Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( , ; , ; c . 1480 – 27 April 1521 ) was a Portuguese explorer who became known for having organised the expedition that resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano . He was born in a still disputed location in northern Portugal , and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the " Spice Islands " ( modern Maluku Islands in Indonesia ) . Magellan ' s expedition of 1519 – 1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean ( then named " peaceful sea " by Magellan ; the passage being made via the Strait of Magellan ) , and the first to cross the Pacific . His expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth . Magellan did not complete the entire voyage , as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines . ( For background see Exploration of the Pacific . ) The Magellanic Penguin was named for him , as he was the first European to note it ; other memorials are the Magellanic clouds , now known to be nearby dwarf galaxies ; the twin lunar craters of Magelhaens and Magelhaens A ; and the Martian crater of Magelhaens . Early life and travels . Magellan was born around 1480 either at Vila Nova de Gaia , near Porto , in Douro Litoral Province , or at Sabrosa , near Vila Real , in Trás - os - Montes e Alto Douro Province , in Portugal . He was the son of Rodrigo de Magalhães , alcaide - mór of Aveiro ( 1433 – 1500 ) ( son of Pedro Afonso de Magalhães and wife Quinta de Sousa ) and wife Alda de Mesquita and brother of Leonor or Genebra de Magalhães , wife with issue of João Fernandes Barbosa . After the death of his parents during his tenth year , he became a page to Queen Leonor at the Portuguese royal court because of his family ' s heritage . In March 1505 at the age of 25 , Magellan enlisted in the fleet of 22 ships sent to host D . Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of Portuguese India . Although his name does not appear in the chronicles , it is known that he remained there eight years , in Goa , Cochin and Quilon . He participated in several battles , including the battle of Cannanore in 1506 , where he was wounded . In 1509 he fought in the battle of Diu . He later sailed under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in the first Portuguese embassy to Malacca , with Francisco Serrão , his friend and possibly cousin . In September , after arriving at Malacca , the expedition fell victim to a conspiracy ending in retreat . Magellan had a crucial role , warning Sequeira and saving Francisco Serrão , who had landed . These actions earned him honors and a promotion . In 1511 , under the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque , Magellan and Serrão participated in the conquest of Malacca . After the conquest their ways parted : Magellan was promoted , with a rich plunder and , in the company of a Malay he had indentured and baptized Enrique of Malacca , he returned to Portugal in 1512 . Serrão departed in the first expedition sent to find the " Spice Islands " in the Moluccas , where he remained . He married a woman from Amboina and became a military advisor to the Sultan of Ternate , Bayan Sirrullah . His letters to Magellan would prove decisive , giving information about the spice - producing territories . After taking a leave without permission , Magellan fell out of favour . Serving in Morocco , he was wounded , resulting in a permanent limp . He was accused of trading illegally with the Moors . The accusations were proved false , but he received no further offers of employment after 15 May 1514 . Later on in 1515 , he got an employment offer as a crew member on a Portuguese ship , but rejected this . In 1517 after a quarrel with King Manuel I , who denied his persistent demands to lead an expedition to reach the spice islands from the east ( i . e . , while sailing westwards , seeking to avoid the need to sail around the tip of Africa ) , he left for Spain . In Seville he befriended his countryman Diogo Barbosa and soon married his daughter by his second wife María Caldera Beatriz Barbosa . They had two children : Rodrigo de Magalhães and Carlos de Magalhães , both of whom died at a young age . His wife died in Seville around 1521 . Meanwhile Magellan devoted himself to studying the most recent charts , investigating , in partnership with cosmographer Rui Faleiro , a gateway from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and the possibility of the Moluccas being Spanish according to the demarcation of the Treaty of Tordesillas . Voyage of circumnavigation . Background : Spanish search for a westward route to Asia . Christopher Columbus ' 1492 – 1503 voyages to the West had the goal of reaching the Indies and to establish direct commercial relations between Spain and the Asian kingdoms . The Spanish soon realized that the lands of the Americas were not a part of Asia , but a new continent . The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas reserved for Portugal the eastern routes that went around Africa , and Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese arrived in India in 1498 . Spain urgently needed to find a new commercial route to Asia . After the Junta de Toro conference of 1505 , the Spanish Crown commissioned expeditions to discover a route to the west . Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513 after crossing the Isthmus of Panama , and Juan Díaz de Solís died in Río de la Plata in 1516 while exploring South America in the service of Spain . Funding and preparation . In October 1517 in Seville , Magellan contacted Juan de Aranda , Factor of the " Casa de Contratación " . Following the arrival of his partner Rui Faleiro , and with the support of Aranda , they presented their project to the Spanish king , Charles I , future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V . Magellan ' s project , if successful , would realize Columbus ' plan of a spice route by sailing west without damaging relations with the Portuguese . The idea was in tune with the times and had already been discussed after Balboa ' s discovery of the Pacific . On 22 March 1518 the king named Magellan and Faleiro captains so that they could travel in search of the Spice Islands in July . He raised them to the rank of Commander of the Order of Santiago . The king granted them : The expedition was funded largely by the Spanish Crown , which provided ships carrying supplies for two years of travel . Expert cartographer Jorge Reinel and Diogo Ribeiro , a Portuguese who had started working for Charles V in 1518 as a cartographer at the " Casa de Contratación " , took part in the development of the maps to be used in the travel . Several problems arose during the preparation of the trip , including lack of money , the king of Portugal trying to stop them , Magellan and other Portuguese incurring suspicion from the Spanish , and the difficult nature of Faleiro . Finally , thanks to the tenacity of Magellan , the expedition was ready . Through the bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca they obtained the participation of merchant Christopher de Haro , who provided a quarter of the funds and goods to barter . The fleet . The fleet provided by King Charles V included five ships : the flagship " Trinidad " ( 110 tons , crew 55 ) , under Magellan ' s command ; " San Antonio " ( 120 tons ; crew 60 ) commanded by Juan de Cartagena ; " Concepcion " ( 90 tons , crew 45 ) commanded by Gaspar de Quesada ; " Santiago " ( 75 tons , crew 32 ) commanded by Juan Serrano ; and " Victoria " ( 85 tons , crew 43 ) , commanded by Luis Mendoza . ( The last ship was named after the church of Santa Maria de la Victoria de Triana , where Magellan took an oath of allegiance to Charles V . ) " Trinidad " was a caravel , and all others rated as carrack s ( Spanish " carraca " or " nao " ; Portuguese " nau " ) . The crew . The crew of about 270 included men from several nations : including Portugal , Spain , Italy , Germany , Belgium , Greece , England and France . Spanish authorities were wary of Magellan , so that they almost prevented him from sailing , switching his mostly Portuguese crew to mostly men of Spain . It included about 40 Portuguese , among them Magellan ' s brother - in - law Duarte Barbosa , João Serrão , a relative of Francisco Serrão , Estêvão Gomes and Magellan ' s indentured servant Enrique of Malacca . Faleiro , who had planned to accompany the voyage , withdrew prior to boarding . Juan Sebastián Elcano , a Spanish merchant ship captain settled at Seville , embarked seeking the king ' s pardon for previous misdeeds , and Antonio Pigafetta , a Venetian scholar and traveller , asked to be on the voyage , accepting the title of " supernumerary " and a modest salary . He became a strict assistant of Magellan and kept an accurate journal . The only other sailor to report the voyage would be Francisco Albo , who kept a formal logbook . Juan de Cartageña was named Inspector General of the expedition , responsible for its financial and trading operations . Departure and crossing of the Atlantic . On 10 August 1519 , the five ships under Magellan ' s command left Seville and descended the Guadalquivir River to Sanlúcar de Barrameda , at the mouth of the river . There they remained more than five weeks . Finally they set sail on 20 September . King Manuel I ordered a Portuguese naval detachment to pursue Magellan , but the explorer evaded them . After stopping at the Canary Islands , Magellan arrived at Cape Verde , where he set course for Cape St . Augustine in Brazil . On 27 November the expedition crossed the equator ; on 6 December the crew sighted South America . As Brazil was Portuguese territory , Magellan avoided it and on 13 December anchored near present - day Rio de Janeiro . There the crew was resupplied , but bad conditions caused them to delay . Afterwards , they continued to sail south along South America ' s east coast , looking for the strait that Magellan believed would lead to the Spice Islands . The fleet reached Río de la Plata on 10 January 1520 . For overwintering , Magellan established a temporary settlement called Puerto San Julian on March 30 , 1520 . On Easter ( April 1 and 2 ) , a mutiny broke out involving three of the five ship captains . Magellan took quick and decisive action . Luis de Mendoza , the captain of " Victoria " , was killed by a party sent by Magellan , and the ship was recovered . After " Concepcion ' s " anchor cable had been secretly cut by his forces , the ship drifted towards the well - armed " Trinidad " , and " Concepcion ' s " captain de Quesada and his inner circle surrendered . Juan de Cartagena , the head of the mutineers on the " San Antonio , " subsequently gave up . Antonio Pigafetta reported that Gaspar Quesada , the captain of " Concepcion " , and other mutineers were executed , while Juan de Cartagena , the captain of " San Antonio " , and a priest named Padre Sanchez de la Reina were marooned on the coast . Most of the men , including Juan Sebastián Elcano , were needed and forgiven . Reportedly those killed were drawn and quartered and impaled on the coast ; years later , their bones were found by Sir Francis Drake . A replica of the " Victoria " can be visited in Puerto San Julian . Passage into the Pacific . The journey resumed . The help of Duarte Barbosa was crucial in facing the riot in Puerto San Julian ; Magellan appointed him as captain of the " Victoria " . The " Santiago " was sent down the coast on a scouting expedition and was wrecked in a sudden storm . All of its crew survived and made it safely to shore . Two of them returned overland to inform Magellan of what had happened , and to bring rescue to their comrades . After this experience , Magellan decided to wait for a few weeks more before resuming the voyage . At 52°S latitude on 21 October , the fleet reached Cape Virgenes and concluded they had found the passage , because the waters were brine and deep inland . Four ships began an arduous trip through the long passage that Magellan called the " Estrecho ( Canal ) de Todos los Santos " , ( " All Saints ' Channel " ) , because the fleet travelled through it on 1 November or All Saints ' Day . The strait is now named the Strait of Magellan . He first assigned " Concepcion " and " San Antonio " to explore the strait , but the latter , commanded by Gómez , deserted and returned to Spain on 20 November . On 28 November , the three remaining ships entered the South Pacific . Magellan named the waters the " Mar Pacifico " ( Pacific Ocean ) because of its apparent stillness . Magellan and his crew were the first Europeans to reach Tierra del Fuego just east of the Pacific side of the strait . Death in the Philippines . Heading northwest , the crew reached the equator on 13 February 1521 . On 6 March they reached the Marianas and Guam . Magellan called Guam the " Island of Sails " because they saw a lot of sailboats . They renamed as " Ladrones Island " ( Island of Thieves ) because many of the small boats of " Trinidad " were stolen there . On 17 March Magellan reached the island of Homonhon in the Philippines , with 150 crew left . Members of his expedition became the first Spaniards to reach the Philippine archipelago , but they were not the first Europeans . Magellan relied on Enrique , his Malay servant and interpreter , to communicate with the native tribes . He had been indentured by Magellan in 1511 after the colonization of Malacca , and had accompanied him through later adventures . They traded gifts with Rajah Siaiu of Mazaua who guided them to Cebu on 7 April . Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly towards Magellan and the Spaniards ; both he and his queen Hara Amihan were baptized as Christians . Afterward , Rajah Humabon and his ally Datu Zula convinced Magellan to kill their enemy , Datu Lapu - Lapu , on Mactan . Magellan wanted to convert Lapu - Lapu to Christianity , as he had Humabon , but Lapu - Lapu rejected that . On the morning of 27 April 1521 , Magellan sailed to Mactan with a small attack force . During the resulting battle against Lapu - Lapu ' s troops , Magellan was struck by a bamboo spear , and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons . Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra provided written documents of the events culminating in Magellan ' s death : Magellan provided in his will that Enrique , his interpreter , was to be freed upon his death . But after the battle , the remaining ships ' masters refused to free the Malay . Enrique escaped his indenture on 1 May with the aid of Rajah Humabon , amid the deaths of almost 30 crewmen . Pigafetta had been jotting down words in both Butuanon and Cebuano language s – which he started at Mazaua on 29 March and his list grew to a total of 145 words . He continued communications with indigenous peoples during the rest of the voyage . " Nothing of Magellan ' s body survived , that afternoon the grieving rajah - king , hoping to recover his remains , offered Mactan ' s victorious chief a handsome ransom of copper and iron for them but Datu Lapulapu refused . He intended to keep the body as a war trophy . Since his wife and child died in Seville before any member of the expedition could return to Spain , it seemed that every evidence of Ferdinand Magellan ' s existence had vanished from the earth . " Return . The casualties suffered in the Philippines left the expedition with too few men to sail all three of the remaining ships . Consequently , on 2 May they abandoned and burned " Concepción . " Reduced to " Trinidad " and " Victoria " , the expedition fled westward to Palawan . They left that island on 21 June and were guided to Brunei , Borneo by Moro pilots , who could navigate the shallow seas . They anchored off the Brunei breakwater for 35 days , where Pigafetta , an Italian from Vicenza , recorded the splendour of Rajah Siripada ' s court ( gold , two pearls the size of hens ' eggs , etc . ) . In addition , Brunei boasted tame elephants and an armament of 62 cannons , more than five times the armament of Magellan ' s ships . Brunei people were not interested in the Spanish cargo of clove s , but these proved more valuable than gold upon the return to Spain . Pigafetta noted the refined goods of the court , including porcelain and eyeglasses ( neither of which were yet widely available in Europe ) . When reaching the Maluku Islands ( the Spice Islands ) on 6 November , the total crew numbered 115 . They traded with the Sultan of Tidore , a rival of the Sultan of Ternate , who was the ally of the Portuguese . The two remaining ships , laden with valuable spices , tried to return to Spain by sailing westwards . However , as they left the Spice Islands , the " Trinidad " began to take on water . The crew tried to discover and repair the leak , but failed . They concluded that " Trinidad " would need to spend considerable time being overhauled , but the small " Victoria " was not large enough to accommodate all the surviving crew . As a result , " Victoria " with some of the crew sailed west for Spain . Several weeks later , " Trinidad " departed and tried to return to Spain via the Pacific route . This attempt failed . " Trinidad " was captured by the Portuguese , and was eventually wrecked in a storm while at anchor under Portuguese control . " Victoria " set sail via the Indian Ocean route home on 21 December , commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano . By 6 May the " Victoria " rounded the Cape of Good Hope , with only rice for rations . Twenty crewmen died of starvation before Elcano put into Cape Verde , a Portuguese holding , where he abandoned 13 more crew on 9 July in fear of losing his cargo of 26 tons of spices ( cloves and cinnamon ) . On 6 September 1522 , Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan ' s voyage arrived in Spain aboard the " Victoria " , almost exactly three years after the fleet of five ships had departed . Magellan had not intended to circumnavigate the world , only to find a secure way through which the Spanish ships could navigate to the Spice Islands . After his death , Elcano decided to push westward , thereby completing the first known voyage around the entire Earth . Maximilianus Transylvanus interviewed some of the surviving members of the expedition when they presented themselves to the Spanish court at Valladolid in the autumn of 1522 . He wrote the first account of the voyage , which was published in 1523 . Pigafetta ' s account was not published until 1525 , and was not published in its entirety until 1800 . This was the Italian transcription by Carlo Amoretti of what is now called the " Ambrosiana codex . " The expedition eked out a small profit , but the crew was not paid full wages . Four crewmen of the original 55 on " Trinidad " finally returned to Spain in 1522 ; 51 had died in war or from disease . In total , approximately 232 sailors of assorted nationalities died on the expedition around the world with Magellan . Survivors . When " Victoria " , the one surviving ship , returned to the harbor of departure after completing the first circumnavigation of the Earth , only 18 men out of the original 237 men were on board . Among the survivors were two Italians , Antonio Pigafetta and Martino de Judicibus . Martino de Judicibus ( ) was a Genoese or Savonese Chief Steward . His history is preserved in the nominative registers at the " Archivo General de Indias " in Seville , Spain . The family name is referred to with the exact Latin patronymic , " de Judicibus " . He was initially assigned to the caravel " Concepción " , one of five ships of the Spanish fleet of Magellan . Martino de Judicibus embarked on the expedition with the rank of captain . Aftermath and legacy . Antonio Pigafetta ' s journal is the main source for much of what is known about Magellan and Elcano ' s voyage . The other direct report of the voyage was that of Francisco Albo , last " Victoria " ' s pilot , who kept a formal logbook . Europeans first learned of the circumnavigation through an account written by Maximilianus Transylvanus , a relative of sponsor Christopher de Haro , who interviewed survivors in 1522 and published his account in 1523 . In 1525 , soon after the return of Magellan ' s expedition , Charles V sent an expedition led by García Jofre de Loaísa to occupy the Moluccas , claiming that they were in his zone of the Treaty of Tordesillas . This expedition included the most notable Spanish navigators : Juan Sebastián Elcano , who , along with many other sailors , died of malnutrition during the voyage , and the young Andrés de Urdaneta . They had difficulty reaching the Moluccas , docking at Tidore . The Portuguese were already established in nearby Ternate and the two nations had nearly a decade of skirmishing over the " possession . " ( occupied by indigenous peoples . ) Since there was not a set limit to the east , in 1524 both kingdoms had tried to find the exact location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas , which would divide the world into two equal hemispheres and to resolve the " Moluccas issue " . A board met several times without reaching an agreement : the knowledge at that time was insufficient for an accurate calculation of longitude , and each gave the islands to their sovereign . An agreement was reached only with the Treaty of Zaragoza , signed on 1529 between Spain and Portugal . It assigned the Moluccas to Portugal and the Philippines to Spain . The course that Magellan charted was followed by other navigators , such as Sir Francis Drake . In 1565 , Andrés de Urdaneta discovered the Manila - Acapulco route . Magellan ' s expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe and the first to navigate the strait in South America connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans . Magellan ' s name for the Pacific was adopted by other Europeans . Magellan ' s crew observed several animals that were entirely new to European science , including a " camel without humps " , which was probably a guanaco , whose range extends to Tierra del Fuego . The llama , vicuña and alpaca natural ranges were in the Andes mountains . A black " goose " that had to be skinned instead of plucked was a penguin . The full extent of the Earth was realized , since their voyage was 14 , 460 Spanish leagues ( 60 , 440 km or 37 , 560 mi ) . The expedition showed the need for an International Date Line to be established . Upon returning the expedition found its date was a day behind , although they had faithfully maintained the ship ' s log . They lost one day because they traveled west during their circumnavigation of the globe , opposite to Earth ' s daily rotation . This caused great excitement at the time , and a special delegation was sent to the Pope to explain the oddity to him . Two of the closest galaxies , the Magellanic Clouds in the southern celestial hemisphere , were named for Magellan sometime after 1800 . The Magellan probe , which mapped the planet Venus from 1990 to 1994 , was named after Magellan . The Ferdinand Magellan train rail car ( also known as U . S . Car . No . 1 ) is a former Pullman Company observation car that was re - built by the U . S . Government for presidential use from 1943 until 1958 . Also a starship of the TV series " Andromeda " was named Pax Magellanic , in reference of the Magellanic Clouds . Three craters , two located on the Moon and one on Mars , have been named after Magellan using the spelling " Magelhaens " . The names were adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1935 ( Magelhaens on the Moon ) , 1976 ( Magelhaens on Mars ) , and 2006 ( Magelhaens A on the Moon ) . , various initiatives are being planned to celebrate the fifth centenary of the first circumnavigation of the Earth . Seville and Sanlucar de Barrameda are planning a three - year program of events from 2019 - 2022 .