Magellan Fleet Timeline

John Woram

This page makes an attempt to sort out the details of the Magellan fleet, from its arrival at San Julián to the return of the Victoria, the only one of the original five ships to make it back to Spain. A few details make it difficult to prepare an accurate account of the voyage. For example:

• There are only five known eye-witness accounts of the voyage:
  • Francisco Albo: “Log-Book,”
  • Anonymous Portuguese: “Narrative of the Anonymous Portuguese,”
  • Mestre Bautista “Navigation and Voyage …,”
  • Juan Sebastián del Cano: letter to the Emperor,
  • Antonio Pigafetta: “Account of Magellan's Voyage.”
• These accounts are sometimes quite vague, occasionally inaccurate, and dates and ship names are often omitted.
• The second-hand accounts of others are not always reliable.

The chronological summary which follows describes the conflicting accounts of some voyage details. Many of these details are repeated on the Source Information page, accessible via the links within the Fleet Timeline table below.

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Summary of Various Accounts

Pigafetta Manuscript Reprints

1874: Hakluyt Society edition of First Voyage Round the World:

• pp. 55-56, Pigafetta: “Immediately that we entered into this port, the masters of the other four ships plotted treason against the captain-general.”
  • Only three ships' captains (not masters) were involved in this incident.
• p. 56, Pigafetta: “[de Cartegena] was banished with a priest, and was put in the country called Pattagonia.”
  • Something isn't quite right here. The fleet remained at San Julián for several months after the mutiny. Therefore a banishment could not take effect until the fleet departed the area. See the last point in the Brito letter for a possible clarification.
• p. 103, Pigafetta: “Duarte Barbosa … found fault with him [Henry, a slave], and told him that though his master was dead, he had not become free on that account.”
  • Compare with Maximilianus account immediately below.

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1906: Arthur H. Clark edition of the Milan “Ambrosian” ms. of Magellan's Voyage Round the World, includes (pp. 61-62) the following inaccurate excerpt in the account of the San Julián mutiny:

• “Those conspirators consisted of the overseer of the fleet, one Johan de Cartagena, the treasurer, Alouise [sic, Luis] de Mendosa, the accountant, Anthonio Cocha, and Gaspar de Cazada [sic, Casada]. The overseer of the men having been quartered, the treasurer was killed by dagger blows, for the treason was discovered. Some days after that, Gaspar de Casada, was banished with a priest in that land of Patagonia. The captain-general did not wish to have him killed, because the emperor, Don Carlo, had appointed him captain.”
  • See the Notes page for James Burney's correction to this account.

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1969: Yale University Press edition of Magellan's Voyage (see Notes page for details).

• João Serrão as captain:
  • p. 149, note 10: João Serrão was captain & pilot of the Santiago on departure from Spain.
  • p. 154, note 5: “João Serrão had been appointed captain of Santiago after the mutiny.”
• p. 154, note 2: “The mutineers … made themselves masters of the three largest ships.”
  • Actually, of the San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria (120, 90, 85 tons). The Trinidad—not part of the mutiny—was 110 tons. [See Displacement values for all ships in the table below.]
• On the loss of the Santiago:
  • p. 50: “…all of the men were saved by a miracle.”
  • p. 154, note 5: “One man only … was lost.”
• The Index is, at times, byzantine at best. For example, under the “Elcano, Juan Sebastián de” entry, a “captain of Victoria” sub-entry lists pages 2, 9, 106n, 147n.
  Turning to page 106, one finds there are five note citations (10-14) on that page. To find the relevant note, one must turn back to page 105, to learn this is part of Chapter XXXIII. Then turn to page 166 to read the Chapter XXXIII notes 10-14 and guess which one is relevant to the subject. In this case, it's note 10, which states that “On 27 September, … Elcano [was elected] captain of Victoria.” The note writer does not reveal the source of this information, which also appears in the Milan Ambrosian ms. [See September 27 entry in the table at the bottom of this page.]

Other Manuscript Reprints,
Later Printed Histories

1874: Hakluyt Society edition of First Voyage Round the World (mss. other than Pigafetta's):

• p. 201, Maximilianus: “Serrano told him that he [Henry] had not ceased to be a slave and bondsman because Magellan was dead.”
• pp. 251-252, Correa: “The Christian king … prepared a great feast … to which he invited Magellan. The enemies entered, and killed Magellan. … They brought [Serrano] to the beach, where they executed him.”
  • As a footnote correctly points out with some understatement, “The reader will observe that this account of Magellan's death is incorrect.” [See Pigafetta's Voyage … for a side-by-side comparison of his and Correa's accounts, and Examination of Elcano, question 12, for a possible explanation of Correa's mistake.]
• p. 253, Correa: “Carvalhinho became suspicious … ”
  • Although “Carvalhinho” appears here and elsewhere within the text, the page header and Index give the name as “Carvalho.” First name (Juan, or Joan) is omitted in the text, and mis-spelled (Joam) in the Index. His full name is believed to be Juan López Carvalho.
• Index, pp. xvii-xx:
  • In the entry for each ship, a sub-entry lists the captain(s), but omits page numbers. San Antonio is omitted entirely.

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1803: James Burney's Chronological History of the Voyages … (vol. 1, p. 20) writes of the following incident as the fleet sailed south after leaving Tenerife:

“Juan de Cartegena, commander of the St. Antonio, remonstrated with the general for not steering more towards the West. Magalhanes made no other answer to his representations, than that it was the business of those under his command to follow his ship, and not to call him to account.”

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1886: Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History …:

Winsor (vol. 2, p. 696) “improved” Burney's tale, and stated that it took place at Tenerife, not after sailing from there:

“Up to this point entire secrecy had been maintained by Magellan as to the route to be pursued. Juan de Carthagena claimed the right to be informed of all things regarding it. Magellan refused, probably with considerable scorn. When off Sierra Leone, a few days after, a similar quarrel broke out; Magellan arrested Carthagena with his own hand, and put him in the stocks.”

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1890: F. H. H. Guillemard's Life of Ferdinand Magellan …:

• p. 107, note 2: “On the 30th of April Antonio de Coca was made Contador of the armada at 50,000 maravedis.”
  p. 126, [30th of April] “… a few days later Antonio de Coca was made Contador of the armada at 50,000 maravedis.
  • The author contrdicts himself; first stating the appointment was on April 30, then in early May
• p. 153: “The command of the S. Antonio was given to the contador, Antonio de Coca.”
  • There is no known record of this appointment in any first-hand account.
• p. 165: “It will be remembered that, upon the degradation of Cartegena, Antonio de Coca had been appointed captain of the S. Antonio. We do not learn what action of his deprived him in his turn of his post, but deprived he was.”
  • Nor is there a record of his removal as captain.

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1906: Arthur H. Clark edition of the Milan “Ambrosian” ms. of Magellan's Voyage Round the World:

• p. 220, note 50 excerpt: “Magellan … gave the command of the ‘San Antonio’ to Antonio de Coca (see Guillemard's Magellan, p. 153).”
  • On the cited page, Guillemard states, without attribution, that de Coca assumed command of the ship. So about all we have here is verification of an observation by Philip Guedalla:
    “History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other.”

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1958: Mairin Mitchell's Elcano: the First Circumnavigator:

The author states that “Elcano” is correct; “del Cano” is not. See the Mairin Mitchell entry on the “Notes page” for more details, including a sample of the subject's own signature.

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The San Julián Mutiny:

Last but not least is the problem of the conflicting first-hand accounts of what happened when the fleet wintered at San Julián. The table below shows how the incident and its leaders were treated in each account. In the other first-hand accounts, the mutiny is not mentioned at all.

		Pigafetta Manuscripts			Bautista	del Cano
		Beinecke	Hakluyt	Italian
masters of the other four ships		✓	✓
captains of the other four ships				✓
three of the ships rose up					✓
Mutiny Leaders	Title
Cartagena	Captain & Inspector-General					✓
	fleet overseer	✓	✓
	overseer			✓
	treasurer				✓
de Coca	overseer	✓
	conductor		✓
	accountant			✓
del Cano §	master					✓
Mendoza	treasurer	✓	✓	✓
	captain & treasurer				✓
Quesada	(title not given)	✓	✓
	captain			✓		✓
Pedro Sanchez de la Reina	the priest	✓	✓	✓		✓
Punishment
Cartagena	quartered			✓
	banished	✓	✓			✓
de Coca	(none?)
del Cano
Mendoza	killed			✓	✓	✓
	killed, then quartered	✓	✓
Quesada	beheaded, then quartered	✓	✓		✓
	killed					✓
	banished			✓
de la Reina	banished	✓	✓	✓		✓
= person not mentioned in this account. § See the April 1, 1520 notes for details of del Cano's involvement in the mutiny.

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Magellan Fleet Timeline
Ship	Concepción	San Antonio	Santiago	Trinidad	Victoria
Displacement tons	90	120	75	110	85
Captain	Gaspar de Quesada	Juan de Cartagena	João Serrão	Ferdinand Magellan	Luis de Mendoza
Pilot	Juan Carvalho	Andres de San Martin, Juan Rodriguez de Mafra		Estevan Gomez	Basco Gallego (later, Francisco Albo§)
Master	Juan Sebastian del Cano	Juan de Elorriaga	Baltasar Ginoves	Juan Bautista	Anton Salomon
Contador (accountant)		Antonio de Coca
Crew	44/44	57/55	31/30	61/62	44/45
§ Francisco Albo started the voyage as ContraMaestre (Boatswain) on the Trinidad, but later became pilot of the Victoria. The date at which he changed ships is unknown, pending further research.
1519
August 10	depart Seville
September 20	depart San Lucar
October		Cartegena imprisoned, Antonio de Coca, captain Alvaro de Mesquita, captain
1520
March 31	arrive San Julián
April 1	treason plot				treason plot
April	de Quesada executed	de Cartagena put ashore			Mendoza executed
May	João Serrão, captain		wrecked		Duarte Barbosa, captain
August 24	depart San Julián			depart San Julián
October 21	arrive Cape of 11,000 Virgins			arrive Cape of 11,000 Virgins
November		returns to Spain, Geronimo Guerra, captain
November 28	enters Pacific			enter Pacific
1521
April 27	(Serrão to Victoria)			Magellan murdered Duarte Barbosa, captain	Barbosa to Trinidad, João Serrão, captain
May 1				Barbosa murdered by natives	Serrão abandoned on shore
May	burned			Juan Carvalho, captain	Gonzalo Despinosa, captain
May 6		arrives Seville
Fall				Carvalho imprisoned, Juan Bautista, captain
September 27				Carvalho, chief pilot Despinosa captain	Juan Sebastián del Cano, captain
November 8				arrive Tidore
December				Juan de la Rosa joins crew
December 21				Carvalho remains at Tidore de la Rosa, captain
				remains at Tidore	departs Tidore
late December				begins attempt to re-cross Pacific
				Carvalho restored as captain
1522
February 14				Carvalho dies Despinosa, captain
April 6				departs Tidore
May 6 (or 16)					doubles Cape of Good Hope
September 6					arrives San Lucar
September 8					arrives Seville
late October or early Nov.				ship seized by Portuguese
Ship	Concepción	San Antonio	Santiago	Trinidad	Victoria