Read an Excerpt
Who Was Ferdinand Magellan?
Who Was Ferdinand Magellan?
To Hopey, who’s been around the world too—S.K.
For Bill—E.W.
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Who Was Ferdinand Magellan?
Imagine a time when no one was sure the Earth was round … when people believed they’d topple over the edge if they sailed too far from home. Imagine a time when most people didn’t know there was a Pacific Ocean. Go back five hundred years, when whole continents were still undiscovered, when people thought the Earth was tiny and that monsters swam through its waters. Yet one man decided to sail his ship through unknown seas and discover what was out there.
He was not the first to make such a perilous voyage. But he went farther and stayed away longer than anyone had before. Because of his brains and courage, he is known for being the first man to circumnavigate—sail around—the globe.
Who was he?
Ferdinand Magellan.
Chapter 1
The Boy Becomes a Man
Sometime around 1480 in Portugal, a boy named Ferdinand was born to the Magellan family. The Magellans were of noble blood, but they had little money or power. They owned a farm far from the sea. This was where Ferdinand, the youngest of three children, grew up. Their house wasn’t fancy: The family lived on the top floor and their cows, goats, sheep, and chickens lived on the bottom.
