Learn about Magellan's Voyage 1519 -1522

In 1519 the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sailed in the service of Spain to seek a new route to the Spice Islands of the East Indies. After a three-month voyage across the Atlantic, Magellan’s fleet of five ships made a landfall on the coast of Brazil. Exploring southward, the expedition spent the winter in a sheltered bay on the coast of Patagonia where Magellan suppressed an attempted mutiny and executed the captain of one his ships. The voyage was resumed in the spring but one vessel ran aground and had to be abandoned. Its crews spread among the rest of the fleet. In October, Magellan entered the straits that were later to bear his name. One ship deserted the fleet but the expedition completed the passage and emerged into the Pacific Ocean in November, 1520. Sailing north along the coast and then westward the fleet headed out into the unknown ocean. They cross the equator and made a landfall on Guam, one of the Mariana Islands in March 1521. Reaching the Philippines in April, Magellan and 40 of his men were killed when they became involved in a local war. The remaining crewman abandoned one vessel and spent the next several months raiding passing ships. In September, Juan Sebastian del Cano assumed command of the voyage and the two remaining vessels the Trinidad and the Victoria sailed to the Moluccas islands to trade fro spices. The heavily leaden Trinidad ran aground and was left behind to make repairs. But the crew were later captured by the Portuguese and imprisoned. The lone Victoria continued the journey westward. The Cape of Good Hope was rounded in May 1522 and the ship returned to Spain the following September. The original crew of 270 men were now reduced to just 17 Europeans and four East Indians. In the three year voyage began by Magellan and completed by Del Cano, the expedition has discovered a new route to the Pacific and had completed the first circumnavigation of the globe.