San Juan Bautista (ship) - Two Trans-Pacific Round-trips

Two Trans-Pacific Round-trips

Upon completion, the ship left on October 28, 1613 for Acapulco in Mexico, with around 180 people on board, consisting of 10 samurai of the Shogun (led by the Minister of the Navy Mukai Shooken), 12 samurai from Sendai, 120 Japanese merchants, sailors, and servants, and around 40 Spaniards and Portuguese. The ship arrived in Acapulco on January 25, 1614 after three months at sea.

After a year in Acapulco, the ship returned to Japan on April 28, 1615, as Hasekura continued to Europe. It seems that around 50 specialists in mining and silver-refining were invited to Japan on this occasion, so that they could help develop the mining industry in the Sendai area. A group of Franciscans led by Father Diego de Santa Catalina, sent as a religious embassy to Tokugawa Ieyasu also sailed on the ship. The San Juan Bautista arrived in Uraga on August 15, 1615.

In September 1616, the San Juan Batista headed again to Acapulco, at the request of Luis Sotelo. She was sailed by Captain Yokozawa Shogen, but the trip went wrong and around 100 sailors died en route. San Juan Bautista finally arrived in Acapulco in May 1617. Sotelo and Hasekura met in Mexico for the final trip back to Japan. In April 1618 the San Juan Bautista arrived to the Philippines, where she was sold to the Spanish government there, with the objective of building up defenses against the Dutch. Hasekura returned to Japan in 1620.

By the time Hasekura came back, Japan had changed quite drastically: Christianity was being eradicated since its interdiction in 1614, and Japan was moving towards a period of Seclusion. Because of these persecutions, the trade agreements with Mexico he had been trying to establish were also denied. In the end, his embassy seems to have had few results, and he died two years later of illness.