Dedication
In memory of my brother and father
Epigraph
How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Principal Characters
A Note on Dates
Measurements
Introduction to the Quincentenary Edition
Prologue: A Ghostly Apparition
Book One: In Search of Empire
Chapter I: The Quest
Chapter II: The Man Without a Country
Chapter III: Neverlands
Chapter IV: “The Church of the Lawless”
Book Two: The Edge of the World
Chapter V: The Crucible of Leadership
Chapter VI: Castaways
Chapter VII: Dragon’s Tail
Chapter VIII: A Race Against Death
Chapter IX: A Vanished Empire
Chapter X: The Final Battle
Book Three: Back from the Dead
Chapter XI: Ship of Mutineers
Chapter XII: Survivors
Chapter XIII: Et in Arcadia Ego
Chapter XIV: Ghost Ship
Chapter XV: After Magellan
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Notes on Sources
Index
Photo Section
P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*
About the Author
About the Book
Read On
Also by Laurence Bergreen
Copyright
About the Publisher
Principal Characters
King Charles I (later Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire)
King Manuel (king of Portugal)
Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca (bishop of Burgos)
Cristóbal de Haro (financier)
Ruy Faleiro (cosmographer)
Beatriz Barbosa (Magellan’s wife)
Diogo Barbosa (Magellan’s father-in-law)
The Armada de Molucca
(at the time of departure from Seville)
Trinidad
Ferdinand Magellan (Captain General)
Estêvão Gomes (pilot major)
Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa (alguacil, or master-at-arms)
Francisco Albo (pilot)
Pedro de Valderrama (chaplain)
Ginés de Mafra (seaman)
Enrique de Malacca (interpreter)
Duarte Barbosa (supernumerary)
Álvaro de Mesquita (Magellan’s relative, supernumerary)
Antonio Pigafetta (chronicler, supernumerary)
Cristóvão Rebêlo (Magellan’s illegitimate son, supernumerary)
San Antonio
Juan de Cartagena (captain and inspector general)
Antonio de Coca (fleet accountant)
Andrés de San Martín (astrologer and pilot)
Juan de Elorriaga (master)
Gerónimo Guerra (clerk)
Bernard de Calmette, also known as
Pero Sánchez de la Reina (chaplain)
Concepción
Gaspar de Quesada (captain)
João Lopes Carvalho (pilot)
Juan Sebastián Elcano (master)
Juan de Acurio (mate)
Hernando Bustamente (barber)
Joãozito Carvalho (cabin boy)
Martin de Magalhães (supernumerary)
Victoria
Luis de Mendoza (captain)
Vasco Gomes Gallego (pilot)
Antonio Salamón (master)
Miguel de Rodas (mate)
Santiago
Juan Rodríguez Serrano (captain)
Baltasar Palla (master)
Bartolomé Prieur (mate)
A Note on Dates
Dates are given in the Julian calendar, in effect since the time of Julius Caesar. With modifications, this calendar was adopted by Christian churches around the world, including those in Spain.
Sixty years after the completion of Magellan’s voyage, in 1582, Spain, France, and other European countries migrated to the Gregorian calendar, decreed by Pope Gregory XIII and designed to correct incremental errors in the Julian system. It took more than two centuries to complete the transition to the new calendar throughout Europe, since Protestant nations resisted the change. To correct for accumulated errors, ten days were omitted, so that October 5, 1582, in the Julian calendar suddenly became October 15, 1582, in the Gregorian.
In addition to this calendar shift, Magellan’s voyage had its own record-keeping issues. The dates of various events recorded by the two official chroniclers of the expedition, Antonio Pigafetta and Francisco Albo, occasionally diverge by one day. The discrepancy may be due to human error, and it may also have been caused by the way each diarist reckoned the day. Albo, a pilot, followed the custom of ships’ logs, which began the day at noon rather than at midnight. In contrast, Pigafetta used a nonnautical frame of reference in his diary. Thus, an event occurring on a given morning might have been put down a day apart in the records maintained by the two.
Finally, the international date line did not exist before Magellan’s voyage. (It now extends west from the island of Guam, in the Pacific Ocean.) As Albo and Pigafetta neared the completion of their circumnavigation, they were astonished to note that their calculations were off, and their voyage around the world actually took one day longer than they had thought.
Measurements
One fathom equals six feet.
One Spanish league (legua) equals approximately four miles.
One bahar (of cloves) equals 406 pounds.
One quintal equals 100 pounds.
One cati (a Chinese measurement) equals 1.75 pounds.
One braza (of cloth) equals about five and a half feet.
One maravedí equals approximately 12 modern cents.
Introduction to the Quincentenary Edition
It’s been five hundred years since the survivors of Magellan’s Armada de Molucca completed the first circumnavigation. Fifteen years ago, Over the Edge of the World, my account of this astonishing journey, was first published. Since then, the book has taken on a life of its own in ways I never imagined during my years of strenuous work on it.
For me, the narrative originated, strangely enough, at NASA in connection with my previous book, Voyage to Mars, about America’s efforts to explore “the red planet.” During the time I spent with NASA’s scientists and engineers observing how they designed and operated missions to Mars, I occasionally heard references to Magellan. It denoted both the name given to the Mars-bound spacecraft launched back in 1989 by NASA and the Renaissance explorer. When I asked how they made the connection across the centuries between a robotic spacecraft and the all-too-human voyager, they explained that Ferdinand Magellan, like a few other figures of his age, pursued “intelligent exploration,” meaning he set out with a specific purpose, using the best available maps and other aids. Similarly, NASA’s managers and scientists worked diligently to achieve specific scientific and strategic goals, including human space travel. Until that time, I hadn’t given much thought to Ferdinand Magellan as an inspiration for the exploration of space, let alone as the subject of a book. But sea stories had fascinated me since I was a boy. Something was so compelling about the misery the sailors had endured, the bizarre places they had visited, and their encounters with uncanny flora and fauna. Their sagas outdid fiction. During the intervals between writing and publishing books, I often wandered through the library stacks, looking for an exceptional sea story, but nothing sparked my imagination. I visited maritime museums, spent parts of twenty summers on the island of Nantucket, and went sailing with my son, who became an accomplished Laser Class racer.