058: California's Untold Maritime History (Part 2) with author Eric Plunkett

In Part 2 of my interview with Eric Plunkett about early explorations of California, we begin with the shipwreck of the San Agustin in 1595 at Drake's Bay, recognized as California's first shipwreck.
Eric goes on to discuss Pedro de Unamuno's overland incursion in 1587, which included the first recorded conflict with native people in California. 
We then explore the extensive and officially sanctioned expeditions of explorers like Sebastián Vizcaíno, who mapped much of the California coast and named several well-known places. 
The episode highlights California's early role in global trade routes and its significant connections with Asian markets. Through these stories, you will gain a new perspective on California's place in the broader context of world history.

Transcript

0:00

San Agustin, which is his ship, we don't know why, but it runs aground in Drake's Bay. 1595, it's California's first shipwreck. We know it's still there, and, um, there are artifacts of the ship that have at times been collected by, um, park service there off of Point Reyes. So they end up constructing a, a boat. Uh, they actually have a launch, I think, and I think that they kind of add to it. I think it's 70 guys and their dogs and it's an open top boat and they take that thing out of Drake's Bay and they go all the way down the coast of California. Welcome to California Frontier, the show about the often overlooked and unexpected early history of the place we call California. I'm your host, Damian Basich.

Eric Plunkett 0:57

So, yeah, so it's an amazing story. So you have, and then Drake's here, you know, English. Now you get into the 1580s and now you start to have kind of Spain starts to go. Okay. We got to make sure that these manila galleons are safe, right? On their way back. They lost to San Juanillo in 1578. You know, there's a lot of money. There are a lot of investors in this whole thing. And, um, and so it gets the viceroy's attention and he, you know, organizes in 1583, 1584, 1585, these kinds of, hey, manila galleons, when you're on your way back. You know, can you do a little exploration of California and see if there's any place where you could, you know, maybe go there? We think in about 1583 Cape Mendocino may get named, um, and then in 1584, Gali, it comes, you know, he is, his, his ship passes down the coast of California and he's kind of writing about it. Finally, a major, Uh, expedition is kind of not major, but, but, you know, officially sanctioned expedition. They, uh, the viceroy tells Gali, you're going to stop in California, preferably if you can get north of the, of Cape Mendocino and explore it. But, uh, you're going to explore California looking for a place where these galleons can stop. And so in 1587, uh, when Gali's supposed to go, he dies in the Philippines, actually, the year before, I think. Uh, and in his place goes a man named Pedro Unamuno. So in 1587, Pedro Unamuno, uh, takes his, his ship, his galleon, uh, back from Asia and they get to the California coast. And based on what we can figure out from the, the description of where he goes, he seems to be at about Morro Bay. And when they get to about Morro Bay, maybe south of there, San Simeon, those areas, um, he seems to, he actually does a overland incursion into California. And they go for two days, like there's two days that they go inland, quite some distance. There's some speculation it's Chorro Creek. Which is near, you know, coming up near like towards San Luis Obispo. Um, and you know, they're describing the trees and there's some pines and, uh, uh, you know, they're describing the, the, the, the people who are living there, you know, it's like these Northern Chumash kind of seems like villages, but it's hard say, but, um, they go inland and they, you know, for the most part, they're not meeting anybody. They, they see all that there are people who live there and, you know, on the second day, they're coming out and their rear guard, it's an amazing story. The, the journal says the, one of the Spaniards, um, and the rear guard took off his chainmail. So you have to think of this as like, whoa, 16th century, right? I mean, this is, this is like Renaissance, right? Almost, right? Like it, that's really kind of the vibe. He took off his chainmail and then they got attacked. Uh, his name was Felipe de Contreras, and he gets hit with a javelin through the breast, and he dies, and he becomes the very first, um, you know, Spaniard or person of European descent, you know, killed in a conflict with the people who live in California. And for the people who are living here, right, this must be, you know, Just absolutely, you know, crazy that you have these guys kind of coming into your lands. Some of them get killed in this conflict. And so this is the first armed conflict that we know of between the Spanish and the people who live

Damian Bacich 4:19

but

Eric Plunkett 4:21

So yeah, that, this is in 1587. They do get back to the ship. Um, there was a couple other things that end up happening. It's a very fascinating story, but at that point, uh, Una Muno decides that it's time to get out of there. And he tries to explore the rest of California going south, but it's so cloudy. He can't see anything. There's just so many fogs that, uh, he doesn't, he's not able to do much. And so he ends up kind of just hightailing it back to

Damian Bacich 4:48

now wasn't,

Eric Plunkett 4:49

but

Damian Bacich 4:49

wasn't Cabrillo though involved in some conflict? Um, I mean, isn't that part of how he, he wound up dying? I mean, I, I know that he, he got off his ship and evidently he hurt his leg and then I guess it was infected, got gangrene. So weren't there some, um, violent interactions on the Cabrillo trip? I don't know.

Eric Plunkett 5:13

You are so right and I should have, I should have mentioned that they, I'm thinking of the Cabrillo, uh, example, which probably happens on San Miguel Island. Um, I was thinking it from the perspective that he shatters either his knee or his arm and then he gets, it gets becomes gangrenous and then he, he dies. It's unclear from what I remember from that summary of the journal whether or not there is anyone is killed in those conflicts. You may have a better memory than I do, but I don't seem to remember if they report that. It doesn't mean it didn't happen and it may have. I just I'm just not remembering correctly.

Damian Bacich 5:52

Right, you're right. Yeah, I didn't know whether anybody was killed. That's true.

Eric Plunkett 5:59

and it's probably, it's a small distinction because, you know, you have a situation that is really, I mean, it's pretty intense. You have very different peoples coming into contact with one another. And so, you know, it's not surprising that it becomes contentious, especially since the Spanish are coming into the homeland of the people living here, going like, hey, who are you guys? Um, and, And from a very early time period, what the way that things worked was that the people who lived here were like, it's like, it's our house. If you come and you participate in reciprocal exchange with us, then it will be fine. But if you're just going to come in and you're just going to walk through our territory and you're not going to make any. Ovation to, to acknowledge that we're here. Uh, that's different. And I think in the case of Pedro Unamuno, it seems that that's kind of what happened. They just kind of went inland and it was, it was, you know, from the people who was living, were living there's perspective, it was like, who is this guy and what are his intentions?

Damian Bacich 6:59

No, and he was

Eric Plunkett 7:00

But yeah, you're, you're,

Damian Bacich 7:01

they're wearing chain mail, I mean They clearly came in as an armed party. So I think in most, in most societies, right, travelers, especially in small numbers are usually welcome, uh, with hospitality, but armed groups are usually dealt with with a lot more suspicion, right?

Eric Plunkett 7:26

Absolutely. It's the same everywhere, right? Um, I love that we had Jeremy Beer on here. You guys are having a similar discussion, which is there's something to be said, even though cultures are all individual and distinct, there's something that's to be said about common humanity and you, you know, Any of us would feel the same way if you had armed individuals marching through our streets. It'd be tough to keep things calm, right? And that was what was happening. So yeah, they had chain mail and they had their arquebusiers, right? They were, you know, firearms and, um, you know, and they, they used those firearms. And so you can imagine how this felt being, you know, here in your home and having these guys come in. So, um, yeah, that, that was a, it's an amazing story and it's another one that doesn't get a lot of attention, but the same year in 1587, uh, the British send a, uh, you know, another one of these privateers because they're still at war with England, right? This is before the Spanish Armada, all that stuff. Um, same, same conflict, uh, that, uh, Thomas Cavendish, who's sent by England, he is aware that these manila galleons are sailing. And so in 1587, the same year that Unamunos going into the interior of California near Morro Bay, one of the these manila galleons gets taken off of Cabo San Lucas. You know, Cavendish is actually there. Uh, he's at Cabo San Lucas. What is today Cabo San Lucas, the Bay of San Bernabeu. And he, um, he comes out and he takes the Santa Ana, which is one of the, one of the Manila galleons. And on board the Santa Ana, we think was Vizcaíno. This is 1587. And we think also, uh, uh, Cermenjo, which, uh, I'm going to get more into his story in just a minute. So these really important guys, and I'll talk about both of them, you know, in California history, they, um, they were on board this ship when it happened. And so there's this fight. Cavendish, you know, takes the ship, takes all of the cargo. that they are interested in taking, leaves the crew up on, uh, on land on, um, at, at, where about Cabo San Lucas is today, burns the Santa Ana, the ship, and Cavendish takes off. The burning embers of the ship happen with a change of the wind, float and run aground. On, on the coast of Baja, California and the crew from the, from the, from the galleon gets, it puts out the fire and they construct a boat from that, that they end up taking down to, I think it's Acapulco where they go back down to, and so it's another one of these just unbelievable stories that, you know, in this whole thing. So that all happens the same year. And so it's kind of a hot contested space here in California and, or the California is going down to Baja, California at this time. And this is really early. We're still in 1587. Like I said, chain mail, you know, that's in the, it's in the, in the documents.

Damian Bacich 10:25

helmets.

Eric Plunkett 10:26

Yep. And pointy helmets. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, so now Spain at that point, right after 1587, they are, okay, we've, we've got to figure this out. You know, we, we can't afford to have our vanilla galleons either, you know, sinking because the men got scurvy. Right. And that's probably what happened to San Juanio in 1578, um, or getting taken by, you know, an English Corsair. Right. And so there is another push. In the 1590s, um, to have another returning galleon explore the coast of California, and this happens in 1595, and it's under a Portuguese sailor named, uh, you know, commander named Ser Menho. And Serge Menho takes the, his ship, the San Agustin, it's actually a pretty small ship, comes back from the Philippines and gets to California and ends up in Drake's Bay, at the exact same place where Sir Francis Drake was in 1579. And he stays there and does some land incursions, goes around all the areas there, the Miwok people who are living there, and he, um, Has, uh, many numerous kind of encounters with, with them and describes them. And so we have really good details about, you know, uh, where about he was. And we actually can prove where he was based on the Vizcaya New expedition. Um, but anyway, yeah, so he's there and while he's there, San Agustin, which is his ship, we don't know why, but it runs aground in Drake's Bay, 1595, it's California's first shipwreck. We think, um, and, uh, we know it's still there and, um, there are artifacts of the ship that have at times been collected by, um, the park service there, um, uh, off of Point Reyes. And, you know, it's like all these ceramics, broken ceramics from, you know, these, these, you know, Chinese wares. That were traded through the Philippines. And, uh, so they end up constructing a boat. Uh, they actually have a launch, I think. And I think that they kind of add to it. I think it's 70 guys and their dogs. And it's an open top boat and they take that thing out of Drake's Bay and they go all the way down the coast of California. And there's some amazing things that happen. They get to about Santa Barbara and they get near enough to the coast, they see a guy. Who's up on a bluff and he comes running down the bluff and he's saying, you know, Cristianos, Cristianos, you know, Mexico, Mexico. He's like, you know, he knows the words, Christians, Mexicans. And so it's like, okay, so is he, does he know this because Unamuno was there about eight years before? Does he know this because he knows people who, you know, had fraternized with Cabrillo, you know? We don't know, but, um, you know, he ends up kind of exploring all through Southern California and, and all the way down back to Acapulco and they, those guys make it, but it's a, it's one of these unbelievable journeys again. So that's the San Agustin in 1595. So another story that it's like, should get more play because it more, more people interested. Cause it's, it's very interesting.

Damian Bacich 13:38

Right. And where did you come across these stories? I mean, or the story, for example, of Sarmenio or the, the, well, I guess if you've been to Point Reyes and you've seen the museum there, I suppose you probably know about it, but, but yeah, where, where are coming across these stories?

Eric Plunkett 13:56

Great question. They, um, I started with, uh, you know, um, I just forgot his first name, Mathis. He did a biography on Vizcaíno and through that, I got, uh, there's a early kind of maritime California historian named Henry Ropp Wagner, Henry R. Wagner, and he wrote a book called, uh, it's like, uh, was it, it might be like 16th century voyages to the Northwest coast, something like that. And, and then, then, you know, yeah, it's, it's great. It's hard to find. Um, there's another book by, um, Paul A. Myers, and he put out a book that's kind of a summarization of all of this, um, North to California, like the Spanish discovery of, you know, California, something like that, Paul A. Myers. So there's all these great, um, You know, source, there's all this great source material. There's great books on Cabrillo, reprints of his logs, um, and a lot of this stuff is online. And so I kind of put it together in a blog post that I wrote about Manila galleons, um, where I just kind of put things to, to post them. And it has kind of a summarization

Damian Bacich 15:07

right. Well, I'll put a link to that. blog post so people can read it.

Eric Plunkett 15:12

Awesome, man. That's great. That's awesome. Yeah. And, and that really takes us all the way through. I mean, we're all the way at the Vizcayaño expedition now, and that's 1602. And it's, he's on this expedition for much the same reasons that these other guys were, which was to try to find a place in California where, you know, there could be safe passage for Manila galleons. They could stop, they could get water, they could, you know, repair their mass or repair their ship. And, you know, Vizcaíno does the next really comprehensive, you know, with him and his three ships, comprehensive expedition to California. And his expedition, they actually make, the maps have survived. So we have the very maps that they made. And a lot of the place names that we have today go back in California that are really, really old. You know, um, like the Carmel River. Right was named after the Carmelite, uh, um, fathers that were on that expedition, including Father Asen, who was the, the, the journalist. Um, and, and lots of others. Santa Catalina Island that was named then, you know, um, San Diego, like all, a lot of these things, Monterey, right? All those were named by Viscaino. None of the Cabrillo expedition names survive, but, um. Lots of the Vizcayaño, and then Point Mendocino predates Vizcayaño. That's one of the earliest place names in California. Um, and uh, so yeah, Vizcayaño goes all the way up the coast of California. Does a lot of the same stuff, and there's great stories with that too. When he's at Catalina, this, this woman comes to the ship with two, she has two silks. Two silk thing made from made in China with her and this kind, you know, and this expedition members there at Catalina go, where did you get these? And, uh, there's an indication, oh yeah, there's some indication that there's a ship that sank near here, you know? And so they actually say that the, the, the, the people were there, I guess, I guess you have like Tongva people. It's hard to tell who was, who they were talking with from the journals, if they were far enough North to be in the Chumash region or not, but anyways, they kind of say, Hey, we'll take you up. Where the ship went aground, but they're way down in Southern California. And so it's like, did they expect to go all the way up to Drake's Bay? But, um, but anyways, this, that's another one of those stories. And Viscaya goes all the way up to Monterey and anybody's been to Monterey. You can go see. Part of the tree. There was a big tree in Monterey that hung over the, you know, kind of inlet there and, uh, where they had mass, um, and, uh, this kind of the whole expedition and, um, you know, that part of that tree is still up there. Uh, and you can see it in Mission San Carlos Borromeo, but yeah, so Vizcayaño goes to that Bay and he says, this is it, this is the place where the Manila galleons have to come, right? This is where they have to come. It actually sends it one ship back to Mexico at that point with all the sick aboard and some of the ship that's the other two ships go further north. And in the Vizcayaño expedition was also Balaños, who was the pilot with the San Agustín in 1595. And so when he goes up north, he actually points out Drake's Bay and says, that's where our ship sank. They're unable to go there because of the winds, but that's how we know that that's where the San Agustín and Settermen hold. So there's the whole, the whole Vizcayaño expedition is this fascinating thing. And that really puts kind of a capstone. On Spanish interest in California at this time period. Um, we know that Manila galleons would have stopped here between the end of the Vizcayaño expedition in 1603. And the Port de Law expedition in 1769, but there, uh, as far as official exploration of what is now Alta, California, it really stopped with the end of Vizcaíno. And he really pumped up Monterey. He was like, this is the place to go. But the Manila galleon captain started to say to the viceroy, yeah, by that point, we, we just want to hightail it back to Acapulco. But we don't. We don't want to stop. And so it's not worth trying to create a colony up there. Um, and so they don't. And that's kind of the end of it. Despite the efforts of Father Ascension, who's the journalist with the Vizcayne Expedition, he was trying to make that happen. He was really Pushing for the Viceroy to do that. And it's Aion who passed down apparently that story of, um, Morena from the, the, the Drake Expedition. So there's a lot Damien. It's, it's so amazing. You it's just a, a bunch of amazing stories that we, we, I don't think we really think about in, in

Damian Bacich 19:54

No, even, even people who, who study it, you know, like I do, there's, that's a lot of stuff that, that I don't know about. And it's always, it's always, um, made me wonder why the names that Cabrillo applied to the places he visited didn't stick, you know?

Eric Plunkett 20:16

Yep. It's a great point. And you know, there are maps from like the 1550s and 60s that have the Cabrillo names and they're bad, right? It's like the islands are about right and they have different names. Um, you know, but they probably, I've thought about this a lot. And because one of the things about trying to write about much later the Porte de la Expedition is the Porte de la Expedition ends up having a lot of portals. One of them is that Vizcayaño talked up Monterey so much that when they actually see Monterey, they're like, this is it? And it's, they're questioning it so much. They don't even think that they're in Monterey. They think they, this must be wrong as they keep going north. And then they reach San Francisco and they, Whoa, we didn't know about this. Um, but, uh, but I think the Spanish bureaucracy did not do a great job of archiving a lot of this material. I don't know why, maybe they did, maybe that some of these guys doing these expeditions, they were really ambitious and they, they wanted to kind of erase that which came before and they, you know, wanted to pump up. Hey, we're here for the first time. Um, I'm not sure, but it, it is surprising to me because for instance, like the Vizcaíno maps. are good enough that if they, if the Portola expedition had been in possession of them, they would have known they were in Monterey. And those, we have them today, and it's strange that they didn't have them in 1769. And with Cabrillo, you know, we have this summary that Urdoneta, right, wrote in about, in the 1560s, and he's clearly taking from multiple sources of information from that Cabrillo expedition. And all of those are lost. We, we have not found any of those, the original source material. And, um, we even think that there was maps and don't have it. So, you know, it's hard to say in part, I think what happened was the Spanish mindset was changing in the 1500s. It started off with, Hey, maybe we can find another one of these amazing civilizations, rich in a bunch of things. And then it kind of slowly changed into, we need to establish trade routes. We need to kind of organize all of this. And so you have kind of two different mindsets and Cabrillo kind of happened in the former mindset. It was trying to find the seven cities, trying to find some major, you know, kind of geographical connection between North America and Asia. Once that died down, Right? Then you kind of had a different approach that was probably more systemized and more formalized. And that's why the names later survive and those earlier ones don't. That, yeah, it's all speculation. I don't know for sure.

Damian Bacich 23:05

Yeah. I'm sure there's probably somebody who has a good. theory about it, but it makes sense what you say that the mindset definitely changes from let's discover these mythical areas and new civilizations to let's establish a location where we can keep our commerce safe from pirates and keep the trade routes open and perhaps have a nice safe port. You know, I think by that, by that point, People probably are keeping better records and they're, they're a little bit more systematic about how they do things, one would think.

Eric Plunkett 23:48

I agree. And that was a much better summarization. That was, I totally agree. That's, that's exactly right. So, yeah, that's, you know, it goes to show you that the Spanish had a full story arc with California. It during this era, early era, and, you know, our, there's scholarship now moving in this direction of tying, right? Um, our friend, Dr. Marie Duggan, she's really been looking into the economics of all, you know, California and Asia, and you go, yeah, it makes sense, right? That from the earliest. Parts of our, you know, Spanish exploration, the earliest, um, you know, kind of incursions into the California story were because of kind of this idea of trade with Asia. And, you know, that carries on all the way through today. Right. So it's, uh, it's very interesting and it really does kind of help put California in a different context than just, you know, the missions. Um, you know, it's like, Oh yeah, this was, this played a part in kind of the formation of world trade. And California was just, it was just a little point on the road in that story, but it, you know, now we have these wonderful stories that we can, we can talk about.

Damian Bacich 25:04

Yeah. And it ties in with going back to the interview I did with Jason Sexton about Kevin Starr, the great historian of California, who even went so far as to call California an Asian place, right? That this connection to Asia, it's there from the beginning of European presence, right? And, you know, perhaps even from the beginning of human presence, because if it's true that, that, that, Humans crossed the land bridge from Asia to come into the west coast of North America, then it's always been a natural, you know, a natural connection. Though, I don't know about enough about that stuff to be able to make a good commentary on it.

Eric Plunkett 25:57

Yeah, that's, that's such a good point. And there's some other scholars, right, doing this and, and, uh, wonderful scholars and you're totally, you're, you're so right. And the, the story is so big. You, you can't have anybody who knows it all, which is why it's great that we can have these conversations. So that people who kind of have their, you know, their things that they're focusing on have a forum to exchange those ideas. It's like, I've learned so much. From your guests and from your conversations and from you. Uh, I mean, geez, Damian, you know, so much cool stuff. And it's like, Oh man, that makes me think about things in another new way. And it's, you know, in order for good history to be, you know, created and put out there into the world, you have to have. Good historians constantly talking, you know, and that's, that's, that's what this is. So I'm sure listeners will have many things to add that I'm like, Oh man, I didn't know that. Or, you know, corrections or new things to consider. I mean, yeah, just as you have in this great.

Damian Bacich 26:58

I'm sure I'll get some, um, get some really interesting emails, you know, um, with tidbits about the things we're talking about. So let me, um, let me not take more of your time up, but I think that what we've talked about is just, it's a great illustration of the fact that there's so much out there still. And how California, whatever it was called then, and whatever it is now, was so plugged in to these trade networks, was so plugged into world history, and that there are these stories out there that when you think that you know it all, or you think Yeah, there's just a little bit here and there prior to, you know, the gold rush, let's say, or even prior to the arrival of the missions, etc. You realize that no, there's a whole lot going on and the continuity of the Native people as well. I mean, I'm, I'm so excited about the type of things that we're still going to be able to, to dig up and talk about and, and, uh, poke around and learn about. So yeah, it's always great to talk to you and hear about the things you're working on because there's always something cool, um, that you're digging up. And so yeah, thanks a lot. Thanks for taking the time.

Eric Plunkett 28:23

Absolutely, man. And I thank you, Damian, for having me on here. And I, you know, just for my own, put a capstone on this. The thing that I love about this is that it's like, when I hear about things, when I learn about this stuff, I get to go to the beach and look out over the ocean. And now I start to think, I'm like, oh my gosh. Oh man, think of the stories that took place here. Right. And so, you know, all of your podcasts are kind of a window into when I go to different places in California, it's like, Oh wow, there's this story now that I can, that I can imagine. And it's now imbued with a lot more, you know, kind of a structure because you and your, your guests are able to do that. So it helps me like, you know, just because I love this stuff, it gives me so much perspective. So thank you for continuing to do this. It's a lot

Damian Bacich 29:10

That is awesome. Well, if you're, if you're up for it, we'll keep it going.

Eric Plunkett 29:14

Let's keep it going.

29:23

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