Magellan's Westward Voyage: First Global Circumnavigation

Three battered ships sailed out of a narrow, storm-lashed strait and into an ocean so vast and calm that their captain wept. Ferdinand Magellan, having spent 38 days navigating the treacherous passage at the southern tip of South America, emerged into the Pacific on November 28, 1520. He named it the Mar Pacífico, the peaceful sea, because after the savage straits behind him, its stillness seemed miraculous. Magellan had departed Spain fourteen months earlier with five ships and roughly 270 men, commissioned by King Charles I to find a westward route to the Spice Islands. The voyage was troubled from the start. Spanish officers resented serving under a Portuguese captain. A mutiny at Port San Julián cost Magellan one ship and nearly his command. He executed the ringleaders and pressed on. When his fleet reached the strait that bears his name, a fourth ship deserted and sailed back to Spain. The passage through the strait was a navigational nightmare: 350 miles of narrow channels, sheer rock walls, violent currents, and freezing rain. Magellan threaded his three remaining ships through while Fuegian natives lit bonfires on the southern shore, giving Tierra del Fuego its name. No European had ever navigated this passage, and the accomplishment required extraordinary seamanship and nerve. The Pacific crossing was far worse. Magellan underestimated the ocean's width by a factor of four. His crew sailed for 99 days without resupply, eating sawdust, leather strips, and rats sold for half a ducat each. Nineteen men died of scurvy. Magellan was killed in a skirmish in the Philippines in April 1521. Only one ship, the Victoria, completed the circumnavigation, arriving in Spain in September 1522 with 18 survivors. The voyage proved the Earth was round and far larger than anyone had imagined.