The Pacific Ocean is the largest on Earth, it occupies a third of the surface area of our planet. Its size is larger than all the land - the continents and islands combined. No wonder it is often called the Great Ocean. It seems strange that it was discovered only in the 16th century, and until then it was not even suspected of its existence.
Who discovered the Pacific Ocean
The discovery of a new ocean is associated with the name of the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa. In the autumn of 1512, Balboa, then governor of the Spanish colony of Darien, set off west from the Atlantic coast, accompanied by 192 men armed with spears and halberds, with a pack of dogs. They managed to cross the isthmus that connects North America with South America, overcoming difficult forests, tropical swamps and rocky ridges.
On the way, they met Indians several times, determined not to let outsiders into their lands. Unlike the indigenous inhabitants of the West Indies, the locals were not going to kneel before the Europeans, not fearingattack a large armed detachment in helmets and cuirasses. Therefore, by the end of the expedition, only 28 people remained from him.
But from the top of another ridge they saw an endless body of water. Entering chest-deep into the water, Balboa declared the new sea the possession of the Spanish king. It became known as the South Sea, as it lay south of the isthmus. This name remained with him almost until the end of the 18th century.
So, it seems to be clear who discovered the Pacific Ocean. In 1513, Europeans first saw it and named it the South Sea. But this does not mean that they immediately began to explore the coast and sail along it.
Expedition of Magellan and the "Quiet Sea"
Who discovered the Pacific Ocean for European sailors? We owe this to the organizer of the first circumnavigation of the world, Fernand Magellan. It was his ships in November 1520 that first ended up in an unknown ocean and crossed it. And just Magellan gave him the name El Mare Pacifico - the Pacific Sea.
For a modern person who has heard about storms raging in the Pacific Ocean, about waves the size of a ten-story building, about tropical typhoons, its name sounds a bit strange. But Magellan during his expedition was just lucky with the weather. After the ships passed with great difficulty through a narrow and winding strait, later named after Magellan, they found themselves in front of a vast expanse of water, hitherto unknown to Europeans. At first, the ships sailed under an even tailwind. And then we found ourselves in a zone of almost complete calm.
The ships moved barely across the boundless expanse of the ocean. Supplies have long run out, fresh water is rotten. And the islands encountered along the way were not suitable for landing on the shore. The crew, losing men to starvation and scurvy, cursed the "Quiet Sea"…
But still the ocean was passed. And on April 21, 1521, Magellan himself died, getting involved in the civil strife of local tribes. His comrade Sebastian Elcano had to lead the way home.
So, Magellan with his companions is the one who discovered the Pacific Ocean and gave the reservoir its current name.
Heyerdahl's hypothesis about the settlement of Oceania
When we say who discovered the Pacific Ocean and in what year, we mean when it became known to Europeans. But the islands of Oceania have been inhabited for a long time. For their inhabitants, the Pacific Ocean is their homeland, they did not need to open it. Where did their ancestors come from? Which of them discovered the Pacific Ocean about forty centuries ago?
There are different opinions on this. The famous Norwegian explorer and traveler Thor Heyerdahl believed that the islands were settled from the east, from South America. He claimed that the Indians could travel thousands of miles across the ocean, using sea currents and fair winds. Heyerdahl himself proved the possibility of such travels in 1947, crossing the Pacific Ocean on the Kon-Tiki balsa raft, modeled after Indian rafts.
Opposite opinion
Frenchman Eric Bishop had a different point of view. He believed that it was not the Indians who sailed toislands, and the inhabitants of Polynesia traveled to the shores of South America. At the same time, they still remain skillful sailors, and this is not surprising. It was simply impossible to do without long journeys, living on patches of land remote from each other in the Great Ocean. And the language of the locals contains as many marine terms as no other in the world. It was the Polynesians, according to Bishop, who subsequently settled the islands off the western coast of the Pacific Ocean.
Currently, most scientists believe that the development of the now inhabited land in the Pacific Ocean went from the eastern shores of Asia to the west. And the Chinese junks could be the first not only in the discovery of islands in the ocean, but also in the discovery of America long before Columbus.
For the Russians, the Pacific Ocean was opened by the Cossacks of Ivan Moskvitin, who reached the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in 1639.
