Friday 6 February 2015

Circumnavigation of the Globe

Ferdinand Magellan was another great Portuguese explorer. He was born in 1480 in the North of Portugal but he served the Spanish King, King Charles. Magellan is famous for being  the first person to circumnavigate the world although in truth he did not complete the journey. Magellan set sail on the tenth of August in 1519 with five ships and a crew of about 270 men. The reason we know such specific details about Magellan's voyage is because a crewman of his Antonio Pigafetta kept a journal of the entire journey. They reached South America with all ships intact but soon a mutiny broke out involving three of the ships. Magellan acted quickly killing two of the captains and marooning another. Another one of his ships was hit by a sudden storm and sunk, and so Magellan continued on with four ships. While travelling through what is no known as the Magellan straits at the bottom of South America another ship was lost, this time to desertification. Magellan reached the Philippines and decided to help rid an ally King of his of his enemy. Magellan went with a small force to attack the indigenous tribe. The numbers were heavily against them. Pigafetta's diary suggesting sixty against 1500. This was when Magellan would die. he was targeted as a leader and when the locals saw that they had injured him using a bamboo spear they rushed towards him to kill him. The crew now numbered just 115 and were forced to abandon a ship. On the sixth of September the crew arrived in Spain led by Sebastian Del Cano. This is how the first circumnavigation of the world occurred. 

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