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Ferdinand Magellan's father is Pedro Ruy who was a mayor in their town. His mother's name is Alda de Mezquita. Magellan is a Portuguese who had his education and was tutored at the Court of Portugal. Among his best teacher was Martin Behaim who is a famous cartographer. With the help of his teacher's teachings and inspiration, Magellan grew up having a passion on sailing and on voyages; considering the fact that his teacher was also a navigator himself.

When Magellan was old enough to make voyages and expeditions, he started studying the maps used by Christopher Columbus. In the year 1505, when he was a young and brave 25 year old man, he finally had the courage to join expeditions.

He first joined the expedition of Francisco d' Almeida who paved its way to reach India. They've had a successful navigation. It helped him to learn about the basics in navigation. Not long after, in the year 1512, he then again joined another expedition. This time he joined the Portuguese expedition to Morocco where it was the time he was severely wounded. But this doesn't stop his passion for expedition.

Magellan asked those in authority to support his expedition but none of them ever approved his appeal; which later on led him to move to Spain. There he gained approval in which he was promised on one/fifth of the profit he will gain in the said expedition. Lucky enough, he was provided with 5 ships by the Spanish government. It was definitely his first voyage to navigate around the world. Through his expedition, they had encountered mutinies that later on damage some of the ships. Yet it doesn't stop them to continue on their expedition. They in spite of the hardships continued to navigate with the use of the remaining ships. Magellan discovered a lot on his expeditions like; Puerto San Julian located in Southern Argentina; they had reached the equator; Pacific Islands of Guam; etc. Until they had reached the country Philippines on the 16thday of March 1521, it was that day Magellan was killed by the natives of Mactan. They've had a bloody battle; many of his crew was killed by those natives that only 110 of his people were left to continue on its expedition. And yet along its way, the other ships together with the crew were imprisoned by the Portuguese. Only the Victoria ship was the remaining ship to return with victory.

Having only eighteen survivors to return in pride and honor at Sanlucar de Barrameda located in Spain. The great expedition to tour around the world took them 3 years to complete with many lives lost.

Browse more biographies at Famous-Explorers.

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