Magellan in the Straits of Magellan.
1519

Watercolor 14" x 21"


The navigator to go down in history as the first to sail around the world was born about 1480 in northern Portugal to parents of minor nobility. Fernao Magallaes to the Portuguese, he was known as Hernando de Magelanes to the Spanish and Ferdinand Magellan to the English.

On March 22, 1518, Magellan was granted a Royal Charter to undertake a voyage to the Moluccas, in the name of King Charles V of Spain. The preparations took 18 months, but on September 20, 1519 he finally sailed from the Guadalquivir River on the Atlantic coast. Grandly known as the ‘Armada de Molucca’ his fleet consisted of five small, old and badly provisioned ships. Except for the SANTIAGO, which was a caravel, they were probably all naos, stubby three masted vessels square rigged on the fore and main masts, lateen rigged on the mizzen. The largest measured only 120 tons. They were well armed, but were essentially small merchantmen.

On October 21, 1520 at 52 º 20’ south, they opened an inlet marked by a high, grass topped promontory. This point they named Cabo Virgenes, and they had found the eastern opening to what Magellan later named the Channel of All Saints, but would eventually be known as the Straits of Magellan.