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Ferdinand Magellan was a sea explorer from Portugal. He is famous because during the time that he was in the service of the Spanish royal family, he became the first person to sail a ship across the Pacific Ocean. In fact, his expedition was the first one to sail around the Earth. Unfortunately, Magellan did not quite make it around the Earth, since he had died in a battle in the Philippines not long before his crew finished their journey. Despite his untimely death, we still consider Ferdinand Magellan as the first man in history to sail around the planet.

Magellan's History

Magellan was the son of a prominent Portuguese family, and because of his association went to work in the Queen's home. When he was 25, Magellan was sent to India with a Portuguese diplomat. This was Magellan's first sea journey, and it clearly made an impression. While in India, Magellan was involved in a battle and when he went home, because of some mistakes, he was asked to leave the service of the Queen of Portugal.

Soon after, Magellan was offered a job as a sailor on a Portuguese ship, but he had other plans. He knew about Christopher Columbus' plan to find a new way to get to the East Indies and Magellan wanted to be a part of making history. He created a plan for how he would help Portugal's King Manuel I have access to the Spice Islands. King Manuel I rejected Magellan's plan. Magellan did not give up. He traveled to Spain to present his plan to the royal family there. Soon he stood in front of King Charles V of Spain, presenting his plan.

Spain, having had success with Christopher Columbus, decided to pay for Magellan's expedition. Magellan immediately began to prepare for his journey.

The Journey

In early August of 1519, Magellan left Seville, Spain with his crew. King Charles had made Magellan an admiral, which is a very senior officer on the sea. Magellan had five ships under his command: Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria and Santiago. He also had a total crew of 237 men on the five ships. Magellan and his five ships and crew left Seville, sailed down a river and, after stopping for five weeks to load up more supplies, sailed away from Spain on their historic journey.

Magellan's journey almost ended right away, when King Manuel of Portugal sent ships to stop him, but he was able to get away. Their first stops were at the Canary Islands and then Cape Verde. Next, Magellan's ships set sail across the Atlantic Ocean, heading for Brazil. On November 27 of that year,

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