After learning about Christopher Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492, we were taught that Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the world in a single trip (or
circumnavigated the globe, if you will). Well he didn't. Magellan, a Portuguese captain in the service of Spain, set out on August 10,1519, from Seville with five ships and a crew of 250 men. Things didn't go so well for old Magellan, though. His Three year journey was plagued with terrible weather, maps that weren't up to date, starvation, and violent mutiny. The truth of the matter is only one of Magellan's ships, the
Victoria, arrived back in Seville, with only eighteen of its fifty crew-members alive. One other person who didn't make it was Ferdinand Magellan himself. When his ship landed on Mactan Island in the Philippines, he was met with a less than friendly reception party. Magellan died, face down on the beach, looking like a pincushion from the numerous spears sticking out of his body.
So Now You Know .....
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