Magellan—and the mystery of three islands

By William H. Stewart
Special to the Saipan Tribune

First of two parts

One of Guam’s annual celebrations is “Discovery Day” recognized to commemorate the landing of Magellan presumably in early March 1521. My interest is not so much the commemoration per se but rather the discovery effort itself and whether or not Guam was the actual site of the landing.

As a historical cartographer I have wondered if Magellan could have seen the islands north of Guam prior to his landing. An abstract issue at best, but perhaps of interest to some mapmakers and geographers as well as others interested in trivia. Daniel Boorstin stated in his book, The Discoverers, that Ferdinand Magellan (1480?-1521), “found the extent of the Pacific Ocean an excruciating surprise and learned he had only one-third of the necessary provisions for a trip three times longer than expected.”

However, he and his 110-ton vessel, the Trinidad, had luck with the weather. During the three months and 20 days since his passage from the Atlantic, north of what is now Tierra Del Fuego, to the Pacific Ocean, he sailed 12,000 miles through open ocean and did not encounter a single storm. Misled by this one experience he gave the Pacific its name. Nor did he sight any other islands of the hundreds situated between Cape Horn and the Marianas except for two uninhabited desert islets. Both were atolls, Puka Puka (Dog Island) in the Tuamotu Archipelago (IIes du Desappointement) and the other in the Marquesas, which he named the Unfortunate Island.

A crew must have been sent ashore at both as it is recorded that no fruits or vegetables were found to ward off scurvy, nor was fresh water available on the islands. Crossing the Equator, he sailed through the seas around the Eastern Carolines not seeing a single island until reaching the Marianas presumably on March 6, 1521. How this date was determined I do not know since he had crossed what later became the 180th meridian which, several centuries later, generally came to coincide with what is now known as the International Date Line. He thus passed from one day to another or from his yesterday into today. Had he turned around he would have sailed from what was then his “today” into “yesterday” since he was already in his “tomorrow”—or something like that. Magellan first christened the archipelago Las Isles de las Velas Latinas (The Islands of the Latine Sails), because the triangular shape of the sails used on native canoes were similar to those used on Mediterranean vessels.

Seven days after departing the Marianas, Magellan was killed in Mactan on Cebu Island in the Philippines. Of the five ships in the original convoy and the complement of 250 people, only a single vessel, along with Antonoio Pigafetta (1491 – 1534?) and 17 others, completed the around the world voyage. Magellan’s chronicler, Pigafetta, mentions in his Primo Viaggio Intorno al Mondo as having sighted three islands. Did Magellan see Guam or islands north of Guam? To be continued.

Sources: Men, Ships and the Sea, 1962, National Geographic Society, Washington; Seas, Maps and Men, 1962, Doubleday and Company, London; Landmarks of Mapmaking, 1976, R. V. Tooley, Dorset Press, New York; The Discovers, 1983, Daniel J. Boorstin,Random House, New York. Appreciation to Mr. Richie Johnson, Vero Beach, Florida, for a helpful critique on viewing distances at sea.

(William H. Stewart is an economist, historian, and military cartographer.)