Spain / Americas: A Spanish carrack on an Atlantic expedition in the early 1500s, searching for a route to the Pacific. Note the pilot on the top deck taking a sight with a sextant.

Spain / Americas: A Spanish carrack on an Atlantic expedition in the early 1500s, searching for a route to the Pacific. Note the pilot on the top deck taking a sight with a sextant.

Ferdinand Magellan, or Fernão de Magalhães, (c. 1480 – 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, but later obtained Spanish nationality in order to serve King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the ‘Spice Islands’ (modern Maluku Islands in Indonesia). Magellan's expedition of 1519–22 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean around Cape Horn and South America into the Pacific Ocean (named 'the peaceful sea' by Magellan), the passage being made via what is now called the Strait of Magellan. It was the first voyage across the Pacific. It also completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth, although Magellan himself did not complete the entire voyage, being killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines. Of the 237 men who set out on five ships, only 18 completed the circumnavigation and managed to return to Spain in 1522.

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