Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho
(27 March 1560-c. 1602)
Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho (Sebastián Rodríguez Cermeño in Spanish; c. 1560–1602), was a Portuguese explorer, born in Sesimbra (Portugal), appointed by King Philip II of Spain (Spanish: Felipe II de España; Portuguese: Filipe I de Portugal) to sail along the shores of California, in the years 1595 and 1596, in order to map the American west coast line and define the maritime routes of the Pacific Ocean in the 16th century.
Early life
Little is known of Soromenho. He was probably the same man as a Sebastian Rodrigues, a pilot on the Manila Galleon Santa Ana, which was captured by Thomas Cavendish in 1587 during his circumnavigation. Soromenho had a 200-ton ship.
Voyage
The Manila galleon San Agustin was sent from the Philippines to survey the coast of what became Oregon and California and then to complete the trip to Acapulco, Mexico. Carrying 130 tons of cargo, the ship displaced approximately 200 tons. Soromenho was appointed as captain for the voyage of the San Agustin based on his professional skill as a navigator.
On July 5, 1595, the San Agustin sailed from Manila with its cargo, some passengers, and some soldiers. On November 4, 1595 it reached land between Point St.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.