Magellan was NOT the first person to sail around the world: Juan Sebastián Elcano was

Juan Sebastián Elcano was born around 1486 in Getaria, a small fishing town in the Basque region of Spain.

He was the son of a local merchant. Since the commerce of his home community was connected to seaborne trade, Elcano spent his youth on and around ships.

By the time he reached his twenties, he had become an experienced sailor who owned his own vessel. 

Around 1509, Elcano travelled throughout the Mediterranean. He wasn’t seeking trading opportunities like his father, but to fight in naval campaigns for payment. 

This swashbuckling lifestyle occupied much of the next decade. He fought in a few minor wars but then fell into debt and had to sell his ship.

Then heard rumors in 1518 of a potential for great adventure and potential wealth. 

A call had gone out for capable seaman to gather in Seville who were willing to accompany a captain called Ferdinand Magellan on an expedition to find a potential western route to the Spice Islands.

This endeavor was being sponsored by the Spanish crown who were desperate to establish such a route.

However, Elcano knew that this would be a risky venture, since it would involve a long sea journey.

Nevertheless, since the Spice Islands were a source of wealth for European traders and it was being underwritten by the king of Spain, he considered it a gamble worth taking.

As a result, he decided to join the expedition.  

Elcano was just one of approximately 270 crew members who set sail on five ships (called the Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria and Santiago) from Seville on August 10, 1519.

By then, his experience in naval operations and familiarity with maritime challenges equipped him well for the voyage. 

Magellan’s journey turned out to be quite perilous, as the ships encountered a number of dangerous storms and difficult ocean conditions.

What complicated matters was the fact that they had few reliable maps of the regions they were to travel through.

It didn’t take long for tensions to arise among the crew. By the time the fleet reached the southern tip of South America, to the strait that now bears Magellan’s name, it had already faced mutiny and desertion.  

Elcano had been part of these mutinies, but while others were executed as punishment, Elcano’s life was spared by Magellan.

As crew numbers diminished, experienced seamen like Elcano became increasingly vital to Magellan.

This would become even more true as the expedition entered the unchartered waters of the Pacific Ocean.  

Tragedy then struck when Magellan himself was killed while the ships were docked in the Philippines in 1521.

The expedition's leadership was thrown into disarray. Initially, two Spaniards, Duarte Barbosa and Juan Serrano, were appointed to lead.

Their leadership, however, was short-lived. 

Barbosa and Serrano soon met their demise at the hands of local chieftains in Cebu, which further complicated the succession of command.

In this chaotic period, the expedition lost two more ships: the Concepción was burned due to manpower shortages, and the Trinidad was captured by the Portuguese.

With the fleet now reduced to the Victoria and the Trinidad (which was later abandoned), the remaining crew members were forced to consolidate their resources and focus on returning home.

In this desperate situation, the crew elected Juan Sebastián Elcano as their new leader. 

Elcano faced the daunting task of leading the Victoria, the last surviving ship of the Magellan expedition, the valuable spices it contained, and its weary crew safely back to Spain.

Under his command, the struggling crew continued to face a series of hardships including scurvy, starvation, and aggressive encounters with indigenous peoples.

By the time they reached the Moluccas in November 1521, the situation was critical.

Here, they replenished their supplies and repaired the ship. From this point, Elcano charted a course across the Indian Ocean, steering clear of Portuguese-held territories, which posed a significant threat.

Over the course of the next three months, the Victoria limped westward across the Indian Ocean. 

When they finally rounded the Cape of Good Hope, they were once more battled by severe storms.

The battered ship reached the Cape Verde Island in May 1522, where they narrowly escaped capture by Portuguese authorities who were suspicious of their origin.

Then, on September 6, 1522, nearly three years after their departure, Elcano and the remaining crew of about 18 men arrived at the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain.  

Juan Sebastián Elcano had completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. This historic return was met with both astonishment and acclaim.

They had managed to show the feasibility of westward sea travel to the East Indies.

The survivors had endured the most grueling of conditions to accomplish what had seemed nearly impossible. 

In recognition of their monumental achievement, King Charles I of Spain granted Elcano an annual pension and a coat of arms featuring a globe with the motto "Primus circumdedisti me" (You first encircled me).

This honor acknowledged not just the immense courage and resilience demonstrated by Elcano but acknowledged the invaluable data that was provided for all future navigators. 

Following his return to Spain in 1522, Elcano later life was marked by less public acclaim than one might expect.

Shortly thereafter, Elcano sought to capitalize on his experience by joining another expedition to the Moluccas in 1525 under the command of García Jofre de Loaísa.

This time, they tried to establish a permanent Spanish presence in the Spice Islands to further secure the lucrative spice trade.

Tragically, Elcano's final expedition proved disastrous. Suffering from malnutrition and scurvy, he died at sea near the Pacific Ocean's halfway mark in 1526.  

Juan Sebastián Elcano's contributions, while monumental, are sometimes overshadowed by Magellan's leadership during the expedition's initial stages.

Magellan developed a reputation as a visionary and leader who initiated the expedition and secured the necessary funding from the Spanish crown.

Moreover, Magellan's death in the Philippines during the expedition added a tragic and heroic note to his legacy.

Such events often resonated deeply with both contemporaries and later historians. 

Additionally, historical narratives often emphasize the beginnings of great endeavors rather than their completion.

Magellan's name was attached to key geographic landmarks such as the Strait of Magellan, reinforcing his memory every time these locations are mentioned.

In contrast, Elcano took command only after Magellan's death. This leadership transition, though crucial, did not have the symbolic weight of initiating the voyage.