Ferdinand Magellan – the great explorer

Hello my dear Steem friends, today I will write about Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese sailor and explorer. He was the first man to sail the world.

EARLY LIFE

Magellan was born around 1480 and was from a noble family. His first trips took place around age of 25 when he sailed around Africa towards India. Before him, around 1487, Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India and he was the first man to do it and for this reason, the Portuguese have opened many commercial colonies in India.

Vasco da Gama

Route of Vasco da Gama

Magellan showed himself as an excellent leader and captain on his first voyages and so he became the captain of his own ship in 1510. Shortly afterwards, he didn't obey some orders from the Portuguese leaders so he was dismissed and returned to Portugal.

After that, Magellan spent some time in Marocco fighting with the Portuguese army against the natives. After he returned to Lisbon, Magellan was thinking about how to come back to the ship and travel. Knowning that the Portuguese goverment no longer wants him in Portuguese fleet he decides to contact the Spanish king Charles V. and urges him to give him his fleet managment.

Charles V.

TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD

Magellan moved on the expedition on September 20, 1519. His fleet consisted of five ships, of which the „San Antonio“ was the biggest one and the „Santiago“ was the smallest. Other ships carried names: „Trininad“, „Concepcion“ and „Victoria“.

Magellan ships

The fleet first moved towards Brasil and came to the bay where today's town Rio de Janeiro is located. From there Magellan moved along the south American coast to the river La Plata which he tought was a passage in the Pacific. After that event, the whole morale of his crew broke down. Even the rebellion against Magellan was suffocated, even one of the captains was killed.

After all these events, Magellan decided to go over winter in Argentina and after winter he decided to continue to seek a pass to Pacific. During the winter only ship „Santiago“ was exploring and it got sunk in shipwreck afterwards. Besides that ship, the biggest ship „San Antonio“ also left Magellan's crew and returned to Spain. Finally, in October 1520, Magellan with his three ships managed to find the passage and enter the Pacific.

Magellan's passage

The journey through the Pacific lasted for five months. They first came to the Island of Thieves, so they called it because natives had stolen everything from their ships.

After that, they came to islands on the Filipinos where the crew was anchored and had some time. Against Magellan and the crew rebelled the leader of the natives. On April 27, 1521, Magellan began to suffocate the rebellion that had successfully been extinguished but Magellan was killed. He was hit by a poisonous arrow and after that his crew started to run home.

Although Magellan died , his crew returned to Spain on September 6, 1522. And his dream of travelling around the world was fulfilled.

More than 250 people started the travel and only 17 returned.

Magellan is one of the greatest explorers in history and certainly one of the most important people in the new age. Also the passage in the south of the South America was named after Magellan.

Thank you for reading, I hope you like the post! 😃