Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was born in Northern Portugal
in about 1480
to Portuguese nobility, and was named Fernao de Magalhaes (the
Anglican equivalent is Ferdinand Magellan). His parents died when he
was only ten years old. At the age of 12, he became a page to Queen
Leonor, which was a common form of education for Portuguese nobility
at that time. While there, Ferdinand was taught about explorers of
the past and the basic navigation he needed to attend a voyage himself.
In 1496, he was promoted to squire and moved to the marine
department, where he helped outfit ships and learned more about the
voyages taking place and the ocean.
Nine years later, he went to India, on his first voyage under
the command of Francisco de Almeida and his fleet. The next year,
he went on an expedition to Africa with the same fleet to strengthen
the Portuguese bases there. In 1507, the fleet returned to India to
fight in several naval battles against Turkish forces. Two years
later, Magellan sailed with a different Portuguese fleet to Meleka
(present-day Malaysia). While in Meleka, the Malays attacked the
Portuguese crew and Magellan and a few other men rescued them. In 1511
, Portugal went on an expedition, which conquered Meleka, and then
traveled on to the Molucca Islands (better known as the Spice Islands),
claiming them in Portugal's name. Serrao, a friend of Magellan's went
on this expedition and wrote him from the ship about their route and location,
giving Magellan a relatively good idea of where the Spice Islands were.
In 1513, Magellan went on a military expedition to Morocco, where he sustained
an injury that would give him a visible limp for the rest of his life.
Being of Portuguese ancestry and birth, when Magellan decided to
lead a voyage himself, he went to the Portuguese King Manuel I for financial support.
He proposed that he sail south of South America to find a faster route than the traditional
one, which was around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean. King
Manuel, however, did not like Magellan and refused his proposal.
Magellan was still determined to sail his route to the Spice Islands, and in preparation,
studied astronomy and navigation for two years at Porto, where he met Ruy Faleiro, an astronomer
and geographer who influenced Magellan and helped with his plan. Together, they
concluded that the Spice Islands lay in the Spanish Territory of 1494.
Because of this, Magellan sought the assistance of the King of Spain in 1517.
Magellan easily convinced King Charles I to support the proposal of a voyage
to the Spice Islands as part of a circumnavigation around the earth. King Charles
in return promised him one fifth of the profits from the islands and a salary.
When Magellan chose his sailing crew, the Spanish became suspicious of him
because many of the chosen sailors were Portuguese, so King Charles forced him to replace the Portuguese crewmembers with a Spanish crew.
Magellan and his crew set sail from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain on September
20, 1519. The five ships of the fleet he commanded, the Conception, San Antonio,
Santiago, Trinidad, and Victoria held a combined crew of from 241 to 265 men. The
crewmembers distrusted Magellan and they were dissatisfied with how the voyage was going
from the beginning. Shortly after departure, the captain of the San Antonio challenged
Magellan's authority and was arrested.
They sailed past the Canary Islands and westward, across the Atlantic Ocean,
landing on the coast of Brazil. They then followed the South American coast southward
to the bay where present-day Rio de Janeiro is. After stopping for nearly two weeks,
they continued their voyage south in search of a westward route to the Pacific Ocean.
They couldn't, however, find this passage before the end of summer in the Southern
Hemisphere, and were forced to take anchor in March of 1520 in order to minimize the
winter damage. They stayed for nearly seven months in Puerto San Julian in present-day
Argentina. The winter put a lot of strain on the fleet, destroying the Santiago, and
creating tension between the crewmembers. Shortly after taking anchor, a mutiny broke out.
The mutiny was immediately put down and the leader executed. Then, in October 18, 1520,
when the voyage was resumed, two of the mutineers were marooned. After only three days of
sailing, they found the passage at the tip of South America. This passage was named the
Strait of Magellan after Ferdinand Magellan. When the other three ships were passing through
the strait, the San Antonio mutinied and sailed back to Spain across the Atlantic Ocean.
On November 28, the ships sailed from the strait into the Pacific Ocean. Magellan named the
ocean "pacific"; meaning peaceful, because it looked so calm compared with the stormy Atlantic
that had already claimed one of their ships. However, Magellan had no way of knowing how
tough sailing across the Pacific would be for them. The crew sailed for 98 consecutive days
without seeing any land besides two uninhibited islands. They ran out of food and their water
supply became contaminated. They ate rats, ox hides, and sawdust to avoid starving, and many
men suffered from scurvy, a disease caused by a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. Nineteen
men had died by the time the fleet reached the island of Guam on March 6, 1521.
Magellan was unable to fully re-supply his ships due to some conflicts with the people
of the island of Guam and the nearby island of Rota, but they acquired enough supplies to continue
on to the Philippines.
On March 16, 1521, the expedition reached the Visayan region of the Philippines. They
stayed in the Philippines for several weeks, and Magellan worked hard to convert many of the people
there to Christianity. Unfortunately, he involved himself too much in the people's affairs and was
killed on April 27, 1521 in a battle between rival Filipino groups involving the chieftain Lapulapu on
the island of Mactan.
After the battle, only 110 men remained, and without Magellan, so few could not man three ships,
so they abandoned the Conception and the two remaining ships sailed to the Spice Islands. The ships
were then loaded with spices and supplies. The leaders of the ships could not decide upon the route
home so instead, they decided that the ships should make individual trips back to Spain.
The Trinidad, led by Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, tried to sail eastward, back across the Pacific Ocean,
but over half of the crew died and they were forced to go back to the Spice Islands where they were captured
by the Portuguese. The Victoria, under the command of Juan Sebastian Del Cano continued westward towards Spain.
Like the Trinidad, many of the crew died along the way, mostly due to malnutrition and starvation. On September 6,
1522, the Victoria and her crew of 18, including Del Cano, reached Sanlucar de Barrameda almost three years after
departure.
The voyage covered 14, 460 leagues or 50, 610 miles and was the first circumnavigation. Nearly
everyone at the time gave credit of the voyage to Del Cano. The Portuguese considered Magellan a traitor and
the Spanish condemned him when they heard of his navigational errors. Although Magellan's route to the Spice
Islands was not shorter, he discovered the Strait of Magellan and named the Pacific Ocean. His voyage can still be
considered a success, because although it did not do what it was intended to do, it gave much new knowledge to the
view of the world and led to many other European explorations of the Pacific Ocean.