known at the time as Strait of Aniam). The expedition reached 84° N and, upon sighting Svalbard, headed south, towards Scotland and Ireland. Carrying on board a number of emigrant passengers back to Europe with valuable goods. The ship finally arrived in 1662 at Porto, an important northern seashore Portuguese city, Melgueiro’s birthplace. The reason why his route was chosen was due to the risk of pirate attacks, common on southern seas for those who dared to return to their native countries sailing across the waters of Cape of Good Hope or Strait of Magellan.
La Madelène was allegedly murdered when he was preparing to leave Portugal to reveal Melgueiro’s achievement to the French. In 1754 the French geographer Philippe Buache traced in his memoirs the route taken by Melgueiro on a 1649 map drawn by a Portuguese identified only as Teixeira. This map was found in the French Navy archives. How the French Navy acquired this map would be a Portuguese state secret as well.
William Corr dismisses the story, saying that "no Portuguese vessels sailed, or could have sailed, from Japan in 1660; Portuguese commerce with Japan ended drastically in 1639." The Portuguese were expelled and under the Sakoku isolationist policy all trade and contact with the outside world stopped except for very limited trade by the Dutch.
...
Wikipedia