It can be said that with the discovery of the New World, the Basques literally took to the sea. Juan de la Cosa "vizcaino" (Santoña 1455), shipowner and true navigator of the ship Santa María. Íñigo de Artieta "the corsair of Lekeitio" (Lekeitio 1450) and his Biscayan squadron in the service of the Catholic Monarchs, the seed of the Spanish Armada, Juan Sebastián Elcano (Getaria 1476), the first to circumnavigate the globe. Andrés de Urdaneta (Ordizia 1508), who managed to find the route of the round trip. Tomás de Larráspuru (Azcoitia 1570) was the admiral who commanded the fleet of the Carrera de Indias the most times, a total of fourteen times. In 1588, the Great Armada set sail from Lisbon to conquer England, again with three Basque admirals: Juan Martinez de Recalde (Bilbao 1526), in command of the Bizkaia Squadron, Miguel de Oquendo (Ulia 1524), in command of the Guipuzcoa Squadron, and Martín de Bertendona (Bilbao 1530) in command of the Levante Squadron. The objective was not achieved. In 1741, Admiral Blas de Lezo y Olabarrieta (Pasajes 1689) defeated Edward Vernon's English Armada with only 6 ships and 3,000 soldiers with 197 ships and 28,000 soldiers in Cartagena de Indias. Bruno de Heceta (Bilbao 1743) managed to navigate and map for the first time the North American Pacific coast from Acapulco to Alaska. Navigators, conquerors, religious or simply adventurers all at the service of a common cause, the construction and maintenance of the Spanish Empire. The defeat of Trafalgar in 1808 and with it the defeat of such illustrious Basque sailors as Admirals Ignacio de Olaeta y Allende Salazar (Gernika 1775) Ignacio Mº de Alava y Saenz de Navarrete (Vitoria 1750) José de Gardoqui y Jarabeitia (Bilbao 1755), Jose Mª Mazarredo y Salazar (Bilbao 1745) and Cosme Damián Churruca (Motriko 1761) marked the end of the Empire and of the collaboration of the Basques in its maintenance.
Text extracted from the website of the Biscayan Association of Merchant Navy Captains.