CITIZEN DOSSIER

Captain Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer and navigator. He is renowned for his successful circumnavigation of the world in a fleet of five ships, becoming the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. He was born in 1480 in northern Portugal, and he became a sailor in the Portuguese navy at a young age, sailing to the East Indies. In 1519, he left Spain with five ships, leading the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe. During the voyage, Magellan encountered numerous hardships, including a mutiny, a shipwreck, and a scurvy epidemic, but eventually he and a small number of his crew returned to Spain in 1522, having become the first to circumnavigate the world. Magellan was killed in a fight in the Philippines in 1521, but his legacy lives on as a great explorer and navigator.