QUARANTINE BLOG # 650

January 14, 2022

On September 6, 1522, a battered ship appeared on the horizon near the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain.

The vessel was manned by a skeleton crew of just 18 sailors, all of them severely malnourished, many lacking the strength to walk or even to speak. Their captain was dead; in fact, nearly the entire crew had perished.

The ship, Victoria, returned to Seville, the city from which she had sailed three years before. Despite the hardships, Victoria and her crew accomplished what no other ship had ever done before. By sailing west until they reached the East, they had completed the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Three years earlier, Victoria had belonged to a fleet of five vessels with 257 sailors, under the command of Ferdinand Magellan. Now Victoria and her ravaged little crew were all that was left. Magellan, the Captain General, had been brutally killed. Victoria was not a ship of triumph, she was a vessel of desolation and anguish.

Those few survivors had a story that changed the course of history. In the Age of Discovery, many expeditions were quickly forgotten, yet this one, despite its misfortunes, became the most important maritime voyage ever undertaken. This circumnavigation was an expedition to the ends of the earth.

On June 7, 1494, Pope Alexander VI – speaking on behalf of God, and protecting the discoveries made by Christopher Columbus for Spain –  divided the world in half, bestowing the western portion on Spain, and the eastern on Portugal. 

Pope Alexander VI

The line of demarcation was located 400 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of North Africa.

Rather than settling disputes between Portugal and Spain, this arrangement touched off a furious race to claim new lands and to control the world’s trade routes.

A generation after Columbus failed to find a water route to the East, King Charles I resumed the quest. He recognized that the Indies could provide priceless spices.

Spices have played an essential economic role in civilizations since antiquity. Like oil today, the European quest for spices drove the world’s economy and influenced global politics.

Arab merchants maintained a virtual monopoly, and Europeans were dependent on them for their supply.  Along the way, spices went through as many as twelve different hands, and every time they did, their prices shot up. Spices were the ultimate cash crop.

Portugal was the first European nation to exploit the sea for spices and the corresponding global empire. 

Many mariners sought backing of King Manuel to seek out new worlds. Among the most persistent was a minor nobleman: Ferdinand Magellan. 

Ferdinand Magellan

Three times, Magellan asked for royal authorization to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands. Three times the king, because of court politics, refused. In September of 1517, Magellan asked if he could offer his services elsewhere, and the king replied rudely that Magellan was free to do as he pleased. 

Arriving in Seville on October 20, 1517, Magellan signed documents formally making him a subject of Charles I. Magellan had renounced his loyalty to Portugal, but he remained an outsider, on probation and under suspicion.

Like most explorers of the Age of Discovery, Magellan’s ideas about the size of the globe were severely wrong. He confidently predicted that it would take him two years to reach the Spice Islands and return to Spain. His calculations did not take into account the Pacific Ocean.

On March 22, 1518, King Charles, gave Magellan five ships, crew, food and other supplies for a two year voyage. The fleet – Magellan’s flagship, Trinidad along with San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, and Santiago – would be called the Armada de Molucca, after the Indonesian name for the Spice Islands.

The Armada de Molucca

Because of the ill will between Spain and Portugal, the King Charles sent Juan de Cartagena to serve as the chief accountant and representative of the king’s treasury. Cartagena fancied himself co-commander.

Juan de Cartagena was known as the “nephew” of Archbishop Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, who had served as Queen Isabella’s chaplain. But the term “nephew” was a euphemism – Cartagena was Fonseca’s illegitimate son. And from that position, Cartagena would become as great a threat to Magellan as storm or starvation.

As the date of departure approached, Magellan turned his attention to the hugely expensive matter of provisioning the ships. The food represented a considerable investment: $150,000 – and that figure covered just enough food to see them through the first leg or two of the voyage. It was expected that the sailors would be looking for additional food at almost every port, and in the ocean itself.

They loaded wine and hardtack, flour, meat, usually pork, bacon, ham, and especially salted beef.  Some meat came on the hoof, and were slaughtered just after departure; otherwise, they would have eaten their way through other valuable food.

Barrels of cheese, almonds, mustard, and casks of figs were also loaded on board the ships. Magellan’s fleet carried fish – sardines, cod, anchovies, and tuna – all of it dried and salted. In expectation of catching fresh fish along their route, the ships’ holds included a generous amount of fishing line and a plentiful supply of hooks.

There were casks filled with vinegar, which was used as a disinfectant both for the ships and for contaminated water. Sugar and salt were on board. Salt was plentiful, and used for preserving meat and fish, while sugar was scarce. It was administered to sailors who had fallen ill. Honey, far cheaper, served as the universal sweetener.

One addition to the crew was Antonio Pigafetta. By his own description, Pigafetta was a man of learning, but he also had as he put it, “a craving for experience and glory.” Accepting a salary of just $120 for the entire voyage, he joined the roster as a sobrasaliente, a supernumerary, an unneeded extra, receiving just four months pay in advance.

Antonio Pigafetta

Magellan assigned Pigafetta to keep a record of the voyage, a personal, anecdotal, and free-flowing account. Pigafetta’s diary serves as the best record of the voyage, and the account upon which most historians rely.

Next week, the Glorious Beginning.

🛐  Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage” (Psalm 16:5-6).

Choosing is connecting. When we chose God we do not narrow our lives, we enlarge them. We make connection with a vast heritage, a country where God’s presence is constant and pleasures abound.

Prayer: I had no idea, O Lord, your world was so rich and so vast. I did not know I was heir to such a fortune. In gladness I explore and enjoy the world where you create and redeem in a profusion of joy. Amen.

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