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The project on the ship San Juan has come to the Philippines thanks to the Albaola Foundation, based in Pasaia, Gipuzkoa.  Its president, Xabier Agote, presented the project on the Basque whalers of Newfoundland in Manila where “The Global Impact of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade: an International Conference Celebrating 450 Years of Urdaneta´s Voyage” took place on November 14 and 15, in memory of the landmark navigation starring a Basque, Andres de Urdaneta. 

Manila, Philippines.   A conference celebrating the 450th anniversary of Urdaneta’s voyage took place in Manila on November 14 and 15, a historic feat of navigation as Urdaneta was the first to make a roundtrip from the Philippines to Mexico.

This Discovery, started the longest commercial lines in history: Manila-Acapulco-Manila, and generated continuous commercial traffic during two centuries and a half.  The ship that was use, a galleon from Manila, was constructed from the designs of ships in the Bay of Biscay like the ship San Juan.

The San Juan Presented

Xabier Agote, president of Albaola, was invited as an expert in naval construction and Basque maritime history to give a talk on the construction of these transoceanic cargo vessels, the Basque influence on international maritime history, and the to present the project on the construction of the San Juan, to be visited at the Basque Maritime Factory Albaola in Pasaia. Such invitations continue reiterating the international positioning Alabola has in this area.

The conference opening was attended by the senator of the Philippines, Edgardo J. Angara, and the ambassador of Mexico in the Philippines, Julio Camarena Villaseñor.  Two speakers worth mentioning are Manuel Perez-Garcia from the University of Renmin, China and Ian Christopher Alfonso from the National Historic Commission in the Philippines.

Promotion abroad

The conference in the Philippines took place as part of a series of promotional events abroad that Albaola has carried out throughout 2015, presenting the construction project of the whaling ship in different conferences and international forums: Boise, ID and Maine in the US, Finland, France, Canada, Puerto Rico and Denmark among others.

In the same way, Albaola also diffuses the Basque maritime history internationally and its impetus in situating Pasaia on the world map given its historic importance in the maritime industry, and as a reference and today, in the conservation and diffusion of the traditional Basque maritime heritage.