Ioánnis Fokás (Greek: Ιωάννης Φωκάς), better known by the Spanish transcription of his name, Juan de Fuca (born 1536 on the Ionian island of Kefallonia; died there 1602[1][2]), was a Greek maritime pilot in the service of the Spanish king Philip II. He is best known for his claim to have explored the Strait of Anián, now known as the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
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Fokás's grandfather, Emmanouíl Fokás (Gk: Εμμανουήλ Φωκάς), fled Constantinople at its fall in 1453, accompanied by his brother Andrónikos (Gk: Ανδρόνικος). The two settled first in the Peloponnese where Andrónikos remained, but in 1470 Emmanouíl moved to the island of Kefallonia. Iákovos (Gk: Ιάκωβος), Ioánnis's father, established himself in the village of Valeriáno (Gk: Βαλεριάνο) on the island, and came to be known as "the Valeriáno Fokás" (Gk: ο Φωκάς ο Βαλεριάνος) to distinguish him from his brothers.[2]
It was in this village of Valeriáno that Fokás was born in 1536; little to nothing is known about his life before he entered the service of Spain, some time around 1555.[3]
The name of the man known to history as Juan de Fuca is the source of some confusion. While Juan de Fuca is clearly a Spanish rendering of Ioánnis Fokás (Gk: Ιωάννης Φωκάς), some sources cite Apóstolos Valeriános (Gk: Απόστολος Βαλεριάνος) as his "real" name. It is possible that Fokás was baptized Apóstolos and later adopted the name Ioánnis/Juan (i.e., John) because Apóstol is not much used as a name in Spanish. Given that Fokás/Fuca was the family name borne by the seafarer's father and grandfather, Valeriános is likely to be a nickname used on the island which would have been quite meaningless in the Spanish Empire.
Fuca's early voyages were to the Far East, and he claimed to have arrived in New Spain in 1587 when, off Cabo San Lucas in Baja California, the English privateer Thomas Cavendish seized his galleon Santa Ana and deposited him ashore.[2] Apostolos Valerianos is another name for the man history knows as Juan de Fuca he was a well traveled seaman. He perfected his skill as a pilot in the Spanish fleet. The King of Spain also recognized him for his excellence and made him pilot of the Spanish navy in the West Indies, he kept that title for forty years. Before he made his famous trip up the northwest coast of the North American continent he sailed to China the Philippines and Mexico. The Strait of Juan de Fuca between the United States of America and Canada is named for him by Captain Charles Barkley because it was at the same latitude that Juan de Fuca described as the location of the Strait of Anian.[4]
According to Fuca's account, he undertook two voyages of exploration on the orders of the viceroy of New Spain, Luis de Velasco, marqués de Salinas, both intended to find the fabled Strait of Anián which would lead to the Northwest Passage, a northern sea route linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The first voyage saw 200 soldiers and three small ships under the overall command of a Spanish captain (with Fuca as pilot and master) assigned the task of finding the Strait of Anián and fortifying it against the English. This expedition failed when, allegedly due to the captain's malfeasance, the soldiers mutinied and returned home to California.[2] (Note that in this period, Spanish doctrine divided control of ships and fleets between the military commander, who was an army officer, and the sailing and navigation commander, who was a mariner.)
In 1592, on his second voyage, Fuca enjoyed success. Having sailed north with a caravel and a pinnace and a few armed marines, he returned to Acapulco and claimed to have found the strait, with a large island at its mouth, at around 47° north latitude (the Strait of Juan de Fuca is in fact at around 48° N, as is the southern tip of the large island now called Vancouver Island).
Despite Velasco's repeated promises, however, Fuca never received the great rewards he claimed as his due. After two years, and on the viceroy's urging, Fuca travelled to Spain to make his case to the court in person. Disappointed again and disgusted with the Spanish, the aging Greek determined to retire to his home in Kefallonia but was in 1596 convinced by an Englishman, Michael Locke, to offer his services to Spain's archenemy, Queen Elizabeth. Nothing came of Locke and Fokás's proposals, but it is through Lok's account that the story of Juan de Fuca entered English letters.[2]
Because the only written evidence for Fokás's voyages lay in Lok's account — researchers being unable to find record of the expedition in Spanish colonial archives — there was long much controversy over his discovery and, indeed, whether he had ever even existed as a real person; several scholars have dismissed Juan de Fuca as entirely fictitious, and the illustrious Captain Cook strongly denied that the strait. Juan de Fuca also claimed that he had sailed through to the Atlantic Ocean which did not help his creditability. He also said the Strait he discovered had gold and silver and other things of value. Fokás claimed to have discovered even existed[5] (although Cook actually sailed past the Strait of Juan de Fuca without entering it, and did stop at Nootka Sound just off Vancouver Island). With later English exploration and settlement of the area, however, Fokás's claims seemed much more credible.
Finally, in 1859, an American researcher, with the help of the U.S. Consul in the Ionian Islands, was able to demonstrate not only that Fokás had lived but also that his family and history were well known on the islands.[2] While we may never know the exact truths which lay behind the account published by Lok, it must be considered unlikely that the man himself was a fiction.
When the English captain Charles William Barkley, sailing the Imperial Eagle in 1787, (re)discovered the strait Fokás had described , he renamed it the strait of Juan de Fuca.
The Juan de Fuca Plate, a tectonic plate underlying much of the coastline he explored, is also named for Fokás.
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