The harbour, nearly long, was discovered in 1520 during the first
circumnavigation of the world by the
Magellan-Elcano Spanish expedition. Other Spanish expeditions followed, including the
Loaísa expedition (1525) or the
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa expedition (1579). Sixty six years after the Magellan Elcano expedition, on 17 December 1586, the English privateer
Thomas Cavendish sailed into the estuary during his
voyage of circumnavigation seeking to raid the Pacific coasts of the
Viceroyalty of Peru. His fleet consisted of his
flagship, , accompanied by
Hugh Gallant and
Content. He named the harbour "Port Desire" after his ship, and the point of land at the harbour mouth is still known as
Punta Cavendish. They were faced by the
Mapuche Tehuelche, who shot arrows that wounded some of the crew. After ten days Cavendish took his ships on their way, and returned to England in 1588. A second attempt by the English to attack or occupy parts of the Spanish Empire resulted in Cavendish leading an expedition in 1591 with five ships, sailing on
Leicester Galleon. After raiding
Santos in
Brazil the fleet suffered problems in the winter at the
Strait of Magellan, and some of the boats went to Port Desire. The few surviving men and boats made their way back to England, sailing to the nearby "Penguin Island" then south, but were caught by a storm and, forced to run before the wind, came on unknown islands, making the first probable sighting of the
Falkland Islands. received by the
Mapuche Tehuelche in Puerto Deseado (1789) at
Museos de Tenerife. The
English, a rival nation to
Spain, tried to occupy Puerto Deseado and the southern part of the
Viceroyalty of Peru during the 1670
John Narborough failed
expedition. In 1789 the port was visited by both Spanish ships,
Atrevida and
Descubierta, of the
Malaspina Scientific Expedition. On the voyage that was to found
Nueva Colonia y Fuerte de Floridablanca, on 20 April 1780 Antonio Viedma made a stop and founded a temporary settlement on the river's south bank. During the seven months it was inhabited, houses, a bread oven, a forge, a hospital for
scurvy and a wooden fort were built, and about one hundred people lived there, including the sea men. In 1790, during the
viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata times, the Armada forced captain
John Byron out of the Falklands. During his escape, the
sloop-of-war Swift headed for Port Desire, but was shipwrecked on a concealed rock. In 1790 a village and fort was established at Puerto Deseado by the
Real Compañía Marítima (Royal Maritime Company). It was the main headquarters of an array of fishing posts such as the one in isla Pingüinos. It was built with a bread oven, farming land, a hospital, a chapel, fishing and salting facilities, and the Todos los Santos and San Carlos forts, which served as the
presidio. The desertion of the villagers, cost of constant supplies and lack of whales in the neighbourhood (only sea lions were found) caused the end of the
Real Compañía Marítima, and the last soldiers of the presidio left in 1807 during the
British invasions of the River Plate. At the time of the Argentine Confederation, in 1833,
HMS Beagle stopped at the port, with
Charles Darwin a member of the crew. The village was founded for the third time in 1882 when Antonio Oneto obtained funds from
Hipólito Yrigoyen,
Ministry of the Interior, to establish Deseado and Santa Cruz. The new villagers were given farming land, credits and tools. In 1902 the railway station from the
Puerto Deseado Railway was built. During the 1982
Falklands War the "Kettledrum operation" aiming to bomb Deseado was planned, but not carried out. ==Traffic==