First to Sail around the World

First to sail around the World

By Iwan Fuls

The mighty ships gracefully rocked up and down upon the waves. The sun peeped out from the horison. The fresh morning air was cool and crisp. All was calm. It was the year 1519 just off the shore of Corpus Christi, Spain. Captain Magellan was the captain of five ships and a troupe of two hundred and eighty men. They were sailing to India, but around the tip of South America.

"Sails hoisted!" shouted one of the sailors. Magellan and his men were all ready for their trip to India and definitely excited. At the rear of the ship was Magellan's cabin. It was an extremely large room filled with many interesting artifacts. Magellan sat by his desk staring at his maps, deep in thought. His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in" he exclaimed somewhat startled. It was his servant bringing him his breakfast. "Ah! Gracias, I'm starving!" The servant politely bowed and left the room. Magellan greedily wolfed down his food and got ready to join his crew. "Oh, today is going to be a lovely day" he thought to himself. The day quickly passed and before they knew it, it was dark. Fortunately, they've been making rapid progress. Many days passed, being pleasant and delightful.

One night though, Magellan lounged on his bed while looking out of his window. He noticed a faint flash of light on the horison. It didn't bother him at first, but the flashing light became more distinct. An extremely loud boom suddenly awakened Magellan. Suddenly, his friend stormed through the door shouting, "There are pirate ships firing at our ships! They've already sunk San Juan and boarding La Manuela now!" Magellan immediately grabbed his sword and gun and rushed up unto the deck. The fight lasted four gruesome hours, but fortunately the pirate ships finally backed down. Magellan had lost two ships and one hundred and six men. It was an unfortunate loss, but they had to continue on their journey to India.

Thankfully, they arrived in North America one week later. "Right men, we shall sail down the first river we see, which will hopefully carry us to the other side of South America", ordered Magellan. Magellan's men obeyed his orders, but each river was just a dead end. After sailing down several rivers they finally saw another gigantic river. Magellan was delighted to see this river and without hesitation, he ordered the remaining three ships to sail down this river. The river was unremarkably choppy. As a matter of fact, the river was so choppy that they had to pull the ships with canoes. One morning just before daybreak there was heavy mist. The mist was so heavy that if you put your hand in front of your eyes, you were barely able to see your hand. Magellan and his men continued through this mysterious river. Soon Magellan realised that one of his ships had gone missing in the mist. They fired a few canon shots, but no reply. Thus, another ship was lost. The next day the two remaining ships sailed through the mouth of the river and into the ocean. Magellan was greatly surprised that the river was so choppy, but the ocean was surprisingly calm. He decided to name the river, "Magellan's plains". He named the ocean the "pacific ocean" because it was so placid. Magellan, who was overwhelmed with excitement, thought that India was just a few kilometres from where they were currently. Obviously this was not true, but because they thought it was, they foolishly did not restock. Only did they notice their mistake a few days later. They became so hungry that they started eating sawdust! Thankfully, they spotted land a few days later. The men happily restocked the ships and headed onwards. One week later they arrived on an island just a few kilometres off the coast of China. There they discovered unknown tribes; luckily they were friendly. While the crew were restocking one day, a tribe asked them if Magellan and his men could help them with a battle. Magellan agreed and went to war...

Sadly Magellan died in the battle and never completed his dream of seeing India. His men, however, continued without him and anchored in India 13 months after they set sail from Spain. Ironically, Magellan wanted to travel to India via South America, but it turned out that his ship was eventually the first to sail around the world.