Juan Sebastián Elcano
Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the first circumnavigation of the globe after the expedition's commander was killed. Born at Getaria in the Basque country around 1487, he went to sea young, commanded a merchant ship, and forfeited it to Genoese bankers to pay a debt — surrendering a vessel to foreigners was an offence against the crown, and he went to Seville seeking a pardon. He joined Magellan's expedition of 1519 as master of the Concepción, one of five ships and around 270 men. He took part in the mutiny at Puerto San Julián in 1520, was pardoned and set to hard labour, and was restored to duty. The fleet passed the strait that carries Magellan's name, crossed the Pacific in three and a half months on rotten biscuit and rat meat with scurvy killing the crews, and reached the Philippines, where Magellan was killed at Mactan in April 1521 intervening in a local war. Elcano took command of the Victoria at the Moluccas after further deaths and desertions, loaded twenty-six tonnes of cloves, and chose to continue west across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope rather than recross the Pacific — a decision that meant sailing through Portuguese waters as fugitives, avoiding every port. The Victoria reached Sanlúcar on 6 September 1522 with eighteen survivors, having covered some 68,000 kilometres in three years. The cargo of cloves paid for the whole expedition. Charles V granted him a pension and a coat of arms showing a globe with the motto that he was the first to circle it. He died of scurvy in the Pacific in 1526 on a second expedition.
- Lived: 1476 CE – 1526 CE
- Nationality: Spanish
- Roles: navigator, explorer, captain
