A History of Stowaways : Y2K Contact Author

Studies of early migration patterns have provided us with a wealth of information that closely details human origins and movements, but the study of stowaways throughout the ages has attracted little interest. In comparison to early human movements and mass migration later caused by wars and political unrest, the initial movement of stowaways was insignificant, and as a result early activity went unrecorded. There is no documentary evidence to verify exactly how and when the stowaway problem developed. There are no agencies or authorities responsible for monitoring and tracking stowaways, and whilst historical references to seagoing voyages of discovery are rife with descriptions of new lands, wondrous peoples and animals, past references to stowaways are extremely rare and particularly uninformative.

Of the little documentation that relates to the subject of stowaways, most of the accounts seem to have found their way into our history books for the simple reason they involved prominent people. One of the first recorded incidents occurred in 1500 when Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa sailed with Rodrigo de Bastidas on a voyage to the Caribbean and present-day Columbia. Following his explorations, Balboa settled on Hispaniola (Haiti), but after ten years of endeavour and hard toil he failed to prosper as a pioneer farmer and had to flee his creditors. Balboa stowed away on a vessel belonging to an expedition organised by Martin Fernandez de Encisco, to bring aid and reinforcements to Uraba, a colony in modern Columbia.

As a renowned Spanish conquistador and explorer Balboa apparently faced few problems once discovered on board the vessel, and in due course went on to become captain general of Darien, governor of Mar del Sur, cultivated Indian relations, and in 1513 became the first European to site the Pacific Ocean, claiming all the lands it touched for Spain. Unfortunately, due to charges later brought against him by his enemies, disagreements with King Ferdinand II, and a long running feud with fellow countryman Pedro Arias Davila, Balboa was charged with rebellion and high treason. At the culmination of the trial he was found guilty, condemned to death, and beheaded in January 1519.

This record of Balboa's stowaway activity provides us with little information about the way in which he boarded the vessel, Encisco's response when he was discovered, and what the consequences would have been had Balboa not been a fellow countryman of the expedition leader. We can only guess at the treatment of other stowaways in similar times, some may have been put to work, others sold as slaves to sugar plantations in the Caribbean, or worse still they could have been thrown over board (a practice which unfortunately persists to this day).

In a later account however, reference is made to the punishment which awaited individuals caught trying to escape from Japan. Some three hundred years after Balboa stowed-away, a devotee of Western studies, Sakuma Zozan, had attracted a large following of disciples' eager to learn more about his philosophy of "Eastern ethics, Western Techniques".

Part: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

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