Where in the World... Was Ferdinand Magellan? by Stephanie Allen
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Where in the world... was Ferdinand Magellan? by Stephanie Allen erdinand de Magellan was 22 years old Although Magellan had renounced his Por- when Columbus sailed across the Atlantic tuguese nationality, many of his Spanish crew Ocean. The exploration of the Americas still did not trust him, especially some of the must have had some impact on the young man. ships’ captains. Some of the men were already FLater in life, he would pick up where Columbus disappointed that the Rio de la Plata proved un- had failed, in search of a western passage to the successful. Three of the captains attempted a Spice Islands. mutiny. Because so many of the sailors respect- The spice trade could produce great wealth ed Magellan, the mutiny failed. Magellan could for the Spanish Empire. The Portuguese already have ordered the death of all the mutinous men, controlled the shortest trade route around Africa, but instead left some of them on the uninhabited so the Spanish would need to find another way coast as he sailed on to find Asia. to the East Indies. (Although Magellan was Por- Magellan hoped to resume sailing in August. tuguese, he sailed under the Spanish crown.) One ship he had sent on a scouting expedition Magellan believed he could find a western was wrecked in a storm, so he decided to wait a passage through the Americas to get to Asia. few weeks longer for better weather. Should he succeed, it would mean great riches On 1 November 1520, the fleet finally found for all involved. Astronomer Ruy Faleiro would the passage it had been seeking. The crew de- help him use the stars to navigate uncharted cided to name it All Saints’ Channel, because waters for his fleet of five ships. they found it on All Saints’ Day. Today the pas- The Spanish had discovered the Rio de la sage is called the Strait of Magellan, and it is Plata (between present-day Argentina and Uru- infamous for its strong currents and frequent guay) in 1516. Some believed that such a wide, storms. deep body of water must be a navigable channel Magellan set two ships to the task of ex- across South America. When Magellan reached ploring the strait. One of the captains deserted the river in 1520, he discovered that the water and sailed his ship back to Spain. The remain- upriver from the Atlantic was fresh, not salty. It ing three ships continued to the South Pacific, could not provide the link to the Pacific Ocean. which Magellan named mar pacifico, “calm sea”. Magellan decided to sail south to continue Compared with the stormy seas of the Atlantic, his search for a passage across the Americas. Magellan thought the waters in this new ocean By this time, winter had begun in the southern would provide smooth sailing. hemisphere. The fleet was forced to spend No European had sailed across the Pacific several months on the Patagonian shores. Ocean before, and the fleet was ill prepared. Many 20 SEA HISTORY 112, AUTUMN 2005 sailors from Magellan’s crew died of disease the ship later sank under Portuguese command. or starvation on the three-month crossing. Victoria, the only remaining vessel from Ma- Finally in March, the ships reached the Phil- gellan’s mighty fleet, carried on sailing across ippine Islands. Here, Magellan tried to form the Indian Ocean towards home. The Victoria relationships with the local tribal leaders. managed to avoid the many Portuguese vessels Because he was a deeply religious man, he that sailed the Indian Ocean. The Spanish ship also tried to teach them his Christian beliefs. successfully rounded the Cape of Good Hope Some of the tribal leaders agreed to pledge their and returned to Spain, almost three years after allegiance to the Christian God. In return, Ma- departing. gellan offered to help them fight against other Victoria and her seventeen surviving sailors, non-Christian tribes. On 27 April 1521, Magellan under the command of Captain Juan Sebas- was killed in one of these inter-tribal battles. tián de Elcano, were the first to circumnavigate Even without their commander, the crew was the world. Among their many discoveries were determined to continue. By this time, there were the distance around the earth—14,460 leagues too few men to sail all three remaining ships. As (69,000km)—and new stars visible only from the their ship Concepcion burned in the water (so Southern Hemisphere, including our two clos- that it could not be used in battle against the est neighboring galaxies. The crew also realized fleet), the two remaining vessels sailed towards that though they had carefully recorded events the Spice Islands. They arrived in November. in the ship’s log, a day was missing! This discov- The captains traded for spices and left the ery led to the creation of the International Date islands heavily laden with their valuable cargo. Line. It is from this log and the journals of Antonio Not long after the fleet’s departure, the crew of Pigafetta, a wealthy tourist who paid to be a part Trinidad, Magellan’s flagship, discovered a seri- of Magellan’s voyage, that we have so many de- ous leak. They were forced to return to the is- tails about the first trip around the world. lands to make the necessary repairs. Finally, the repaired Trinidad and her crew Source: Laurence Bergreen, Over the Edge of the set out to return home to Spain. This time, they World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, HarperCollins Publishers, 2003. were captured at sea by the Portuguese, who had been searching for the fleet since its depar- Stephanie Allen is a graduate student in Maritime Stud- ture. The fifty-five remaining crew members from ies at Eastern Carolina University. She may be reached Trinidad were eventually returned to Europe, but at [email protected] SEA HISTORY 112, AUTUMN 2005 21 What in the world? by Marianne Della Croce Can you guess what this is? a. a stove burner b. a cross used in a ship’s chapel c. a tool for navigation d. a piece of radar equipment his is a copy of a mariner’s Tastrolabe from 1550. The astrolabe is an old “computer” used by seamen to help them figure out where they were at sea. A simple brass ring, it was marked with degrees and helped sailors find their latitude in the ocean. (Remember, lines of latitude run east and west and measure the distance The mariner’s astrolabe was heavy so that it would not blow north or south of the equator. around on a ship in the wind and waves. It was invented by the Lines of longitude run north and Portuguese and was popular during the1400s and 1500s. Those south from pole to pole.) When who sailed at sea would not dare to leave the shore without one. traveling through heavy winds (Magellan’s navigator would have used one like this to map the and high seas, a ship would route around the world.) Nonetheless, the astrolabe was not very stay on course by keeping its accurate. Errors of four to five degrees were common (one degree latitude. The ship would sail to of latitude is sixty miles), making sailors quite lost. Over time, newer a known latitude and then sail and more accurate instruments were invented to achieve the same east or west along that line. purpose. The outer ring of an astrolabe Only after the seagoing chronometer was perfected could is something like a protractor navigators measure longitude and get a “fix,” or position, on a chart. that is used to measure angles. That expensive tool was beyond the means of many navigators A mariner could measure the when it was invented in the mid1700s. angle of the sun at a known The astrolabe shown here is on display at the American Merchant time of day or a star at a known Marine Museum in Kings Point, NY. If you guessed that this is a tool spot in the night sky, perform a for navigation, you found your way to the correct answer! simple mathematical calculation with that angle, and voila ! He Marianne Della Croce is Curator at the American Merchant Marine had his latitude. Museum. She can be reached at 516 773-5515. 22 SEA HISTORY 112, AUTUMN 2005 Who in the world...is a nautical archaeologist? by Stephanie Allen eventy percent of the earth few people can is covered with water. It’s no imagine how a Ssurprise, then, that people have wreck might ap- been traveling by boat for thou- pear after years sands of years. Most vessels beneath the reach their destinations without waves. A ship many problems; some sink to a might look like a watery grave. They lie on the sea pile of boards or floor, waiting to be discovered. be covered with When a boat sinks, it doesn’t plants and tiny necessarily go down in one piece. marine animals. Instead, it may break up, spilling It might be bur- its contents across the seabed. ied completely Nautical archaeologists document shipwrecks using Nautical archaeologists view the under mud or SCUBA equipment and simple tools like a measuring pieces they can find as parts of a sand, to be tape, pencil, and sheets of Mylar taped to a slate. puzzle. Each part tells a story— found only with about the lives of the people who high-tech equipment. Nautical use sign language to commu- built the ship and sailed it, and archaeologists study ships care- nicate on the wreck site, but how the ship was lost.