Ferdinand Magellan

A long time ago, the world was a vast, unknown place, made up of land and strange seas. A few explorers had dared to journey across the open oceans, but only a few were successful. In 1480, Ferdinand Magellan was born in Portugal. In 1490, Magellan's parents had died, and he became a page to the Portuguese queen. This allowed him to go to school and learn about the voyages of Christopher Columbus and other such explorers. Similar to his predecessor Columbus, Magellan believed that the Spice Islands could be reached by sailing west through the New World. He proposed this idea to the Portuguese king, but, like Columbus, was rejected. Looking for support, Magellan moved on to share his plan with the Spanish king. On March 22, 1518, Charles I was persuaded by Magellan and gave him a large sum of money to find a route to the Spice Islands by sailing west from Spain, thereby giving the Spanish Empire control of the area. Using these generous funds, Magellan set sail, going west toward the Spice Islands in September, 1519, with five ships named the Conception, the San Antonio, the Santiago, the Trinidad, and the Victoria. On these five ships in all were 270 men. After months of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, on December 13, 1519, the fleet anchored at what is today known as Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to restock its supplies. From there, he moved down the coast of South America, looking for a way into the Pacific Ocean. As they sailed farther south, however, the weather got worse, and the crew anchored in southern South America to wait out the winter. As the weather began to get better in the spring, Magellan sent the Santiago on a mission to look for a way through to the Pacific Ocean. However, in May, the ship was wrecked and the fleet did not move again until August of 1520. Then, after months of exploring the area, the remaining four ships set sail and found a strait in October and sailed through it. This portion of the journey took 38 days and cost them the ship the San Antonio. This happened because the crew decided to abandon the expedition, feeling it was a lost cause. This also cost Magellan a large amount of supplies. Nevertheless, in the end of November, the remaining three ships exited what Magellan named the Strait of All Saints and sailed into the Pacific Ocean. From here, Magellan made a mistake and thought it would only take a few days to reach the Spice Islands, when instead it took four long, hard months. The crew began to starve as their food supplies were emptied, their water turned putrid and horrible, and many of the men developed many types of disease. Their supplies were not adequately restocked until March when they stopped in Guam. On March 28, 1521, they landed in the Philippines and became friends with a tribal king. After spending time with the king, Magellan and his crew were persuaded into helping the tribe kill their enemy, Lapu-Lapu, on the Mactan Island. Unfortunately, on April 21, 1521, Magellan took part in the Battle of Mactan and was killed by Lapu-Lapu's army. After Magellan's death, Sebastian Del Cano had the Conception burnt, one of the ships, so it could not be used against them by the locals. He then took over the two remaining ships and the remaining 117 crew members. To make sure that one ship would make it back to Spain, he sent the Trinidad back east and the Victoria continued on west. On September 6, 1522, the Victoria and only 18 surviving crew members returned to Spain, thus completing the first voyage around the Earth. While Magellan did not complete his voyage around the world, he was very successful in finding a way around South America. Today, the strait at the bottom of South America is called the Strait of Magellan. He also named the Pacific Ocean as no other explorer to that point had ever sailed there. Finally, Magellan's voyage was a key contributor to future maps and journeys into the Pacific Ocean. His voyage provided details that no other explorer had ever provided. He paved the way for future explorers to discover the New World.