Ferdinand Magellan

Life and legacy

Ferdinand Magellan was born around 1480 in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, into a minor noble family. As a young man, he served in the Portuguese fleet in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, participating in the conquest of Malacca in 1511 and gaining firsthand knowledge of the Spice Islands (Moluccas). After a falling-out with King Manuel I of Portugal - reportedly over accusations of unauthorized trading and a refused request for a raise in stipend - Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and offered his services to the Spanish Crown.

Magellan proposed to King Charles I of Spain (later Emperor Charles V) that a westward route to the Spice Islands could be found, which would place the lucrative spice trade within Spain's sphere under the Treaty of Tordesillas. Charles approved the expedition, and on September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Sanlucar de Barrameda with five ships - the Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, and Santiago - and approximately 270 men of diverse nationalities.

The voyage was harrowing from the start. Magellan faced a mutiny at Port Saint Julian in Patagonia, which he suppressed with ruthless efficiency. After months of searching the South American coast, he discovered the strait that now bears his name in October 1520 - a narrow, treacherous passage at the southern tip of South America. The crossing of the strait took thirty-eight days, and the San Antonio deserted and returned to Spain. Emerging into the vast, calm ocean beyond, Magellan named it the "Pacific" for its apparent peacefulness.

The Pacific crossing was far longer and more terrible than anyone had anticipated. For ninety-eight days, the fleet sailed across open ocean without sighting significant land. The crew was reduced to eating rats, sawdust, and leather strips from the rigging. Scurvy ravaged the men. When they finally reached the island of Guam in March 1521, and then the Philippines, Magellan became involved in a local conflict. On April 27, 1521, he was killed in the Battle of Mactan while leading an assault against the forces of the chieftain Lapu-Lapu.

After Magellan's death, the remnants of the expedition, under the command of Juan Sebastian Elcano, continued westward. Of the five ships and 270 men who had departed, only the Victoria and eighteen emaciated survivors reached Spain on September 6, 1522, having completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. The voyage proved definitively that the Earth was round and far larger than Columbus had believed, that the Americas were a separate landmass between two vast oceans, and that a westward route to Asia, while possible, was commercially impractical. It was one of the most consequential voyages in human history.

Key accomplishments

• Organized and led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe (1519-1522)
• Discovered the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of South America
• Named the Pacific Ocean during the first European crossing
• Proved the Earth's sphericity and revealed the true scale of the globe
• Demonstrated the existence of a westward sea route from Europe to Asia

Quotes

We had been two months and nine days without tasting any fresh food. The biscuit we ate was no longer bread but dust mixed with worms and soaked with the urine of rats.

Antonio Pigafetta, chronicle of the Magellan expedition (c. 1525)

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