2. Date of birth: 1480
Date of death: 27 April 1521 ( aged 40 )
3. Magellan was famous as the great explorer
who led five Spanish ships and 251 men in the
first voyage around the World.
4.
5. Early in his career, Magellan sailed to India
and the Far East many times.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) was a
Portuguese explorer who led the first
expedition that sailed around the Earth (1519-
1521).
Magellan is a Portuguese explorer but then
had a fight with the Portuguese king so he
sailed for Spain
6. Magellan and his friend the astronomer Ruy
de Falero proposed to King Charles (of Spain)
that a westward voyage around the tip of
South America would take them to the
Moluccas (spice-rich islands) and avoid the
Portuguese (with whom they were competing
fiercely).
7. The voyage began September 8, 1519, and lasted until
September 6, 1521 (almost 3 years). Magellan sailed
from Seville, Spain, with five ships, the Trinidad, San
Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, and Santiago. Three
years later, only one ship (the Victoria) made it back to
Seville, carrying only 18 of the original 270 crew
members.
Magellan was killed towards the end of the voyage, in
the Philippines, during a battle with the natives. The
Basque navigator Juan Sebastian de Elcano (del Cano)
completed the trip.
8. Magellan wanted to find a passage through
the Pacific to China and the East Indies, as
Columbus had originally sought to do.
