§14 First voyage around the world. The history of travel around the world: from Magellan to Picard

In August 1519, five ships were sent from the harbor of Seville in the first round the world expedition... Equipped and approved her on her way Charles I is the Spanish king. The journey was very difficult, the path lay through America to the southwest, the expedition kept the direction to the Moluccas. In case of a successful trip, Spain could obtain the rights to new open lands.

The flotilla moved along the South American continent for a very long time, she tried to find a way out in "South Sea"... At the southern tip of the mainland, they discovered a deep bay. It was decided to sail further, the shores looked completely deserted, but suddenly several fires lit up in the darkness. For this reason Magellan gave the name to this country - "Tierra del Fuego" and becoming its discoverer.

After going through Strait of Magellan(the strait between Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia), the ships left for Pacific Ocean.

Strait of Magellan

Seafarers have not seen land for 3 months, reserves drinking water and the provisions ran out. Scurvy and hunger began on deck. Sailors, in order to somehow satisfy their hunger, had to chew bullskin and eat ship rats. In total, the crew suffered losses of 21 people who died of exhaustion. Through many setbacks, the travelers were able to reach the Philippine Islands and stocked up on water and food. Magellan was not very lucky, and he got involved in the internecine feuds of local rulers. In battle with the natives, he was killed on April 27, 1521.

Three years later, only one could return from the voyage. ship - "Victoria". Under the command of JS Elcano, he and the crew completed the voyage in 1522. At home, they were greeted with triumph and honors, they were heroes who were participants in the world's first circumnavigation.

Magellan's voyage path

Who made the first trip around the world and what is the significance of Magellan's voyage?

This hero turned out to be portuguese sailor Fernand Magellan.

1) He was able to prove by his swimming the sphericity of the Earth.

2) Magellan's expedition gave the world some idea of ​​the relative size of the sea and land on the globe.

3) Magellan proved that the greatest ocean stretches between Asia and America. Actually, he called him Quiet. He chose this name because for all 4 months of sailing he did not meet a single storm.

4) He proved that there is only one on the planet a single World Ocean.

In the first quarter of the 16th century. Europeans learned about a hitherto unexplored part of the coast South America and the existence of a narrow strait, later called Magellanic. Brave sailors crossed for the first time proved that the Earth is round, and the World Ocean is a single whole. This expedition was headed by Fernand Magellan, whose biography has been studied by many researchers, but the information available to historians is controversial and has been of great interest for several centuries.

The place and exact date of birth of the famous Portuguese and Spanish navigator is a matter of debate. Historians name two settlements in which he could have been born: Porto and Sabroza. Fernand Magellan was born in 1840 in a poor but noble noble family. As a page, he was part of the retinue of Queen Leonora of Aviz. Perhaps it was the queen of Portugal who facilitated the admission of the young man to the nautical school. The naval service of the future pioneer began with participation in the Eastern Expedition (1505) as a supernumerary warrior.

There is information about expeditions equipped to study Indian Ocean to which the young Magellan went. Fernand served in various places. Short in stature, but physically strong and self-confident, he showed himself to be a brave warrior in and was awarded the title of captain. In 1513 he briefly returned to Portugal, and the next year he went to Morocco, where he was wounded in the leg, after which he limped for the rest of his life. Immediately after the end of hostilities, he was accused of secretly selling booty to the opposing side. Outraged Fernand Magellan went to Portugal without permission to justify himself, but this act provoked the anger of King Manuel I, and after his retirement he was denied an increase in the size of his pension. In response to a request to allocate a ship to search for new sea routes, the Portuguese king also refused.

Fernand Magellan moved to Spain, where, after a long bargaining, he managed to convince the more accommodating Spanish king of the necessity and profitability of the expedition. The main thing was not but - the source of spices - "gold" of the XVI century. The navigator planned to get to the islands by a short route from America. His calculations, having maps of the shores of the South American continent and reports of sailors who visited those parts, he did not build from scratch. A flotilla of five ships, loaded with guns, other weapons, and various goods for trade, set sail on September 20, 1519.

An incredible test fell on the lot of 256 people participating in the round-the-world regatta led by Magellan. On September 6, 1522, only one worn-out ship called "Victoria" with an emaciated crew of 18 people moored to the Spanish coast. On board the ship there was no longer a person, thanks to whose perseverance, strength and courage, the first in the world was accomplished circumnavigation.

The navigator and pioneer Fernand Magellan did not personally complete what made him famous throughout the world, because he intervened in the internecine feuds of the aborigines and died on April 27, 1521 in a skirmish near the island of Mactan.

Fernand Magellan (1470-1521) - Portuguese navigator. He was the first to circumnavigate the world and cross the ocean, which he called the Pacific. Proved the existence of a single World Ocean and provided practical evidence that the Earth has the shape of a ball.

Born in Portugal into a noble family. As a child, he served as a page in the retinue of the Portuguese queen, received a good education, studied cosmography, navigation and astronomy. At the age of 20, he set off on his maiden voyage, participated in sea battles with Arabs, Indians and Moors, received the rank of sea captain for his bravery in battles. He brought great benefits to the state, suppressing one of the uprisings of the natives on the Malacca Peninsula. After that, he stayed to serve in Africa. Due to false accusations, he was denied further promotion. Having lost the trust of the king, Magellan resigned.

In 1517 he moved to Spain and took Spanish citizenship. Together with his friend, the astronomer Ruy Falier, he convinced King Charles V that there was a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific south of South America. The opening of this passage would bring great benefits to the state: even Pope Alexander VI, dividing the Earth by the meridian, commanded all the lands (both known and not yet discovered) west of the Canary Islands to be considered the property of Spain. This circumstance became an important reason for moving to the west.

An expedition of five ships ("Trinidad", "San Antonio", "Santiago", "Concepcion" and "Victoria") was organized under the leadership of Magellan, which went to sea in the direction of Rio de Janeiro. Moving to the south of the mainland, he discovered the entire Atlantic coast of South America. We moved only during the day, so as not to miss the strait. In March, the expedition had to winter in a convenient bay. On the same night, a riot began on the ships led by the commanders of the ships: the difficulties and hardships that befell them greatly embittered people. The riot was brutally suppressed by Magellan himself, and in early October the fleet headed south. In October of the same year, south of La Plata, they circled the mainland and entered the bay named after St. Julian. He examined it for about a month, but found no passage to the South Sea. On the shore of the strait, the expedition once saw fires and Magellan named the place Tierra del Fuego. Soon the expedition approached the eastern mouth of the strait, which now bears his name.

But only three ships entered the strait: one ship was lost, the crew of the ship "San Antonio" deserted, returning to Spain. The commander of the ship slandered Magellan, telling the king about his alleged treason. After a month and a half, the expedition went to the Pacific Ocean.

When crossing the Atlantic, the navigator used his signaling system for the first time, and the ships of his flotilla never lost sight of each other.

The first crossing of the Pacific Ocean began on November 28. On the remaining three ships, Magellan went out into an unknown ocean, circled America from the south along the strait he opened. Since the weather at that time was very good, he named the ocean Pacific. The voyage continued for almost 4 months, during which people had to eat crackers dust mixed with worms, drink rotten water, eat cowhide, sawdust and ship rats. Hunger and scurvy soon began, and many died. Crossing the ocean, he traveled at least 17 thousand km, but discovered only two islets - one in the Tuamotu archipelago, the other in the Line group. On March 6, 1521, Magellan discovered the island of Guam.

Ten days later, Magellan's expedition reached the Philippine Islands (1521). The detachment was well received by the population, and one of the local leaders - Zebu - even converted to Christianity and Spanish citizenship. After that, Magellan intervened in the feuds of local tribes and died in one of the skirmishes with the natives. Zebu, having betrayed the Spaniards, killed some of them. The surviving crew members fled to their ships and went to sea.

Only 115 people remained on the three ships - there were not enough people, and the ship "Concepcion" had to be burned. For several months the ships wandered in search of spice islands. From the island of Tidore, the Spaniards bought cheaply a lot of cloves, nutmeg, etc., and split up: the Victoria with Captain Juan Elcano moved west around Africa, and the Trinidad, in need of repairs, remained. Captain Elcano, fearing a meeting with the Portuguese, kept much to the south of the usual routes. He was the first to cross the central part of the Indian Ocean and, having discovered only the island of Amsterdam, proved that the "southern" mainland did not reach this latitude. September 6, 1522 "Victoria" completed a round-the-world voyage and returned home, a little later returned "Trinidad". But so many spices were brought on it that their sale compensated for the loss of the rest of the ships.

Magellan's voyage is considered one of the greatest events of the 16th century: expeditions to the west returned from the east and thus proved that the Earth is in the shape of a ball; for the first time, Europeans crossed the largest of the oceans - the Pacific, opening a passage from the Atlantic. In addition, the expedition found out that significantly most the surface of the earth is occupied not by land, as Columbus and his contemporaries thought, but by the oceans. Two star clusters (Large and Small Magellanic Clouds) and the strait are named after Magellan. All Magellan's travels were described by the historiographer and expedition member Antonio Pifacetta.

Portuguese navigator Fernand Magellan went down in history as the first person who managed to travel around the world. He became the first European who managed to swim from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, and thus prove the existence of a single and indivisible World Ocean.

short biography

The future navigator was born in 1480 in the small Portuguese town of Ponti da Barca. As a descendant of a noble but impoverished noble family, in his adolescence Fernand served as a page at the royal court.

In 1505, Fernand entered the service of the navy, and for the next five years served his king in East Africa with faith and truth. His plans to return to his homeland could not be immediately realized due to the outbreak of military battles in India, in which Magellan took part. For his courage he received the rank of officer, and after receiving severe wounds he was recalled to Portugal.

Rice. 1. Fernand Magellan.

Due to severe lameness caused by an injury in India, Magellan was forced to resign. He dreamed of equipping an expedition to the homeland of spices - the Moluccas, but the Portuguese king refused him. Offended by undeserved injustice and lack of recognition, Magellan moved to Spain.

Preparing for the expedition

In Seville, Magellan managed to achieve the location of the young King Charles I and persuade him to equip ships to the Moluccas, promising great profits. The king appointed an experienced navigator as the commander-in-chief of the flotilla, the main goal of which was to find a sea route to the cherished islands from the west.

The expedition, which became the work of Magellan's entire life, included 265 people and 5 ships. It should be noted that all ships were characterized by poor maneuverability, modest size and poor equipment. Magellan did not have geographic maps and reliable navigation instruments, except for the compass and hourglass.

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Fernand Magellan's first trip around the world

The expedition set sail on September 20, 1519, heading for Canary Islands... Further, the route ran through Brazil to the south along the coast of South America. The navigator was faced with a difficult task - to find a passage to the South Sea. At the same time, the flotilla moved only during the day, so that at night in the dark they inadvertently did not miss this passage.

During the forced wintering, which dragged on for 4 months, a mutiny arose on three ships. Magellan succeeded in suppressing the rebellion by giving the order to kill the rebel captains. In the same period, the flotilla lost one ship, which during reconnaissance crashed on underwater rocks.

Only in October 1520 Magellan managed to achieve his goal and find a barely noticeable entrance to the strait, which was later named Magellanic. Having passed a dangerous narrow strait, the sailors found themselves in the waters of an unknown sea. This was the Pacific Ocean, which was so named by Magellan due to the surprisingly calm weather that reigned during the entire journey.

Rice. 2. Pacific Ocean.

After a hundred days of sailing in the Pacific Ocean, the flotilla reached the island of Guam, and soon Magellan discovered the Philippine archipelago.

Having intimidated the local population, the navigator forced them to submit to the Spanish king and convert to Christianity. In 1521, Fernand Magellan was tragically killed in one of the skirmishes with the natives. Only one ship was able to return to Spain, on board of which only 17 sailors remained alive. His captain received all the honors and glory, while the commander-in-chief of the flotilla was undeservedly forgotten.

However, the significance of Magellan's journey was difficult to overestimate. He not only found the western road to the Moluccas, but also made an important discovery that changed the worldview of millions of people and proved that the Earth is round.


February 12, 1908 the first in the world started in New York round the world motor rally- a very bold and risky event in the spirit of that era of great technical discoveries and achievements. But adventurers have always existed - they lived before 1908, they were after him, they feel great in our time. And today we will tell you about history travel around the world from Magellan to the modern brave knights of the compass and map.

Magellan's circumnavigation (1519-1522)

Already at the very beginning of the sixteenth century, it became clear that discovered by Christopher Columbus lands are neither India nor China. But it was assumed that Asia, with all its many riches, was not so far from America. There is little to do - to find a strait, swim across the "South Sea" (this was the name of the reservoir that became known as the Pacific Ocean in those days) and get to the desired lands full of spices and silk. The Portuguese and Spanish navigator Fernand Magellan took up this business.



On October 20, 1519, five ships under his command left the Spanish port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. On board the ships, there were a crew of more than two hundred people. The expedition led by Magellan, indeed, managed to round the American continent from the south, overcome the Pacific Ocean, reach the Moluccas (Spice Islands) and return on September 6, 1522 to Seville.



But during the round-the-world voyage, the expedition lost four ships, and out of 235 personnel, only thirty-six returned to Spain (18 on the last remaining ship and the same number in different ways over the next months and even years). Magellan himself and most of the commanders were killed in skirmishes with the natives. And the expedition was completed by Captain Juan Sebastian Elcano - the only surviving officer.

Cycling around the world (1884-1886)

Thomas Stephens became the first person to travel around the world by bicycle. And it should be understood that it was not a bike in the modern sense - light, sporty, ergonomic, but the standard for those times "penny and farthing" (when the front wheel is eight times larger than the rear). And the situation with the roads was much more complicated.



Starting his journey in San Francisco, Stevens crossed America from west to east to New York. Then he drove pretty much through his native England, drove through Europe, Ottoman Empire, spent the winter in Tehran as a personal guest of the Shah, visited Afghanistan, returned to Istanbul, sailed to India by sea, checked into China and Japan, and then returned to the starting point of the journey, having spent more than two and a half years on the trip.


Yacht trip around the world (1895-1898)

Joshua Slokam's legendary round-the-world trip started on April 25, 1895 in Boston. The 10-meter yacht Sprey, on which the Canadian-American traveler and adventurer sailed alone, first crossed Atlantic Ocean, approaching the Iberian Peninsula, then walked along west coast Africa, crossed the Atlantic again, passed through the Strait of Magellan, reached Australia, visited New Guinea, circled the cape Good Hope, and on June 27, 1898, she finished in Newport, Rhode Island.



But the traveler did not wait for magnificent honors upon his return to the United States. The raging American-Spanish War at that time drew all the attention of the press and the public. So they started talking about the achievement of Slokam only after the conclusion of peace. And in 1900 he published the book "Alone Sailing Around the World", which became a worldwide bestseller and is still being reprinted.



Joshua Slokam went missing while sailing on a yacht in 1909 in the Bermuda region, which was one of the reasons for the emergence of the legend of the Bermuda Triangle.

First round the world motor rally (1908)

On February 12, 1908, the first round-the-world motor rally started, organized by the American New York Times and the French Matin. This event was timed to coincide with the 99th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. It was planned that 13 crews will take part in it, but seven of them were filmed at the very last moment, before the start of the trip.



The main problem of the first weeks of the race was the cold. Cars of that time were not equipped with heaters, and some were without a roof at all. At the same time, it was originally planned that the crews would move from the United States to Russia through the frozen Bering Strait. But creepy weather in the North, they were forced to change the route - the cars were loaded onto a ship in Seattle and transported to Vladivostok.



The rally participants crossed all of Eurasia. The first to reach the finish line in Paris was a German crew in a Protos car. It happened on July 11, 169 days after the start. But it turned out that the Germans violated the terms of the competition, for which they received a fine of 15 days. So the winners were the Americans in the Thomas Flyer, who arrived at the last point on July 26th. For the American participants, the race became round the world - after the triumph in Paris, they returned to New York, thus closing the circle.

Travel around the world by plane (1924, 1957)

It is now possible to fly around the globe on an airliner in just over a day. And in 1924, it took four Douglas World Cruisers almost six months. Rather, it flew out of Seattle on April 6 four aircraft, and returned back on September 28, only two - the rest crashed on the way.



And the first non-stop round-the-world flight was made in January 1957, spending 45 hours and 19 minutes on it. Along the way, they replenished fuel supplies from a refueling aircraft three times.


Travel around the world (1970-1974)

On June 20, 1970, brothers David and John Kunsta left their home in Waseka, Minnesota, and hiked around the world. They reached New York, where they boarded a ship to Lisbon. Then they crossed the whole of Europe on foot and reached Afghanistan. But there they were attacked by bandits, John was killed, and David was hospitalized for four months.



Having recovered, Kunst continued his campaign exactly from the place where his relative died. But now their third brother, Peter, has joined him. However, he traveled "only" for a year - he had to return home to work.



David Kunst returned to his native Minnesota on October 5, 1974, having covered about 25 thousand kilometers on the way, becoming a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, having removed 21 pairs of shoes and met Australian teacher Jenny Samuel, who first became his travel companion, and then in life. ...


Non-stop hot air balloon round the world (1999)

At the end of the twentieth century, balloons practically ceased to exist. There were only those that were used for advertising, tourism, sports and scientific (stratospheric) purposes. But there were also balloons created specifically to set records. For example, Breitling Orbiter 3, on which in March 1999 Bertrand Picard and Brian Jones made a non-stop round-the-world flight 45755 kilometers long and lasting 19 days 21 hours and 47 minutes.



But this record is not enough for Picard! An adventurer worthy of his grandfather, father and uncle is going in 2015 to make the first ever round-the-world flight on an airplane powered exclusively from the solar panels installed on it.