Ferdinan+Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was the leader of the first expedition to circumnavigate the world. He was the first European to sail across the Pacific Ocean and discovered a route by which ships could sail a complete circle around the world. The Straits of Magellan, located at the Southern tip of South America was named for him. This strait proved to be the connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Magellan was in Sabrosa, Portugal in 1480. In Portuguese his name was Fernao de Magalhaes.He became a page at the Portuguese court where he learned astronomy and nautical science. At a young age he was worried for discovery voyages. In 1505, sailing with Francisco d’Almeida, Magellan took part in an expedition to India for the purpose of establishing Portuguese royalty in India. By the year 1510 he had been promoted to the rank of captain. In 1511, he took part in the Portuguese conquest of Malacca, gaining control of the Strait of Malacca. Although it is not absolutely documented, Magellan may have been part of the voyage that reached the Spice Islands in 1511. Returning home in 1512, he took part in the Portuguese expedition to Marocco and was severely wounded, leaving him lame for life. Feeling he was not sufficiently rewarded for his services, Magellan left the army without permission, leading to his disgrace with the king. He gave up his nationality and offered his services to King Charles I (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), ruler of Spain in 1517. Portugal had claimed as theirs the islands of the Far East as a result of the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. Magellan claimed that many of them, including the rich Spice Islands, actually lay in Spain’s territory, that Portuguese maps had been falsified to conceal this fact. In 1513, Vasco de Balboa had found an ocean on the far side of the New World discovered by Christopher Columbus. Magellan proposed to the Spanish king an expedition to find a passage through the New World to this ocean and to sail west to the Moluccas, thus proving that the Spice Islands lay on the Spanish side of the line of demarcation. King Charles approved the plan. Magellan took the oath of allegiance in the church of Santa Maria de la Victoria de Triana in Seville, and received the imperial standard. He also gave a large sum of money to the monks of the monastery in order that they might pray for the success of the expedition. After a year of preparations the expedition left Seville in September of 1519 in five small vessels. Sailing across the Atlantic Ocean he reached South America at the Bay of Rio de Janeiro by December 13th. They arrived at the estuary of the Rio de la Plata by January 10, 1520 and probed for the passage to the vast western ocean. By March 31st, Magellan decided to spend the next six months there during winter storms. During this time, one ship, The Santiago, was wrecked, a mutiny occurred and was quelled, and another ship was lost to desertion headed back to Spain. The voyage was resumed on August 24, 1520. By October he had sighted what he assumed to be the sought after strait. Ships went ahead and reported what they thought to be an ocean beyond. However, this only proved to be another large bay. After deliberating with his navigators, Magellan decided to proceed. Magellan had just sailed through the strait that would later bear his name, the Strait of Magellan. Those straits were originally called the Canal de Todos los Santos (All Saints’ Channel) by Magellan himself. By late November (November 28) Magellan and the three remaining ships finally reached the ocean which seven years earlier, Balboa had discovered. Because of its apparent calmness, he named it Mar Pacifico, the Pacific Ocean. Ferdinand Magellan (Sabrosa, Northern region, Portugal, spring 1480 - Mactan, Philippines, April 27, 1521), was a Portuguese Explorer. At the service of the King of Spain, he discovered what is now called the Strait of Magellan,which was named liked that because of him, being the first European to pass from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, until then known as South Sea. He began the expedition that led to his death by Juan Sebastián Elcano, achieved the first circumnavigation of the Earth in 1522.
 * Biografy:**

The Strait of Magellan is a natural passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It was called the Pacific Ocean because in the year 1519 the sailors ( acrew of 277 men), Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastian Elcano and their 5 boats sailed but only a few got to this calm Ocean, not with so many strong currents and winds.