K. Shadle

Around the World with Magellan

So how long could some of these voyages last?

What kinds of things would the sailors eat that would last 4-6 months?List ideas here:

Antonio Pigafetta (a sailor with Magellen)

The crew on Magellan’s voyage went through terrible hardships (hard times). They came close to starvation and only survived by drinking foul (bad) water, eating sawdust, leather and rotting biscuits.

In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan set sail for India by going west (like Columbus)

He was Portuguese but sailed for Spain. He convinced the King of Spain that he could claim the lands ‘given’ to Spain through the Treaty of Tordesillas

His 5 boats and 240 men sailed along the east coast of Brazil looking for a strait to the Pacific Ocean. No one has sailed the southern tip of South America before

What did he find at the very southern tip of South America?

When he got to the ocean on the other side, he called it the Pacific

He wanted to get to the “Spice Islands” just like Columbus. Once he was around South America, he thought it would only take a few days to get to cross the Pacific.

“We were three months and twenty days without getting any kind of fresh food. We ate biscuit, which was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuit swarming with worms…It stank strongly of urine of rats.”

It took them almost 4 MORE months

When they reached the Philippines, Magellan was killed in a fight with the native peoples.

His crew sailed on, found the “Spice Islands”, crossed the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and returned to Spain.

Magellan’s voyage was the first to go all the way around the world. However, only 1 ship and 18 sailors returned home alive.