Ferdinand Magellan led the expedition that first crossed from the Atlantic into the Pacific through the strait now bearing his name, but he did not complete the first circumnavigation. He was killed in the Philippines in 1521; the surviving ship Victoria returned to Spain under Juan Sebastián Elcano in 1522.
The fleet sailed from Spain in 1519 under a Spanish crown commission seeking a western route to the Spice Islands. Five ships departed: Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria and Santiago.
The voyage down the South American coast involved repeated searches for a passage. Santiago was wrecked while scouting, and the fleet wintered at Puerto San Julián, where a mutiny was suppressed.
In late 1520 the remaining ships entered a complex channel at the southern end of South America. San Antonio deserted and returned to Spain, while Magellan led Trinidad, Concepción and Victoria through the passage into the ocean he called the Pacific because of the relatively calm conditions encountered at first.
The Pacific crossing proved far larger and more difficult than European estimates suggested. Food deteriorated and scurvy and starvation affected the crews before landfall in the Mariana Islands and then the Philippines.
Magellan became involved in local alliances and conflict in the Philippines and was killed at Mactan on April 27, 1521. The expedition continued without him.
Antonio Pigafetta’s surviving account is one of the most important narrative sources for the journey. It should be read alongside Spanish administrative records because Pigafetta was a participant but not a neutral observer.
For TransitSatellite, the expedition must be shown as a fleet whose composition changed over time, not as “Magellan sailed around the world.” The person page ends with Magellan’s death; the circumnavigation continues through Elcano.