ESPIRITO SANTO Tristan da Cunha flagship

[aukepalmhof]

I found the name of Tristan da Cunha’s flagship in the internet side below given as ESPIRITO SANTO, most probably a caravel.

The story of Tristão da Cunha finding the islands in 1506, which were named after him is well known but needs some clarifications. According to MacKay (1963), Tristão's ship was called Capitão Mor. This is an error, which has been repeated by other authors, including myself, I am afraid (Beintema 1997). Capitão-mor was not his ship, but his title. His ship was the ESPIRITO SANTO. In a fleet, every ship had her own captain, but only one of them would be the chief captain, or captain-major: capitão-mor. This was not a permanent title, like Admiral, but just an assignment for the voyage. The size of the fleet varies between sources: 14, 15, 16 or just 6 ships. I think they sailed from Lisbon to Brazil with 16 ships. One was sent back to Portugal with sick men, one ship was lost, and 14 reached the waters around Tristan da Cunha. Da Cunha sailed with Afonso de Alboquerque (or Dalboquerque), the future viceroy of India. D'Alboquerque commanded a sub-fleet of six ships, with four hundred men, with a special assignment to control the Moors on the African east coast, so he was a capitão-mor too, and captain of the FLOR DE LA MAR. Having two chief captains on one fleet is asking for trouble, and indeed, there were a lot of disputes between the two. D'Alboquerque was especially irritated because da Cunha's ship was slow, and they often had to wait for each other. It was already late in the season and it was questionable whether they would still be able to safely round the Cape. After discovering Tristan, the weather took the matter in hand. In a heavy gale the fleet was dispersed, and the ships arrived on the east coast of Africa at different times. Since 1509, the charts show seven little dots, with the remark 'Ilhas que achou Tristão da Cunha' - islands found by Tristão da Cunha. Malhão Pereira found a very nice drawing, in color, of the entire fleet of fourteen ships near Tristan, with small boats filled with rowing men, exploring the islands.
We sometimes see Tristão spelled as Tristam. Note that ão and am are pronounced the same in Portuguese (aaung, with a nasal ending, like in the French bon). Similarly, we often see Sam instead of São (Saint).
We all agree that Tristão is the one who discovered Tristan. But was he really the first to see the islands?

https://www.tristandc.com/shipping/earl ... entury.php

The islands were first recorded as sighted in 1506 by Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha, but rough seas prevented a landing. He named the main island after himself, Ilha de Tristan da Cunha. It was later anglicized from its earliest mention in British Admiralty charts to Tristan da Cunha Island.

Some sources claim that the Portuguese made the first landing in 1520, when the vessel SAM RAFAEL, captained by Ruy Vaz Pereira, called Tristan to fetch water.

The first indisputable landing was made on February 7, 1643 by the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship HEEMSTEDE, captained by Claes Gerritsz Bierenbroodspot. The Dutch stopped on the island four more times over the next 25 years, and in 1656 they created the first maps of the archipelago.

The first complete survey of the archipelago was made by the crew of the French corvette HEURE DU BERGER in 1767. The first scientific exploration was conducted by the French naturalist Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars, who stayed on the island for three days in January 1793. a French mercantile expedition from Brest, France, to Mauritius. Thouars made botanical collections and reported traces of human habitation, including hearths and huge gardens, probably left by Dutch explorers in the 17th century.

Source Internet
Tristan da Cunha 1965 1d sg72, scott? And 1983 3p sg 350.