The Circumnavigators: A History

Packed with astonishing exploits and peopled with brave, daring, and sometimes foolhardy men and women from many nations, this entertaining and enlightening history of circumnavigation offers a stirring saga of quest and discovery, of adventure and achievement. Illustrated with pictures, charts, and diagrams, its narrative unfolds in dramatic detail the story that began on April 27, 1521, when the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan was speared to death on the island of Mactan in the Philippines and his second-in-command, Juan Sebastian Elcano, completed the first voyage around the world in a ship aptly named Victory. For the nearly five hundred years since, explorers and adventurers have continued to rise to the challenge of girdling the earth by sea, by air, or overland not simply to go around the world but to explore uncharted territory and discover more of the planet’s wonders and mysteries. For the history of circumnavigation is also an exhilarating story of the human spirit—of its boundless curiosity, its response to the challenge of the unknown, its noble failures and unimagined accomplishments.