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Photo by Bryan Hansel
On Tuesday, August 2, the NOA Trinidad sailed (motored) into harbor. It was wild watching it come around the Grand Marais lighthouse in the rain. Shortly afterwards the breakwater became a zoo of people coming to see the ship. It remained busy until after sunset on Wednesday when the Trinidad sailed away. The Trinidad was Magellan’s flagship. It was one of the ships that didn’t make it back from Magellan’s expedition to reach the East Indies by a western route. Magellan didn’t make it back either. This year is the 500th year anniversary of Magellan’s expedition returning home to Spain. We credit Magellan as the first to sail around the world, but a man that Magellan enslaved may have been the first. After Magellan was killed, Enrique of Malacca, the man whom Magellan enslaved, fled the expedition, and he was only 100s of miles from the home he was kidnapped from as a boy. If he returned home, he would have been the first person to circumnavigate the globe. While we credit Magellan as being the person that first made it around the globe, he wasn’t. He died along the way. Magellan may have lived and returned home if he hadn’t attempted to Christianize the Filipinos. One of the tribes, led by King Lapu-Lapu, refused to convert and be baptized by Magellan, so Magellan decided that they should either become Christians or die (not a great religion that would force that upon people if you ask me) and went to war. During the battle, Magellan was killed by a poison dart. King Lapu-Lapu is celebrated as a hero and Magellan as a tyrant as it should be based on the actions he took.
After Magellan was killed, Juan Sebastian Elcano took command of the expedition and returned to Spain in September 1522. Of Magellan’s original armada, only the Victoria remained. It would be another 58 years before another expedition sailed around the world. Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation in 1580.
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