What I’m Blogging

It was on this day in 1519 that Ferdinand Magellan set out with his armada of five ships and 237 men on what became the first known voyage around the globe. Magellan was out to claim the Spice Islands for Spain. He had no idea how far he’d have to travel. The best-known map at the time placed Japan just a few hundred miles off of Mexico. Magellan’s ships were small, and they were not of the best quality, but they reached South America by winter and began to sail south along the coast. The men began to see strange new animals, including birds that they called “ducks without wings,” now known as penguins.

…Magellan managed to sail past nearly every single island in the South Pacific…

They met a very tall tribe of people who herded llamas, and Magellan nicknamed them “patagones” from the Spanish for “big feet.” And that piece of South America became known as Patagonia.

They almost turned back a dozen times, but they finally saw a narrow passage like the mouth of a river. They followed it to the other side, and they found themselves in a much calmer sea, which Magellan named the Pacific Ocean.

Magellan estimated that they would reach the Spice Islands in a few days. The weather was perfect for sailing, and everyone was hopeful. But days turned into weeks, the weeks into months, and the ships began to run out of food. Somehow, Magellan managed to sail past nearly every single island in the South Pacific, so there was no way to get more food. The men were reduced to eating oxhides and llama skins, and many died of starvation. They finally reached their destination in March, three and a half months after rounding the tip of South America.

Magellan himself died on one of the islands, trying to convert the local people to Christianity by force. Of the five original ships, only one made the entire journey back to Spain, carrying seventeen men, the only survivors of the original 237. As a reward, the captain of that single remaining ship was given a globe with a Latin inscription that said, “Thou first circumnavigated me.”

From the Writer’s Almanac by Garrison Keillor
Available by e-mail daily.

Further nautical reading available at Amazon Canada, US and UK