Lousy pilots? Fierce storms? Rampaging currents? Some of these galleons never stood a chance. (Listen to S6E13 before this one.)

The route of a Spanish galleon from Manila to Acapulco was littered with the wrecks of ships that sailed before—hit by storms, hammered by tides, preyed on by pirates. Meanwhile, on the filthy decks, hunger and disease stalked the ranks of the sailors, slaves, and passengers. Spanning thousands of kilometers, every voyage of the Galleon Trade was grueling and lethal… but for the investors who bet fortunes on the trade ships, the payoff was worth every dead body. 

In this episode, let’s sail aboard a galleon as it makes its way from Manila to Mexico. Will we make it to the end alive?

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References:

Casabán, José Luis (2014). “The Reconstruction of a Seventeenth-Century Spanish Galleon.” 2014 Underwater Archaeology Proceedings.

Legarda, Benito J. (1999). After the Galleons: Foreign Trade, Economic Change and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines. Ateneo de Manila Press.

Seijas, Tatiana (2014). Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians. Cambridge University Press.

Isorena, Efren B. (2015). “Maritime Disasters in Spanish Philippines: The Manila-Acapulco Galleons, 1565-1815.” International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, 11(1), pp. 53-83.

Schurz, William Lyle (July 1918). “Acapulco and the Manila Galleon.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 22(1), pp. 18-37.

Hayes, Lieutenant John D. (December 1934). “The Manila Galleons.” Proceedings of the US Naval Institute, 60(12).

Worrall, Simon (15 January 2017). “A Nightmare Disease Haunted Ships During Age of Discovery.” National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/scurvy-disease-discovery-jonathan-lamb

Morris, David Z. (17 May 2016). “Cruel ships of prosperity.” Aeon. https://aeon.co/essays/the-manila-galleons-that-oceaneered-for-plague-and-profit

Costumes, backdrops, dedications—in the 1900s, having your photo taken in a studio and sending prints to loved ones was the hot new thing in the Philippines! (Listen to S6E12 before this one.)

When the Americans arrive to take over the Philippines, amateur photographers take pictures of every possible inch of their new possession. Snapshots soon emerge from inside the cemeteries of towns and cities, showcasing an eerie and macabre trend. It seems that not even the most private places of the dead would be spared from the camera’s roving, ravenous, pinhole eye. 

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Additional audio from Marques Brownlee, Dave 2D, and The Verge.

References:

Capozzola, Christopher (2017). “Photography and Power in the Colonial Philippines - 1.” Visualizing Cultures at the Massachusets Institute of Technology.

Lutz, Peter (1994-2024). “Beginners Guide To Understanding And Using A Brownie Box Camera.” Brownie-camera.com. https://www.brownie-camera.com/articles/petelutz/article.shtml

Williams, Nigel (17 July 2021). “Early Cameras, a Timeline.” A Flash of Darkness. https://flashofdarkness.com/early-cameras-timeline/

The Curious World (7 February 2024). “Taking pictures with a nearly-100 year old camera | Kodak No. 2 Brownie” [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXoSRDVJ3B4

Stricklin, Krystle Elaine (2022). “Grave Visions: Photography, Violence, and Death in the American Empire, 1898 – 1913” [dissertation]. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Florida State University.

Rafael, Vicente (2000). White Love and Other Events in Filipino History. Ateneo de Manila University Press.

Barretto, Grace (2000). “A Survey of Literature on Indigenous Archaeological Practices and Their Archaeological Implications." Indigenous Peoples, 15(2).

Dakudao, Michelangelo (1998). “The Development of Cemeteries in Manila Before 1941.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 26(1-2), pp. 254-271.

Scourge, scientist… and slave owner! Discover the ties of one of England’s most famous mariners to Philippine history. (Listen to S6E11 before listening to this one!)

In 1719, a book appeared on London shelves—and became an instant bestseller. Its cover featured the now-iconic image of a man, trapped in a deserted island, dressed only in goat skins. Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, never confirmed nor denied that his massive hit was based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotsman marooned for years on a tropical island… but the parallels were undeniable.

But before Selkirk made his way back to the Western world and became a celebrity, he was roped in by his rescuers for their deadly piratical mission: to hunt the greatest treasure ship of the high seas—the Manila galleon!

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References:

Kamen, Henry (2004). Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763. Harper Perennial.

Rogers, Woodes (1928). A Cruising Voyage Round the World. The Seafarer's Library. (Original work published 1731).

Severin, Tim (2002). “Marooned: The Metamorphosis of Alexander Selkirk.” The American Scholar, 71(3), pp. 73-82. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41213335

Ball, Phillip (1 May 2019). “The many afterlives of Robinson Crusoe.” The New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2019/05/the-many-afterlives-of-robinson-crusoe

McInelly, Brett C. (2003) “Expanding Empires, Expanding Selves: Colonialism, the Novel, and ‘Robinson Crusoe’.” Studies in the Novel, 35(1), pp. 1-21. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29533546

Peterson, Andrew. “What Really Made the World Go Around?: Indio Contributions to the Acapulco-Manila Galleon Trade.” Explorations: A Graduate Student Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 11(1), pp. 1-18.

As he was brutally tortured by the Kempeitai, captured guerilla Gustavo Ingles was moved to different prisons and safehouses. What was his day-to-day life like behind bars? (Listen to S6E10 before listening to this one.)

When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, young military cadet Gustavo Ingles tried to hitch a ride with the upperclassmen to the front lines in Bataan. But officers told him to go home. Undeterred, he founded a guerilla group called the Hunters ROTC to continue the fight against the new occupiers. 

Then, in 1943, Ingles was caught by the secret police. 

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My voiceover partner-in-crime, Anya, is on leave this week, so I’ll be reading quotes from references and sources. When she’s able to record her lines, I’ll update the episode to include them.

References:

Ingles, Gustavo (1992).Memoirs of Pain.Mauban Heritage Foundation.

Guillermo, Mai & Guillermo, Lucky (Producers) & Logroño, Bani (Director). (2015)Unsurrendered 2: The Hunters ROTC Guerillas. 

“Philippine Military Academy: History, Traditions and General Information.”https://www.pma.edu.ph/about.php

Luci-Atienza, Charissa (9 June 2019). “Tales heroes’ children tell.”Manila Bulletin.https://mb.com.ph/2019/06/09/tales-heroes-children-tell/

Alcazaren, Paulo (4 March 2016). “Manila’s Plaza Goiti: From postcard pretty to urban mess.”The Philippine Star.https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/modern-living/2016/03/04/1559451/manilas-plaza-goiti-postcard-pretty-urban-mess

The Royal Philippine Company helped usher in the twilight of the longstanding Galleon Trade that linked Manila and Acapulco! (Listen to S6E9 before listening to this one.)

In Francisco Goya’s painting Junta de Filipinas, sinister, shadowy figures preside over a stockholders’ meeting of the Royal Philippine Company. What was this Royal Philippine Company—and what was so important about it that Goya made a painting of one of its meetings? And more than that, what was Goya trying to say about this tumultuous period in Spanish and Philippine history?

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Additional audio from the Ville de Castres YouTube page, and The Social Network, © 2010 Columbia Pictures. 

References: 

Legarda, Benito J. (1999). After the Galleons: Foreign Trade, Economic Change and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines. Ateneo de Manila Press.

Miranda-Chou, Teresita (1996). “Art as Political Subtext: A Philippine Centennial Perspective on Francisco Goya’s Junta de la Real Compañía de Filipinas.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 24, pp. 187-215.

Alford, Roberta M. (June 1960). “Francisco Goya and the Intentions of the Artist.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 18(4), pp. 482-493.

Ville de Castres (26 April 2022). “L'OEUVRE A LA LOUPE : La Junte des Philippines #1.” [Video] YouTube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdv9bs207cs

Prodger, Michael (26 September 2015). “From princes to paupers: how Goya’s portraits tell the story of Spain.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/26/francisco-de-goya-portraits-national-gallery-london

Dalrymple, William (2019). The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Harai, Yuval Noah (2015). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind . Harper.