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Hello, this is Breck.
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Imagine you are standing on a wooden dock in Spain over 500 years ago.
The salty sea air fills your nose as you watch sailors load barrels of food and fresh water onto five big ships.
The ships creak and sway in the harbor.
Men shout to each other as they prepare for the biggest adventure anyone has ever tried.
They want to sail all the way around the entire world.
No one has ever done this before.
The leader of this brave group is a man named Ferdinand Magellan.
Little do these sailors know that they are about to make history.
Ferdinand Magellan was born around 1480 in Portugal.
Portugal is a country next to Spain and Europe.
When Ferdinand was a young boy, he loved hearing stories about brave explorers who sailed to faraway lands.
He dreamed of becoming an explorer too.
Portugal was famous for having the best sailors and explorers in the world at that time.
When Ferdinand grew up, he became a sailor for the King of Portugal.
He sailed to many places and learned how to be a great captain.
But Ferdinand had a big dream.
He wanted to find a new way to reach the Spice Islands.
The Spice Islands were far away in Asia where people grew pepper, cinnamon and other spices that made food taste amazing.
These spices were worth lots of money back in Europe.
The problem was that getting to the spice islands was very hard.
Sailors had to go around the bottom of Africa, which took a very long time.
Ferdinand had a crazy idea.
What if ships could sail west instead of east?
What if they could go around the bottom of South America?
No one knew if this was even possible.
Ferdinand asked the king of Portugal to let him try this adventure. but the king said no.
The king thought Ferdinand's idea was too dangerous and too expensive.
Ferdinand felt very sad, but he did not give up on his dream.
So Ferdinand went to Spain instead.
The king of Spain was named Charles.
Ferdinand told King Charles about his plan to sail west to reach the Spice Islands.
He explained that if Spain could find this new route, they would become very rich and powerful.
King Charles liked this idea.
He said yes and gave Ferdinand five ships and about 270 sailors.
On September 20, 1519, Ferdinand and his crew left Spain.
The five ships were called the Trinidad, the San Antonio, the Conception, the Victoria and the Santiago.
Ferdinand was the captain of the Trinidad, which was the biggest ship.
The journey started well, but soon there were problems.
Some of the Spanish captains did not like taking orders from Ferdinand because he was from Portugal.
They thought a Spanish person should be the leader instead.
This caused fights and arguments.
The ships sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to South America.
This part of the trip took about two months.
When they reached South America, Ferdinand and his men sailed south along the coast.
They were looking for a passage of water that would let them sail to the other side of South America.
Winter was coming, so Ferdinand decided to stop and wait for warmer weather.
They anchored their ships at a place called Port San Julian.
It was very cold and windy.
The sailors were hungry and scared.
Some of them tried to take control of the ships away from Ferdinand.
This is called a mutiny.
Ferdinand was very brave and stopped the mutiny.
He had to punish some of the sailors who tried to rebel against him.
During the winter, one of their ships, the Santiago, was wrecked in a storm.
Now they only had four ships left.
The sailors were getting more worried, but Ferdinand kept encouraging them to not give up.
When spring came, they continued sailing south.
On October 21, 1520, they finally found what they were looking for.
There was a narrow waterway that went through the land.
This waterway is now called the Strait of Magellan, named after Ferdinand, but at the time Ferdinand called it the Strait of All Saints.
Going through the strait was very scary.
The water was rough and the passage was narrow.
It took them 38 days to get through.
During this time, one of their ships, the San Antonio, turned around and sailed back to Spain without telling anyone.
The captain of that ship was too afraid to continue.
Now Ferdinand only had three ships left.
When they finally made it through the strait, Ferdinand and his men saw a huge, calm ocean.
Ferdinand was so happy that he cried tears of joy.
He named this ocean the Pacific, which means peaceful, because it looked so calm and beautiful compared to the rough strait they had just sailed through.
But crossing the Pacific Ocean turned out to be much harder than Ferdinand expected.
The ocean was much bigger than anyone knew.
They sailed for months and months without seeing any land.
The sailors ran out of fresh food and had to eat rats and leather just to survive.
Many sailors got very sick from a disease called scurvy, which happens when people don't eat fruits and vegetables for too long.
Finally, after sailing for 99 days across the Pacific, they reached some islands.
The people living there had never seen European ships before.
Ferdinand and his men were able to get fresh food and water, which helped the six sailors feel better.
Ferdinand and his crew continued sailing and reached a group of islands that are now called the Philippines.
Ferdinand was excited because he thought they were close to the Spice Islands.
He also wanted to teach the people living there about Christianity, which was his religion.
Sadly, Ferdinand Magellan's great adventure ended in the Philippines.
He got involved in a fight between different groups of people living there.
On April 27, 1521, Ferdinand was killed in a battle on an island called Mactan.
His sailors were very sad to lose their brave leader.
But Ferdinand's dream did not die with him.
His remaining sailors, led by a man named Juan Sebastian Elcano, continued the journey.
They finally reached the Spice Islands and filled their ship with valuable spices.
Then they sailed across the Indian Ocean, around Africa, and back to Spain.
On September 6, 1522, 18 sailors returned to Spain on the one remaining ship, the Victoria.
They had sailed all the way around the world.
They were the first people in history to do this amazing thing.
The trip took almost three years.
Even though Ferdinand Magellan did not live to complete the journey, he is remembered as the person who planned and started the first trip around the world.
He proved that the Earth was much bigger than people thought.
He also proved that all the oceans of the world are connected.
Ferdinand Magellan teaches us that big dreams are worth pursuing even when they seem impossible.
He shows us that brave people can change the world by never giving up, even when things get really hard.
Because of Ferdinand's courage and determination, we learn that our world is one big, connected planet where amazing adventures are always possible.
