They Died Trying

On October 31, 1527, Hernando Cortez, by order of King Charles V, directed Alvaro de Saavedra to set sail with three ships and 120 men across the Pacific from Zacatula, Mexico, to the Philippines, with the intent of uniting the American continent with the islands and open up a trade route between them. It was Spain’s fourth voyage to the Philippines, but the first from the American west coast.

However, when Saavedra tried to make the return trip in 1529, from the Philippines to Mexico, he was unable to do so. He quickly learned that the winds and currents that easily brought him to the Philippines from Mexico were now working against him and he could make no headway. Three attempts failed, and Saavedra lost two of his ships and was killed trying to force his way into the winds and currents. The remaining ship returned to Spain by traveling westward with the winds through Indonesia and across the Indian Ocean and up the Atlantic Ocean to Spain.

It is not difficult to see why Saavedra could not make it back across the Pacific from the Philippines, as Cortez had ordered. He simply could not get his ship traveling faster than the winds and currents moving against him. In this we can see how difficult, if not impossible, it would be for the Lehi Colony to travel from west to east across the Pacific as Mesoamerican Theorist claim.

To further illustrate this point, if a ship could make 50 miles in a day, and sailing on a current moving from east to west across the Pacific at 40 miles per day, the vessel would cover 90 miles in a day (50 +40 = 90). However, a ship making 50 miles in a day traveling against a 40 mile per day current, would make only 10 miles in a day (50 –40 = 10). Now if that ship were traveling less than 50 miles a day, say 40 miles a day, it would make no headway (40 –40 = 0), and if the vessel were traveling at 30 miles a day against a 40 mile a day current and winds, it would lose 10 miles in a day (30 -40 = -10). This is why saying a ship could sail from west to east across the Pacific against both currents and winds is foolhardy. Which is exactly what Saavedra learned. No matter from where he tried to make the return voyage, he could not make any eastward headway, and failed.

Another example, this an actual sailing voyage from South America, showed that a ship leaving Peru to Tuamotu in Polynesia took 50 days, moving at 40 miles a day with a 40 mile per day current. However, a reverse voyage against winds and currents, was found to be impossible since the vessel would make no headway at all (40 miles a day sailing, minus the 40 miles a day of opposing current, equals 0 miles per day net). This is why the early Spaniards could not make the return voyage from the Philippines to Mexico, or travel from Polynesia to Peru. Obviously, if the ship made less than the current, say only 30 miles a day from Tuamotu to Peru, it would lose 10 miles each day of sailing and be driven in the opposite direction along the current away from South America. This is what happened to Saavedra and drove his ship upon shoals of Papua.

As late as the 17th-Century, those who tried to sail against winds and currents across the Pacific, as Mesoamerican Theorists claim Lehi did in 600 B.C., often died trying.