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Cosme Damián Churruca
Cosme Damián Churruca | |
|---|---|
 Cosme Damián Churruca (Madrid, Naval Museum). | |
| Born | September 27, 1761 |
| Died | October 21, 1805 (aged 44) |
| Occupations | Scientist Military officer Mayor of Motrico |
| Years active | 29 |
| Known for | Native languages: Castilian and Basque |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | .svg){kind=small} Spain |
Branch | Royal Navy |
Rank | Brigadier of the Royal Navy Admiral (posthumous) |
| Commands | Príncipe de Asturias San Juan Nepomuceno |
Conflicts | Battle of Trafalgar |
Cosme Damián Churruca y Elorza, in Basque Cosme Damian Txurruka Elortza (Motrico, Guipúzcoa, September 27, 1761 – Trafalgar, Cádiz, October 21, 1805) was a Spanish scientist, mariner and military officer, brigadier of the Royal Navy and mayor of the Guipuzcoan town of Motrico.
He distinguished himself in the Battle of Trafalgar in command of the ship of the line San Juan Nepomuceno, aboard which he met his death in combat.
Life
Youth
He was the fourth child of the marriage of Francisco de Churruca e Iriondo, Mayor of Motrico, and María Teresa de Elorza e Iturriza, and the younger brother of Julián Baldomero de Churruca, hero of the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain, lawyer and philologist of the Basque language. He was born in the ancestral home built years earlier by Admiral Antonio de Gaztañeta, a relative of his, whose nautical mementos awakened early on Cosme Churruca's vocation for the sea.
He took his first studies at the Conciliar Seminary of Burgos, at first intending to be ordained a priest, an idea he would abandon owing to the presence of a young Navy officer, nephew of the archbishop of Burgos. That contact was enough to awaken in him his passion for the sea. He then entered the School of Vergara, which a little later would give rise to the Royal Seminary of Vergara and which was founded by the Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country, of which he would be a member until his death.
In 1805, months before his death, he married María Dolores Ruiz de Apodaca, niece of the Count of Venadito, Juan Ruiz de Apodaca, Viceroy of New Spain and Admiral of the Spanish Navy.
Scientific and military career
Having concluded his studies, he returned to his parents' home to request their leave to embark on the life of a mariner. On June 15, 1776, he entered the Academy of Cádiz as a midshipman, at the early age of fifteen, graduating from the Academy of Ferrol in 1778, where he had already gained fame as an astronomer and student of geography. His promotion to frigate ensign was the reward for his brilliant studies, in which he stood out among all his classmates.
In October 1778 he set foot for the first time on the deck of a ship, the San Vicente, under the command of the bailiff Francisco Gil de Taboada y Lemos. This first campaign, a very stormy one, revealed Churruca's boldness in the face of danger and his aptitude for reducing risks through the study of maneuvers. When General Arce, who was in command of the squadron, was relieved, he was replaced by Lieutenant General Ponce de León, who chose him as his personal aide, under his direct orders. He had his first military mission in the siege of Great Britain by the combined Franco-Spanish squadron stationed at Brest.
He was later at the siege of Gibraltar of 1781, transferring on December 13, 1781, aboard the frigate Santa Bárbara, commanded by Ignacio María de Álava. In this siege he distinguished himself in the most brilliant manner, rushing intrepidly to put out the fire on the floating batteries, caused by the British use of red-hot shot, and bringing help, with the frigate's boat, to the crews of the burning vessels, amid a deluge of grapeshot fired by the batteries of the fortress and the no less dangerous explosions of the batteries that were burning.
When the war ended in 1783, the frigate Santa Bárbara was sent to Montevideo. Churruca, guided by his instinct, watched the course in detail and was able to notice in time a serious error in the pilot's calculations, so that, reacting in time, he prevented the shipwreck of the vessel. When the peace signed in 1783 suspended the fighting, he turned to the study that forms the mariner. He requested and obtained admission to the Academy of Ferrol to study Mathematics, in 1783. In order to admit him, despite there being no vacancies, he was given the additional post of assistant to the midshipmen.
The following year he was substituting for the professors of several classes and, continuing in that laborious life, in 1787 he gave the first example of a public examination in the classrooms of the institution on mathematics, mechanics and astronomy, earning the admiration of the large audience.
The government having decided that ship-of-the-line captain Antonio de Córdova should continue his explorations of the Strait of Magellan, in 1788 the latter asked Churruca, by then a ship-of-the-line lieutenant, to accompany him; the expedition was formed by the packet boats Santa Casilda and Santa Eulalia, with Churruca placed in charge of the astronomical and geographical work.
Together with his companion in arms and studies Ciriaco Cevallos, he carried out a complete survey of the strait in the direction of the Pacific Ocean, discovering an alternative route through the strait, as well as an inlet that bears his name. He wrote a very important work on the voyage and passage of the strait titled Apéndice al Primer Viaje de Magallanes (Appendix to the First Voyage of Magellan), published in Madrid in 1795. Great were the dangers and incessant the hardships of those investigations, in seas where gales reign almost continuously. These hardships ruined his health, and he fell seriously ill, suffering symptoms of scurvy, which fortunately went no further.
In 1789 he was attached to the Navy Observatory in San Fernando. Although he was still convalescing, he devoted himself to studies that surely did not contribute to his recovery. A year later he was called to be aide to the major general of the squadron under the command of the Marquis of Socorro; he made the campaign and returned to his post. The continuous strain of his tireless intellectual work was wearing down a health that had never been fully restored; it became necessary to think seriously of an indispensable rest.
In 1791, persuaded by his friends, he went to breathe the balmy air of the mountains of Guipúzcoa and achieved the complete recovery of his broken health. After a brief period in his native Motrico, he was called by José de Mazarredo to lead, together with Joaquín Francisco Fidalgo,[1] as frigate captains, a geographical expedition to South America (1792–95), made up of two sections, one of which was to survey the islands and coasts of the Mexican gulf and the other the rest of those of the continent, with the aim of forming the maritime atlas of North America.
He embarked at Cádiz on June 17, 1792, and set sail that same day with his group, composed of the brigantines Descubridor and Vigilante. The expedition lasted two years and four months, hampered by all the ordinary incidents, to which was added the maritime war with the French Republic. He drew up charts of the Antilles and of the Leeward Islands, and defended the Spanish possessions in the Caribbean in the Battle of Martinique, as well as the trade routes of the Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas, of which he was a shareholding partner. So hard a campaign was not carried out without serious damage to his health, which was not robust. He embarked at Havana and returned to Spain aboard the ship Conquistador, the command of which he was given upon arriving at Cádiz, together with his promotion to ship-of-the-line captain (1798). The ship was in the most pitiful state, both as regards its armament and its crew, but in a short time he turned it into a model in every respect.
His poor health did not allow him to complete the history of his expedition, and that same cause led to the postponement of the publication of the thirty-four spherical charts and geometric maps, and to this day only a small part of them has been published. It was not until 1802 that he published the spherical chart of the Antilles, and the particular geometric chart of Puerto Rico came out shortly afterwards.
Back in Cádiz, he was entrusted with the command of the Conquistador to defend the positions of the French allies in the English Channel. With the ship and the squadron of which it formed part, he went from Cádiz to Brest, where he anchored on August 9, 1799. There he wrote a military instruction, which he printed and distributed to his companions; it served admirably his purpose of establishing a more complete and strict discipline in the Navy.
Always occupied with improving everything related to the Navy, he spent his stay in Brest perfecting and simplifying the maneuvers of berthing and careening. There he received from the government the assignment to go to Paris on a scientific mission. The First Consul Bonaparte, for whom any outstanding merit was an attraction, knew of the fame of the Spanish scholar; he wished to see him and received him with the greatest demonstrations of esteem.
His stay in the French capital must have left very pleasant memories in Churruca's mind. So that nothing would be lacking, his spherical chart of the Antilles was published in Madrid around that time, and it was adopted by the French Government together with the others he published. Bonaparte ordered a copy to be presented to Churruca through the maritime prefect, as a gift and a tribute paid to his knowledge. The First Consul added a sword of honor, the most esteemed token of respect of the Napoleonic empire.
If to these honorific demonstrations we add the public distinction bestowed on him by General Gravina, Commander of the squadron, who went out to receive the Commander of the Conquistador when he returned from Paris to Brest, a public act that told the whole population of the high esteem in which the General in chief held one of his subordinates, it seemed that nothing was lacking for the latter's complete satisfaction. However, once peace was made, the Spanish Government had to cede six ships of the line to France, among them the Conquistador, a cession that Churruca openly disapproved of.
Separated from his ship, he returned to Cádiz as a passenger aboard the ship Concepción, arriving on May 25, 1802. He obtained leave to rest from his laborious tasks, and he made use of it by dividing his time between a visit to his hometown and a journey to the south of France. In Motrico he had to take charge of the administration of the town after the death of his father.
In November 1803 he was given command of the ship Príncipe de Asturias. The cares of command and of organizing his ship were no obstacle to his revising, together with Antonio de Escaño, the Diccionario de Marina (Naval Dictionary). The government also commissioned him to carry out gunnery trials; as a result he wrote a treatise on gunnery for the Navy, which in Spain and abroad served as a guide for a long time.
He had barely finished reorganizing the Príncipe when he requested command of the ship San Juan Nepomuceno, newly careened. The government granted the request, adding to the concession the power to arrange its internal distribution and its armament without being subject to any regulation. Aboard this ship he would take part in the Battle of Trafalgar, where he would die and attain fame.
Battle of Trafalgar
The squadron in which the San Juan was serving set sail on August 13, 1805, from the port of Ferrol. General Gravina assigned him, as a post of honor, to be the head of the vanguard of his observation squadron. As always, he carried out the mission with the greatest merit, and upon his arrival at Cádiz he redoubled his efforts to train his entire crew masterfully through instruction.
In the midst of these many labors of his career, he one day married María de los Dolores Ruiz de Apodaca, daughter of Don Vicente, who had been a Brigadier of the Navy, and niece of Captain General the Count of Venadito.
With the Spanish and French squadrons assembled in the port of Cádiz, they put to sea from there bound for Martinique, where they seized the fort and the Diamond Rock, and captured a British convoy of fifteen sail; at that moment Villeneuve was informed of the presence of Nelson in the Antilles. Villeneuve, upon learning of his presence, took it for granted that he had achieved his objective, which was none other than to draw British naval forces to the other side of the Atlantic, so that there would be fewer of them in Europe, and he therefore decided to return.
But off Cape Finisterre he ran into the squadron of Admiral Calder, with which combat was joined, the Spaniards being defeated owing to the negligence and poor leadership of the Commander in chief of the combined squadron, Villeneuve. When the Emperor of the French learned what had happened in the combat, he said: The Spaniards have behaved like lions, but of his admiral he was heard to utter only insults.
The combined squadron entered Ferrol after the combat, then heading for La Coruña. From this port they set course for Cádiz, disregarding Napoleon's peremptory order to go to Brest. But since the British Channel squadron was there and he already knew how it operated, he set course south instead of north. Despite the contrary opinion of Churruca, Gravina and Alcalá-Galiano, Villeneuve left the Bay of Cádiz to overtake Nelson off Cape Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. Such great imprudence was motivated by Villeneuve's desire to regain the favor of Napoleon, after the defeat at Aboukir against the same English admiral, who would also die at Trafalgar. Before putting to sea on October 20, Churruca wrote a letter to his brother telling him:
Ship San Juan at Cádiz, October 11. Dear brother: since we left Ferrol they have paid no one, not even the allowances, despite these being declared in the class of the soldier's pay, so that four months are already owed to them and they have no hope of seeing a single real for a long time; here they also owe us 4 months' salary and they do not give us a farthing, even though they make us work ourselves to death: for which I cannot help but be very grateful that you have freed Dolores from the straits she would have been in to pay you the 1,356 reales, which I shall pay you as soon as I can; meanwhile, I have found in Ferrol a rich friend who will help Dolores with whatever she needs, and I am at ease having already secured her livelihood decently. These are the hardships of those of us who serve the King, that in no way can we count on our salaries (...) If you come to learn that my ship has been taken prisoner, say that I have died.
The ill-fated October 21, 1805, dawned. Within sight of the enemy, he ordered the flag to be nailed to the mast, and it was lowered only upon his death. In command of the San Juan Nepomuceno, alone against six English ships, Churruca displayed precision in firing, boldness and effectiveness to the admiration of his English enemies; despite this, after being struck by a cannonball that blew off his leg, he died.
His ship was towed to Gibraltar and for many years it was preserved and shown to visitors, with the Commander's cabin kept closed by a plaque on which the name of Churruca could be read in letters of gold. If any visitor wished to enter, he was warned to uncover his head in order to do so, as if Don Cosme Damián Churruca y Elorza were still present, Brigadier of the Royal Spanish Navy, killed afloat aboard the ship under his command, the two-deck, 74-gun San Juan Nepomuceno.
He was named Admiral posthumously, and in his memory his nephew received the title of Count of Churruca. The events in which he was a protagonist, as well as his own figure, were novelized by Benito Pérez Galdós in Trafalgar, the first title of his Episodios Nacionales.
In his native town of Motrico a statue stands in his memory, as well as in Ferrol, where a simple monument recalls his time at the Academy, and in San Fernando, where there is a plaque placed in the third west chapel of the Pantheon of Illustrious Sailors, whose inscription reads as follows:
To the memory
of the Brigadier of the Navy
Don Cosme Damián de Churruca
Gloriously killed aboard the ship under his command
«San Juan Nepomuceno» in the combat of Trafalgar
On October 21, 1805.
In the town of El Astillero, where the San Juan Nepomuceno was built, there is a street named after Churruca; and there is Churruca Street in the old part of the city of Havana, in Cuba. There is also another street called Churruca in the historic center of the City of Cádiz. In the 1970s, in the southern area of Madrid, a public school named Almirante Churruca was opened, today converted into the Almirante Churruca cultural center, belonging to the City Council of Madrid.[3]
Bibliography
- A las órdenes de las estrellas (La vida del marino Cosme de Churruca y sus expediciones a América). Mª Dolores González-Ripoll. CSIC, Madrid, 1995.
- La Casa de Churruca y sus Alianzas. Amadeo Delaunet, San Sebastián, 1937.
- Elogio histórico del Brigadier de la Real Armada Don Cosme Damián de Churruca, que murió en el combate de Trafalgar en 21 de octubre de 1805. Julián Baldomero de Churruca y Elorza, Madrid, 1806.
- Alcalá Galiano, P.: El combate de Trafalgar. I.H.C.N. Ministerio de Defensa. Facsimile, Madrid, 2004.
- Cervera y Jácome, Juan. El Panteón de Marinos Ilustres. Ministerio de Marina. Madrid. 1926.
- Enciclopedia General del Mar. Garriga. 1957. Rear Admiral Don Carlos Martínez-Valverde y Martínez.
- Fernández Duro, Cesáreo: Armada Española, desde la unión de los reinos de Castilla y de Aragón, Museo Naval. Madrid, 1973.
- Ferrer de Couto, José: Combate naval de Trafalgar. Imprenta de D. Wenceslao Ayguals de Izco. Madrid, 1851.
- González de Canales, Fernando: Catálogo de Pinturas del Museo Naval. Volume II. Ministerio de Defensa. Madrid, 2000.
- Marliani, Manuel. Combate de Trafalgar. Vindicación de la Armada Española. Impreso de Orden Superior. Madrid, 1850.
- Revista General de Marina. December 2004 issue, p. 870. Miscelánea 26.522.
References
- ↑ Conde-Salazar Infiesta, L. (2009). "Joaquín Francisco Fidalgo, el gran cartógrafo de Tierra Firme". Atlas de los Exploradores Españoles (in español). Barcelona, España: Editorial Planeta, S. A. y Sociedad Geográfica Española. p. 320. ISBN 978-84-08-08683-3.
- ↑ D.F.M. "Álvarez Dumont, Eugenio" (in español). Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado. Retrieved August 10, 2009.
- ↑ Calle en el callejero de Boadilla del Monte
External links
- Text adapted with the author's permission, who allowed its reproduction on Hispanopedia under the GFDL license:
- Churruca, el español que murió combatiendo contra seis navíos en Trafalgar
