The
Magellan-Elcano expedition (1519 - 1522), which completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth, started with 5 ships (
Trinidad,
San Antonio,
Concepción,
Victoria and
Santiago) along with 234 crewmen (some sources raise the number of sailors to 247.) Having sailed under extreme conditions, only 21 people arrived in Seville, the 18 Europeans and 3
Moluccans. To complete the round-the-world voyage, they had to sail After three years of rough passages, most of the sailors had died. A few made it back alive, but 147 men lost their lives, three-fifths of those who had set sail from Seville. This figure is a reflection of the number of unforeseen events, difficulties and vicissitudes they encountered during the voyage. Fifty-five of those who sailed on the return voyage were deserters coming from South America on the first part of the voyage aboard the
San Antonio. They had not circumnavigated the world because they decided to retreat to the
Strait of Magellan. Others who returned would spend some time in
Asia or
Cape Verde, although they later managed to get to Europe; thus they also could claim, once they disembarked in Spain, that they had sailed around the world. In other words, in addition to the 17 sailors who arrived in Seville along with Elcano, more sailors would sail around the world, albeit later, and not in the same vessels. In addition to Elcano, the expedition included 34 other Basques,
Spice Islands , a replica of Elcano's ship, in
Punta Arenas in southern
Chile. Elcano participated in a fierce mutiny against Ferdinand Magellan before the convoy discovered the
Strait of Magellan, the passage between mainland South America and
Tierra del Fuego. His life was spared by Magellan and after five months of hard labour in chains he was made captain of the
carrack.
Santiago was later destroyed in a storm. The fleet sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the eastern coast of
Brazil and into what is now
Puerto San Julián in
Argentina. Several months later they discovered a passage now known as the
Strait of Magellan located in the southern tip of
South America and sailed through the strait. The crew of
San Antonio mutinied and returned to Spain. On 28 November 1520, three ships set sail for the
Pacific Ocean and about 19 men died before they reached
Guam on 6 March 1521. Conflicts with the nearby island of Rota prevented Magellan and Elcano from resupplying their ships with food and water. They eventually gathered enough supplies and continued their journey to the Philippines and remained there for several weeks. Close relationships developed between the islanders and the Spaniards, who began to evangelize and convert the Cebuano tribes to Christianity; they also became involved in tribal warfare between rival Filipino groups on
Mactan Island. in the Philippines, where
Magellan was killed in 1521. On 27 April 1521, Magellan was killed and the Spaniards defeated by natives in the
Battle of Mactan in the Philippines. The surviving members of the expedition could not decide who should succeed Magellan. The men finally chose a joint command with the leadership divided between
Duarte Barbosa and
João Serrão. Within four days these two were also dead, killed after being betrayed by the host at a feast given by Rajah Humabon. The mission was now teetering on the edge of disaster, and João Lopes de Carvalho took command of the fleet, leading it on a meandering journey through the Philippine archipelago. During the six-month listless journey after Magellan died, and before reaching the
Moluccas, Elcano's stature grew as the men became disillusioned with the weak leadership of Carvalho. The two ships,
Victoria and
Trinidad, finally reached their destination, the
Moluccas, on 6 November. The men rested and reprovisioned the ships in this haven, then filled their holds with the precious cargo of
cloves and
nutmeg. On 18 December, the ships were ready to leave, but
Trinidad sprang a leak, and could not be repaired. Carvalho stayed with the ship along with 52 others hoping to return later.
Victoria, commanded by Elcano along with 17 other European survivors of the 240-man expedition and 4 survivors out of 13 of the Timorese men, continued its westward voyage to Spain traversing the
Indian and
Atlantic Oceans. They reached
Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522.
Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian scholar, was a crew member of the Magellan and Elcano expedition, and later wrote several documents concerning its events. According to Pigafetta the voyage covered 14,460 leagues – about .
Elcano under Magellan's leadership Ferdinand Magellan was the expedition leader, its
captain-general (
capitán-general). Being Portuguese, he had traveled in his youth through
South Asia with the
Portuguese army, getting to know those islands, finding safe harbors and places to stay and establishing his mastery of the maritime routes for trade. As a result of those experiences, Magellan knew the exact location of the
Moluccas islands, then called the "Spice Islands", or at least he made King Charles V believe this. He claimed, wrongly, that they were in the
Castilian hemisphere, following the
Treaty of Tordesillas. He was appointed captain-general because he had this information, and this is also the reason he was responsible for planning the expedition's route to the East Indies. The relationship between Magellan and Elcano quickly became strained, precisely because Magellan did not want to show anyone the route and did not want to reveal exactly where the Moluccas were. to avoid
Portuguese India, and crossing the equator into the
southern hemisphere. By going so far south, they also managed to avoid the opposing
monsoon winds blowing from Africa that time of year. On March 18, the crew sighted an island that Elcano named
Desesperanza ("Despair"; later known as
Ile Amsterdam), At last Elcano made the sailors a dangerous proposition: to round the cape close to the coast. On the one hand there was the danger that the storms would drive them into the shore, and on the other, if they avoided that fate, that they might encounter the Portuguese on the eastern side of the cape. They pressed on, sailing westward in the Indian Ocean, close to the African coast, and at last managed to round the cape and head northward off the continent's western coast. He went on to highlight the extreme hardships undergone during the expedition. Elcano did not forget the members of the crew captured in Cabo Verde by the Portuguese, begging the king to initiate all necessary actions leading to their release. He ends the letter with commentary about their discoveries, the roundness of the world, setting sail to the west and coming back from the east. ==After the voyage==