Only one ship of five finished the first voyage around Earth
Spain's Magellan–Elcano expedition left in 1519 seeking a western path to the Moluccas and returned in 1522 having circled the planet—about 60,440 kilometres. Roughly 270 men sailed on five ships; only about forty, aboard Victoria alone, completed the loop.
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan planned the voyage after letters from the Spice Islands and after King Manuel I blocked his Portuguese petitions; he moved to Seville in 1517 with cosmographer Rui Faleiro. On 22 March 1518 Charles I named them captains general. The Crown and Casa de Contratación funded five ships for roughly two years; Burgos merchant Cristóbal de Haro put up about one fifth to one quarter of the budget amid Fugger and Welser credit. Official cost totaled 8,751,125 maravedis; food alone ran 1,252,909—nearly the ships' price—with wine and hardtack about four-fifths of provisions, plus seven cows and three pigs.
The fleet departed Seville on 10 August 1519, cleared Sanlúcar on 20 September, and stretched south along Africa to dodge Portuguese hunters. Crew composition was watched closely: about 139 Spaniards, 31 Portuguese, 26 Italians, and smaller numbers of Greeks, Flemings, Germans, Irish, and English, plus enslaved men including Enrique of Malacca. Mutiny risks surfaced early; at Tenerife Magellan heard Cartagena was plotting. Hardships included sabotage, scurvy, storms, and hostile encounters. Magellan named the calm ocean Mar Pacifico after exiting the strait on 1 November 1520, crossed in 98 days, and died in battle in the Philippines in April 1521.
Juan Sebastián Elcano, who had joined seeking royal pardon, eventually commanded Victoria home across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, reaching Spain on 6 September 1522. The western spice route existed, yet proved too long and brutal for easy commerce under the Treaty of Tordesillas rivalry with Portugal. Still, Europeans learned the Pacific's true scale and that a ship could girdle the globe westward—seamanship that outran the voyage's thin profits.
Source: Magellan expedition
