Did Magellan Circumnavigate the Globe?

For more than 500 years, Ferdinand Magellan has been famous for being the first person to circumnavigate the globe. 

Ferdinand Magellan did not actually circumnavigate the globe. 

What did he do?

On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, with five ships and a crew of about 260 men. His mission? Find a "backdoor" route to the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). He was ambitious, determined, and—to be frank—a bit of a handful. Fast forward two years, and the expedition had reached Mactan Island in the Philippines. Magellan was roughly three-quarters of the way through his epic journey, but this is where the map ended for him. 

Magellan wasn't just exploring; he was also trying to spread Christianity. This didn't sit particularly well with the Indigenous peoples of Mactan. After a skirmish broke out on April 27, 1521, Magellan was struck by a poison arrow and killed. He died thousands of miles away from the finish line, leaving his dwindling crew to figure out how to get home without their leader. 

If you think your last long-haul flight was rough, consider the stats of this expedition:
Starting Crew: ~260 sailors
Total Ships: 5
Duration: 3 years
Survivors who made it home: 18 

On September 9, 1522, only 18 men limped back into Sanlúcar de Barrameda on a single ship. That’s a survival rate of about 7%. 

Victoria, the sole ship of Magellan's fleet to complete the circumnavigation.
Detail from a map by Ortelius, 1590.

If Magellan didn't make it, who was the actual first person to circle the globe? The answer depends on how you define "first." 

Juan Sebastián Elcano, after Magellan’s death, took command and navigated the final stretch back to Spain. He is the man historians usually point to if you're looking for the person who completed the full, continuous loop on one trip. 

Enrique of Malacca is an interesting contender. he was a Malay man that Magellan had captured and enslaved in the East Indies back in 1511. Enrique traveled from the East Indies to Europe, then accompanied Magellan on the 1519 expedition heading west. By the time the ships reached the Philippines, Enrique was essentially back in his home region. If he managed to slip away and make it back to Malacca after Magellan’s death, he would technically be the first person to complete a full circle of the planet, though in two separate stages. 

The first circumnavigation was less of a solo victory and more of a brutal, three-year survival horror story. Whether you give the "win" to the captain who finished the job or the enslaved interpreter who may have beaten everyone to the punch, one thing is true. Magellan really started it.