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The first trip around the world
Magellan's expedition, completed by Elcano
Ferdinand Magellan led five ships west from Spain but was killed in the Philippines. Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the voyage with one ship and 18 survivors, the first circumnavigation.
The fleet left Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain in September 1519 under the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, who sailed for the Spanish crown seeking a western route to the Spice Islands. It had five ships and about 240 men, though sources differ somewhat on the exact number.
The ships found the strait now named for Magellan at the southern tip of South America in late 1520 and then crossed the Pacific, a far longer ocean than expected, during which crew suffered hunger and scurvy. Magellan was killed in April 1521 in a battle on Mactan in the Philippines.
Command passed through several officers, and Juan Sebastián Elcano brought the ship Victoria home to Spain in September 1522 with 18 men aboard. Some others returned later by other routes. Because the crew crossed the international date line without knowing, they found their calendar was one day behind on arrival. The voyage proved the world could be sailed around, though not all of the original fleet returned.
Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian who sailed on the voyage and survived, wrote the main surviving eyewitness account, and his journal is the source of many details.