{"id":7863,"date":"2026-10-25T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=7863"},"modified":"2026-10-17T17:13:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T17:13:50","slug":"basque-fact-of-the-week-history-of-the-whaling-ship-the-san-juan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2026\/10\/25\/basque-fact-of-the-week-history-of-the-whaling-ship-the-san-juan\/","title":{"rendered":"Basque Fact of the Week: History of the Whaling Ship the San Juan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">Basques are known for their prowess on the ocean, their <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2026\/02\/15\/basque-fact-of-the-week-basque-shipbuilding-innovations\/\">ship building expertise<\/a>, and their exploration of the northern Atlantic. Ships such as the San Juan fueled this exploration. The <em>San Juan<\/em>, built in 1563 but lost in 1565, was discovered centuries later, a discovery that changed our understanding of Basque history and connections with North America. The importance of this ship and that tradition are so great that a replica of the <em>San Juan<\/em> was constructed and is due to retrace the path of the original.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-1-300x200.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7864\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-1-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-1-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-1.png 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The reconstructed San Juan during its first launching. Photo from <a href=\"https:\/\/albaola.org\/en\/the-launching-of-san-juan\/\">Albaola<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <em>San Juan<\/em> was built in 1563 in the town of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pasaia\">Pasaia<\/a>, Gipuzkoa. The first mention of Pasaia comes from 1203, when it was known by the name Oiarso. Pasaia is of Gascon origin, highlighting the influence that the Gascons had in the region.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <em>San Juan<\/em> was 28 meters (91 feet) long and could carry 200 tonnes of cargo, or 1000 barrels of oil. It could hold a crew of 60. It was a nao, or carrack, meaning it was a cargo ship. It had three masts and three decks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <em>San Juan<\/em> sunk off the coast of Canada in 1565. It had been anchored in Red Bay, Labrador. In October of that year, a storm hit the coast where the Basques had been processing whales. The anchor lines of the <em>San Juan<\/em> broke and ran aground. It sank in 10 meters (30 feet) of water, taking some 1000 barrels of oil with it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For centuries, the <em>San Juan<\/em> had been lost to history. In 1978, <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2020\/06\/14\/basque-fact-of-the-week-selma-huxley-barkham-basque-canadian-historian\/\">Selma Huxley Barkham<\/a> and her colleagues found the wreckage of the ship. She had spent years researching the voyages of Basque whaling ships and her research helped her pinpoint the location of the wreck. Robert Grenier and a team of divers found the wreck based on Huxley Barkham&#8217;s research.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The wreck was surprisingly well preserved and has become a prime example of maritime archeology and is one of the best preserved vessels from the 16th century. It is the oldest excavated wreck of any European ship north of Florida.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/albaola.org\/en\/\">Albaola<\/a>, The Sea Factory of the Basques, located in Pasaia, recreated the <em>San Juan<\/em> using materials, tools and techniques from the 16th century. For example, they harvested oak during the winter months during the waning moon as that is how it had been done traditionally. The effort began in 2014 and on November 7, 2025, the reconstructed <em>San Juan<\/em> launched. The goal is for the ship to recreate the voyage of the original all the way to the coasts of Canada.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The reconstruction is only possible due to the careful and detailed efforts of Grenier and his team, who documented every piece of the boat they could find. The original knowledge of how to build such ships was simply lost to time, and this effort allowed Albaola to recreate the process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">A full list of all of Buber&#8217;s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/basque-fact-of-the-week-archive\/\">Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Primary sources: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinacivil.com\/index.php\/articulo\/historia-de-la-marina-civil\/19132-la-nao-san-juan-un-ballenero-vasco-del-siglo-xvi-en-reconstruccion\">La nao San Juan, un ballenero vasco del siglo XVI, en reconstrucci\u00f3n<\/a><\/em>, Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de la Marina Civil; <em><a href=\"https:\/\/parks.canada.ca\/lhn-nhs\/nl\/redbay\/culture\/unesco\/unesco5\">Fact sheet: The Basque Vessels of Red Bay<\/a><\/em>, Parks Canada; <em><a href=\"https:\/\/canadiangeographic.ca\/articles\/the-san-juan-sails-again\/\">The San Juan sails again<\/a><\/em> by Lyndsie Bourgon, Canadian Geographic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basques are known for their prowess on the ocean, their ship building expertise, and their exploration of the northern Atlantic. Ships such as the San Juan fueled this exploration. The San Juan, built in 1563 but lost in 1565, was discovered centuries later, a discovery that changed our understanding of Basque history and connections with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[836,13],"tags":[4251,682,4243,853,1948],"class_list":["post-7863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basque-fact-of-the-week","category-history","tag-albaola","tag-canada","tag-robert-grenier","tag-san-juan","tag-selma-huxley-barkham"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-22P","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7863"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7943,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863\/revisions\/7943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}