Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was a member of the lower nobility and grew up in the Portuguese court. Like Columbus before him, Magellan believed he could get to the Spice Islands by sailing west. Also like Columbus, his great journey was to contain terrible disasters.
He drew up a plan to travel west in several ships to find a passage to the lucrative islands and King Charles of Spain approved Magellan's plan after it was refused by his own monarch and granted him generous funds. With money from the king, the explorer was able to obtain five ships called the Trinidad, the San Antonio, the Concepcion, the Victoria, and the Santiago and set out in 1519.
After a brief stop at the Canary Islands, Magellan's five ships and 270 men set sail for Brazil on a southwest course. After stocking up on fresh food and water, the fleet made its way down the east coast of South America looking for a passage to the Pacific Ocean. The farther south they sailed, the colder the weather, until it became so appalling, the fleet decided to spend the winter in Patagonia, rather than risk shipwreck.
During the cold summer months, Magellan sent the Santiago on a reconnaissance mission down the coast to look for a passage to the other side of the continent. Unfortunately the ship was wrecked in rough seas. In the latter half of August, Magellan decided it was time to move the remaining four ships south to look for a passage. Finally in October, the fleet sighted a strait and started through it. Magellan named it the strait of All Saints, but it later was renamed the Magellan Strait.
The strait was a complex and uncharted passage which it took the fleet 38 days to pass through. The land on either side they named Tierra del Fuego - land of fire – because during night watches the crew saw countless fires from distant Indian camps. At some point during the journey through the strait, the captain of the San Antonio sailed his ship back toward Spain, taking with him most of the fleet's provisions, this was a severe blow as the men on the remaining ships now had to spend part of each day hunting game and fish to keep from starving.
During the last week of November the three ships emerged from the strait to the open sea of the Pacific. Magellan mistakenly thought the Spice Islands were a short voyage away and expected to cross the Pacific in two to three days. In the end, the voyage took four months.
Conditions aboard the ships by now were beyond imagination. The crew began to starve as food stores ran out and the barrels of fresh water turned putrid. They survived by eating sawdust, leather strips from the sails, and rats, and because they had no fresh fruits and vegetables, the men also came down with scurvy.
Finally the depleted fleet reached Guam and took on board food including fresh fruit, vegetables, and water. They sailed on to the Philippines, where, after befriending an island king, Magellan got involved in the natives' tribal warfare and was killed in the Battle of Mactan which was fought against the warriors of a chieftain called Lapu Lapu of Mactan Island on April 27, 1521.
Other Great Explorers
tenzing, Vancouver, Almagro, Alvarado, Balboa, burton, clark, drake, eriksson, grant, heyerdahl, hillary, humboldt, ingstad, james cook, livingstone, magellan, Piccard, Raleigh, Scott, Shackleton