Dire straits: the story of Ferdinand
Magellan's fatal voyage of discovery
If all had gone to plan during Ferdinand Magellan’s life-defining expedition,
almost no one would know his name now. As it happened, everything went
disastrously wrong for the Portuguese sea captain, yet he has gone down in
history as the first explorer to circumnavigate the planet, even though he
died in the middle of the journey.
Magellan did, however, become the first European to lead a voyage into the
Pacific Ocean – although future sailors would regularly raise alarmed
eyebrows at the name he bequeathed to it. The expedition he led (or at
least one of the five ships that set out from Spain in 1519) performed the
first known complete loop of the globe.
Although Magellan could never have predicted the extraordinary events that
would follow, perhaps the thought of reputational immortality would have
provided the 41-year-old with a crumb of comfort on 27 April 1521, as he
floundered in the shallows of a beach on the island of Mactan in the
Philippines, mortally injured and weighed down by his armour. He had been
identified as the leader of the invading alien force by the enraged warriors
of island chief Lapu-Lapu, and was about to suffer a pointless and wholly
avoidable death after his ill-advised show of military might spectacularly
backfired.
A voyage from hell: how Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world
changed history
Magellan’s final moments were frenzied and violent. But if he hadn’t made
the fateful decision to lead a small force against a defending army of 1,500
battle-ready men, then perhaps he wouldn’t have been remembered as one
of the greatest explorers of his era.
Who was Ferdinand Magellan?
Born into an aristocratic Portuguese family in 1480, Ferdinand Magellan was
orphaned as a young boy and at the age of 12 he entered the royal court in
Lisbon as a page of Eleanor of Viseu, consort of King John II. Thirteen years
later, he enlisted in the fleet of the Portuguese viceroy to the Indies and
spent seven years learning the ropes of his future career during action-
packed voyages in Asia and Africa.
Magellan was part of the invading force that saw Portugal secure control of
the region’s most important trading routes when it conquered Malacca on
the Malay Peninsula in 1511, and he may have ventured as far east as the
Moluccas (Spice Islands) of modern-day Indonesia. During these
adventures he bought a Malay-speaking man, Enrique de Malacca, to be his
slave, interpreter and companion – and he remained so on all Magellan’s
later voyages.
A painting of a mutiny against Magellan
The crew swear their allegiance to Magellan after an unsuccessful mutiny. For many of them, it would be a hollow
oath. (Photo by Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images)
By 1512, Magellan was back in Lisbon with a promising-looking career
ahead of him. He soon joined the huge expeditionary force of 500 ships and
15,000 soldiers that John II’s successor, King Manuel I, sent to punish the
governor of Morocco for failing to pay his tribute to the Portuguese crown in
1513. It was during a skirmish that he sustained an injury that left him with a
lifelong limp. But he was then accused of illegal trading with the Moors,
which saw him fall from favour.
A dedicated student of maps and charts, consumed with an urge to explore,
Magellan had hatched a plan to pioneer a westward route to the Spice
Islands, avoiding the perilous route around the Cape of Good Hope.
However, the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas and the expeditions and
achievements of explorers such as Vasco da Gama had already granted
Portugal full control of the eastwards route around southern Africa, and
Manuel was disinterested in Magellan’s ideas.
This snub left the ambitious and capable captain dangerously disaffected –
a blessing for the Spanish, who were desperately seeking an alternative way
of accessing the riches of India and the Far East. In 1517, Magellan
decamped to Seville in Spain, where he quickly married the daughter of
another Portuguese exile, had two children and began bending the ear of
Charles I about a western route to the Spice Islands.
The 18-year-old Spanish king – grandson of King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella, who had commissioned the adventures of Columbus – was
desperate to make his mark and smash the dominance his Iberian rivals had
over the enormously lucrative spice trade. He seized the potential
opportunity to bypass Africa, while avoiding breaking the terms of the treaty
with the powerful Portuguese, and commissioned Magellan to undertake
the expeditionary mission he had been itching to pursue.
Of course, Magellan wasn’t the first European explorer to sail west in search
of a backdoor route to the treasures of the Orient. Columbus had ventured
that way across the Atlantic looking for the East Indies in 1492, before
bumping into the Bahamas instead, while John Cabot (aka Giovanni
Caboto), a Venetian captain commissioned by Henry VII of England, had
sailed from Bristol to Newfoundland in 1497.
Ptolemy's maps: the father of modern Geography
Unlike Columbus – who made a further three journeys across the western
ocean, but died in denial that he was actually exploring a totally new
continent – the Spanish soon realised this was a different land mass (the
Americas). While this revelation would ultimately return riches beyond their
wildest dreams in terms of gold, Magellan’s focus was on how to get past
this ‘New World’ in order to reach the Spice Islands beyond.
No European had sailed around Cape Horn – or indeed even laid eyes on it –
but a Spanish adventurer named Vasco Núñez de Balboa had discovered
the ocean beyond the New World in 1513, by traversing the Isthmus of
Panama. Magellan, a visionary who was working with the most advanced
cartographers and cosmographers of the era, was convinced there was a
way of getting around the Americas.
Westward ho
In September 1519, Magellan led five vessels, manned by a multinational,
270-strong crew, into the Atlantic – his flagship the Trinidad, plus the
Santiago, San Antonio, Concepción and Victoria. Word of his mission
reached Manuel I, who jealously dispatched a Portuguese naval detachment
to follow the expedition, but Magellan outran them.
But he couldn’t escape all his enemies so easily, especially as some were
among his own men. Many of the Spanish sailors in the expeditionary party
were suspicious of their Portuguese commander. Some of his crew were
criminals released from prison in return for undertaking the dangerous
voyage. Others joined just because they were avoiding creditors.
Many of the Spanish sailors were suspicious of
their commander
The fleet was hit by a storm, which caused a delay and resulted in food
rationing. Here, Juan de Cartagena – who had been appointed captain of
the largest ship, the San Antonio, because of his good connections, despite
being green in the business of exploration and an inexperienced seaman –
began openly criticising Magellan’s competence and refusing to salute his
captain-general. Magellan had Cartagena arrested, relieved of his
command and imprisoned in the brig of the Victoria until they reached
South America. The incident was a precursor to the much more dramatic
and bloody events to come.
In December, the expedition reached South America and made landfall in
Rio de Janeiro. For two weeks they interacted with indigenous people,
trading trinkets for food and sexual favours, before the fleet sailed south,
scouring the coastline in search of an opening. They spent fruitless weeks
exploring the estuary of Río de la Plata for this elusive passage, before
freezing conditions forced the party to seek shelter for the winter in Port St
Julian in Patagonia.
Timeline: Ferdinand Magellan's voyage
Ten landmark moments in Magellan’s voyage into the unknown, as
plotted out on a 1544 copy of the Agnese Atlas, produced by the Italian
mapmaker Battista Agnese
20 September 1519: The fleet sets sail
Magellan’s fleet of five ships with a crew of 270 leave Sanlúcar de
Barrameda in south-west Spain. Supported by the Habsburg emperor
Charles V, the voyage is funded by German banking money. The crew is
drawn from across Europe and even Africa, and equipped for a voyage of
two years.
26 September 1519: A supply crisis
The fleet reaches the Canary Islands, but is already dogged with problems.
Magellan realises he has been swindled out of supplies before departure.
He also has to outrun Portuguese ships trying to arrest him as a traitor in
the pay of Spain.
December 1519: Tensions rise
The fleet successfully crosses the Atlantic and arrives in Rio de Janeiro Bay.
Tensions are already running high between the Portuguese commander and
the Spanish nobles on the voyage, who continue to question his authority.
Sailing down the coast of Patagonia they meet ‘giants’, one of whom is taken
onboard.
October 1520: Mutineers strike
After a gruelling journey south, putting down a mutiny and wrecking a ship,
Magellan discovers ‘Magellan’s Strait’, a route through the southern tip of
South America to the Pacific. Navigating his way takes over a month
through unknown waters in terrible conditions with the loss of another ship.
November 1520: Into the Pacific
Magellan finally emerges into open sea. He names it ‘Mare Pacificum’, or
‘peaceful sea’. He is the first European to sail across the Pacific, though
having underestimated its size by almost half, the next leg of the voyage is
anything but peaceful. Many of the crew die from scurvy.
March 1521: Land at last
After more than three months sailing out of sight of land, the ravaged crew
land in Guam, Micronesia. Attempting to trade with locals, Magellan and his
crew accuse them of theft, naming the islands ‘Ladrones’: the ‘Islands of
Thieves’.
27 April 1521: Magellan is slain
Magellan becomes embroiled in conflicts between rival chieftains and
attempts to assert his authority by attacking the ruler of Mactan in the
Philippine archipelago. Magellan and many of the crew are killed on the
beach. His body is never recovered.
November 1521: A new commander
The Spanish captain Juan Sebastián Elcano takes command and finally
reaches Tidor in the Moluccas Islands. Exploiting local hostility towards the
Portuguese, he loads the two remaining ships with a large consignment of
spices whose profit recoups nearly twice the voyage’s initial investment.
December 1521: Elcano heads home
Elcano makes the decision to send one ship back via the Pacific, but it is
caught by patrolling Portuguese vessels. The crew are arrested, and the
ship lost at sea. Elcano’s remaining ship heads back to Spain via the Indian
Ocean and Cape of Good Hope.
6 September 1522: The odyssey ends
Elcano arrives back in Sanlúcar, nearly three years after the fleet’s
departure. Only 18 of the original crew of 270 survive, including the
Venetian chronicler Antonio Pigafetta, whose book remains the key
eyewitness account of the voyage. News of the voyage spreads throughout
Europe and causes a diplomatic conflict over the Moluccas between Spain
and Portugal.
Morale was already plummeting when, in April 1520, Cartagena made his
move. He escaped Victoria, reboarded the San Antonio, and begun
fermenting trouble and securing support from the Spanish crew and
officers, playing on bad blood about Magellan’s Portuguese nationality.
In the mutiny that followed, the San Antonio was declared independent of
Magellan’s command. The captains of the Concepción and the Victoria
(Gaspar de Quesada and Luiz Mendoza) joined them, as did the Victoria’s
pilot Juan Sebastián Elcano, and many of the officers and crew. A letter was
sent to Magellan on the Trinidad, demanding he acknowledge that the fleet
was no longer under his command.
Magellan sent his reply in the hands of an assassin
Magellan coolly sent his reply back in the hands of an assassin. After
coming alongside the Victoria in a small boat, while pretending to hand over
the letter to Mendoza, the man fatally stabbed the errant captain instead.
Simultaneously, crew loyal to Magellan stormed aboard the ship and
attacked the mutineers, who were overcome.
The rebels maintained control of the San Antonio and Concepción, with
Cartagena having boarded the latter prior to the fighting breaking out.
Magellan positioned the three ships he had at his disposal across the mouth
of the bay, and prepared for combat.
During the night, heavy winds caused San Antonio to drag its anchor and
drift towards the Trinidad. Magellan met the oncoming ship with a cannon
broadside, causing the mutineers aboard the stricken carrack to surrender.
Conceding defeat, Cartagena followed suit and gave up the Concepción
without resistance the following morning.
Having quelled the revolt, Magellan immediately sentenced 30 men to
death, but then (mindful of his threadbare resources) commuted their
punishment to hard labour. The leaders of the mutiny weren’t so lucky.
Quesada was beheaded for treason, and both his body and that of
Mendoza’s were mutilated and put on sticks. Too fearful of Cartagena’s
connections to order him executed, Magellan instead left him marooned
with Padre Sánchez de la Reina, a priest who’d supported the mutineers.
They were never heard of again.
The real deal
The scientific and cartographic legacy of Magellan’s expedition was huge.
To plan his expedition, the explorer partnered with cosmographer Rui
Faleiro, a pioneer in determining latitude and longitude, and Portuguese
cartographers Jorge Reinel and Diogo Ribeiro, who developed maps for the
journey. Yet no one could have prepared Magellan for the crushing
magnitude of the previously unexplored Pacific Ocean, which the men
thought they would cross in a few days. Instead it took them more than
three months, meaning they were woefully undersupplied and suffered
terribly with scurvy. Ribeiro used data from Magellan’s expedition to make
improvements and updates to the first scientific world map, the Padrón
Real.
Back on course
In July, Magellan dispatched the Santiago to scout ahead for the elusive
passage. She discovered the Rio de Santa Cruz in what is now Argentina,
but sank in a storm while trying to make the return journey. Remarkably, the
crew survived, and two men trekked overland for 11 days to alert Magellan,
who mounted a rescue mission.
In October, the entire fleet set off, and Magellan at last sighted the strait
that now bears his name, a route between the tip of mainland South
America and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. However, conditions
continued to be rough, and when the fleet split to explore either side of an
island, the crew of the San Antonio forced their captain to desert and return
to Spain (where they spread scurrilous rumours about Magellan’s brutality
to avoid punishment).
While the main fleet waited in vain for the San Antonio, Gonzalo de Espinosa
led an advance party along the strait, returning after six days with news that
made Magellan weep with joy: they’d sighted open ocean. On 28 November,
the expedition emerged into an ocean that seemed so relatively benign on
the day, Magellan named it Mar Pacifico, or Peaceful Sea.
The true nature and enormity of the Pacific was soon revealed to the
explorer, however. !e fleet left the coast of Chile to sail across the new-
found ocean, a journey Magellan expected to last four days, but which took
almost four months. The fleet was woefully underprepared and the sailors
savaged by scurvy and thirst, many dying.
Mutiny at sea: the forgotten story of murder and brutality aboard
HMS Wager
Magellan crossed the equator in February 1521 and reached the Pacific
island of Guam in March, where the fleet replenished its exhausted supplies.
Not long afterwards they finally arrived at the Philippine archipelago. This,
though, was just the beginning of Magellan’s real troubles; his erstwhile
planning and leadership came dramatically undone when he needlessly
embroiled himself in a dispute between two local chiefs.
In the Philippines, Magellan communicated with local rajahs through his
Malay slave, Enrique. At the evangelical explorer’s behest, a number of
island chiefs – including Cebu’s Rajah Humabon – converted to Christianity.
In return for his soul, however, Humabon sought Magellan’s support in a
disagreement with a neighbour, Lapu- Lapu, a chief on Mactan Island, who
had already irked the explorer by declining to convert or bow to the Spanish
crown.
On 27 April 1521, 60 heavily armed Europeans accompanied a fleet of
Filipino boats to Mactan, where Lapu- Lapu again refused to recognise the
authority of Humabon or the Spanish. Facing 1,500 warriors, Magellan –
confident in the shock-and-awe capability of his superior weaponry, which
included guns, crossbows, swords and axes – instructed Humabon to hang
back, while he waded ashore with an attack party of 49 men.
They torched several houses in an attempt to scare the islanders, but this
only served to whip Lapu-Lapu’s warriors into a battle rage. In the resulting
beachfront mêlée, where the Europeans were weighed down by their
armour, Magellan was identified and injured by a bamboo spear thrust.
Felled, he was then surrounded and killed, along with several others. With
their captain dead, the survivors retreated to the boats.
After the battle, when the Europeans refused to release Enrique (despite
Magellan’s orders to do so in the event of his death), Humabon turned
against the Spanish. Several were poisoned during a feast, including Duarte
Barbosa and João Serrão, who had assumed leadership of the expedition
following the demise of Magellan.
Rounding the circle
João Carvalho took command of the fleet and ordered an immediate
departure. By this time, however, too few men remained to crew the three
ships. The Concepción was burnt, and the two remaining vessels made for
Brunei, indulging in a spot of piracy en route, and attacking a junk bound for
China. Espinosa then replaced Carvalho as leader, as well as being captain
of the Trinidad, while Elcano was made the captain of the Victoria.
In November, the expedition finally reached the Spice Islands and managed
to trade with the Sultan of Tidore. Loaded with cloves, they attempted to
return home by sailing west across the Indian Ocean – which had never
been Magellan’s intention – until the Trinidad started leaking. The wounded
ship stopped for repairs, and eventually tried to return via the Pacific, but
was captured by the Portuguese and subsequently sank.
Meanwhile, under the captaincy of Elcano, the Victoria continued across the
Indian Ocean, eventually limping around the Cape of Good Hope in May.
Tragically, 20 men starved on the last leg along the Atlantic coast of Africa,
and another 13 were abandoned on Cape Verde – Elcano had put into port
to resupply, but the Portuguese there caught on that they were part of a
Spanish expedition; fearing for his cargo, Elcano fled.
On 6 September 1522, after three years’ absence, Victoria arrived in Spain,
becoming the first ship to have sailed around the planet. Only 18 of
Magellan’s original 270-man crew arrived with her. Though ultimately
successful in finding a western passage that opened up the Pacific and the
west coast of the Americas, the Strait of Magellan proved too far south to
be a viable trade route to the Orient, which intensified the search for the
elusive Northwest Passage from the mid-16th century.
Although Magellan didn’t make it home, he did complete a full
circumnavigation of the globe (Philippines to Philippines, albeit in two
chunks separated by several years), a feat probably matched by his
Malaysian slave Enrique. But the first European to definitively do so in a
single voyage was the man who captained Victoria on her final leg – the
mutineer Elcano.
Drake's fortune
The next European to complete a circumnavigation of the globe was the
English sea captain and privateer Francis Drake. During his second
expedition (1577–1580), Drake also sailed west, returning into Plymouth
with the Golden Hind on 26 September 1580, laden with spices and Spanish
bounty, winning himself a knighthood.
Read next: The (tall?) tales of Sir John Mandeville, the medieval
knight whose travels more him more popular than Marco Polo
Pat Kinsella specialises in adventure journalism as a writer,
photographer and editor
This article was first published in the September 2019 issue of BBC
History Revealed
