In 1526, six ships set out from Spain on a journey to the Moluccas (Spice Islands). After a series of unfortunate events in the South American regions, they were all eventually sank or dispersed alone and left to attempt to reach Spain. Few survived and made it, many died, and what happened to the rest of them is a mystery.
But some suggest that one of the ships made it as far as New Zealand.

The Ships and their Fate

A fleet of seven ships took part on the expedition: Santa María de la Victoria, Espiritu Santo, Anunciada, San Gabriel, Santa María del Parral, San Lesmes and Santiago. Jofre de Loaísa was appointed captain along with Juan Sebastián Elcano, who had reached the Spice islands in 1521 during the Magellan expedition. The fleet sailed from Corunna on July, 24 1525 and reached the Patagonian shores in January 1526 and by then two of the ships had lost contact with the fleets. In the following weeks, the fleet alternatively gathered and dispersed due to high winds while trying unsuccessfully to enter the Strait of Magellan and two ships were ship wrecked and one tacked into the Atlantic and deserted from the expedition. Eventually the remaining four vessels, in bad weather, reached the Pacific Ocean in May, just to be again dispersed, this time permanently, by another storm. One of the galleons, San Lesmes, disappeared. The Santiago sailed for the North and in an astonishing 10,000 kilometre sailing reached the Pacific coast of Mexico in July, 1526, achieving the first navigation from Europe to the Western coast of North America. The third ship, Santa María del Parral, sailed the Pacific, and reached Celebes, where the ship was wrecked and the survivors were either killed or enslaved by the natives, four of them were rescued in 1528 by another Spanish expedition coming from Mexico. The galleon, Santa Maria de la Victoria, was the only ship to reach the Spice Islands, in September, 1526.

San Lesmes – The Ship that MAY have discovered New Zealand

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_de_Hoces

On January 1526, the San Lesmes was blown by a gale southwards from the eastern mouth of Strait of Magellan till 56ºS latitude, where the crew thought they saw a land’s end. This is commonly understood as that they saw open waters westward away of a point of land that could be the southeasternmost tip of either Tierra del Fuego (Cape San Diego) or Isla de los Estados (Cape San Juan). In any of both cases they supposedly had seen an open water connection between Atlantic and Pacific oceans south of Tierra del Fuego, and therefore they preceded Francis Drake in inferring the existence of such a connection. This is the reason why some Spanish, Argentine, and Chilean historians maintain that the so-called Drake Passage should be named Mar de Hoces (Hoces Sea).
After Loaisa expedition eventually reached the Pacific through the Strait of Magellan, the whole fleet was dispersed by another gale and San Lesmes was seen for the last time on late May 1526 . San Lesmes final fate has been the subject of a lot of speculation based in some 16th century European traces later found in different places around South Pacific, which suggest she could have reached Easter Island, any of the Polynesian archipelagos or even New Zealand. In any of these cases we would be talking about the first European landing in the Polynesian Triangle, and it would bring forward in History such an event by several decades. Australian writer Robert Langdon has been the most prominent supporter of these theories in his books “The lost caravel” and “The lost caravel re-explored”.

Known Members of Expedition

Francisco de Hoces

Francisco de Hoces (?, 1526?) was a Spanish sailor who in 1525 joined the Loaísa Expedition to the Spice Islands as commander of the vessel San Lesmes. Potentially, he discovered New Zealand in his attempts to reach home.

García Jofre de Loaísa (1490–1526)

García Jofre de Loaísa (1490–1526) was a 16th century Spanish explorer ordered by king Charles I of Spain to command an expedition to Asia, known as the Loaísa expedition, which in 1525 was sent by the western route to colonize the Spice Islands in the East Indies, thus crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. More than 450 men were aboard, including different kinds of trades and administrative staff, intended to establish a permanent Spanish settlements in the Spanish East Indies. This was the second circumnavigation of the world.

Andrés de Urdaneta

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_de_Urdaneta

Urdaneta was born in the town of Ordizia in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, Spain. Urdaneta was one of the few survivors of Loaísa Expedition to reach the Spice Islands, just to be taken prisoner by the Portuguese, but eventually he managed to return to Europe in 1528, achieving the second world circumnavigation in history after an expedition which lasted nine years. King Charles I of Spain did not give him a very favourable reception either, and, wearied by his many adventures, he went to New Spain and entered the Augustinian Order.
He wrote two accounts of his voyages; the one giving the account of the Loaiza expedition was published; the other, which gives the account of his return voyage, is preserved in manuscript in the archives of the Indies.

Image: www.elaput.org