Pigafetta: the witness of the first circumnavigation of the planet

He was among the only 18 survivors (and 3 indigenous people from the Moluccas) out of the 265 of the Spice Armada who set out aboard five ships. Among the 18 victors of that infernal ordeal of the first circumnavigation of the planet. The face of Antonio Pigafetta is not known; no image, no bust and no monument anywhere in the world truly represents Pigafetta. This formidable man from Vicenza managed to accomplish the first true circumnavigation of the planet because its originator, Ferdinand Magellan, had died before completing it, in a journey of unimaginable hardships that lasted three eternal years. After crossing the three great oceans, he returned to Seville on September 8, 1522, aboard the last vessel to escape the violence of the sea. A return that can be considered a prodigy and as such was celebrated by the people of Seville.

He, so little a man of the sea that he could not even swim, had escaped death through some mysterious skill, through an instinct for survival or, more likely, through a concurrence of favorable events. But also because only the most tenacious succeed in the greatest enterprises. He knew how to make the right decision when, on the return voyage, at a crucial moment of the journey, upon leaving the Moluccas, he chose to board the small and badly worn Victoria instead of the Trinidad, which was undergoing repairs. Fortune or foresight, he had chosen well.

Antonio Pigafetta was born in Vicenza between 1491 and 1496 (he died between 1531 and 1535). Little can be said about his adolescence and the studies he pursued. What we know with certainty about him is what he himself tells us in his account of the first voyage around the globe, the invaluable diary of the first circumnavigation of the Earth. He was perhaps 23 years old or a little more when, having arrived in Seville, he was hired aboard a ship of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet.

San Antonio, Victoria, Concepción, Santiago and Trinidad. The San Antonio was the largest, the Santiago the smallest. All were loaded with supplies of every kind:

• utensils
• fishing equipment and kilometers of rope
• 173 pieces of canvas for sails
• 58 cannons and 50 barrels of gunpowder
• one hundred suits of armor with helmets and breastplates
• 200 round shields
• one thousand lances and 200 pikes
• hundreds of knives
• a mortar with pestle for the preparation of medicines
• 13 anchors
• 89 lanterns
• a fully equipped forge
• five drums and twenty tambourines
• nautical charts
• maps
• quadrants and planispheres
• 12 hourglasses and 6 compasses with spare magnetic needles
• two complete ovens
• a large quantity of hardtack, beans, chickpeas and lentils
• 508 casks of wine
• cod and other dried fish
• 200 barrels of anchovies, onions and garlic, raisins, figs and almonds
• 984 pieces of cheese
• three barrels of capers, flour, sugar and mustard
• 7 cows and three pigs

ACTS OF SODOMY ON THE SHIPS

He learned to use the arquebus and the crossbow, the sword and the knife, and even memorized the chants that set the rhythm of the various onboard activities. Above all, he had to learn early on to guard himself against the threats and violence typical of the rougher sailors. Acts of sodomy with young men were frequent on sailing ships, but commanders usually turned a blind eye. Magellan did not, however, and in order to set an example of firmness he punished with death the boatswain of the Victoria, for having abused a cabin boy who shortly afterward committed suicide out of shame.

LIFE ON BOARD

We know that on caravels and carracks, even those larger than the Victoria, there were no places for privacy, except for the space—very limited in any case—reserved for the commander. Intimacy was a nonexistent concept on the sailing ships of the time. Life was lived in the utmost promiscuity, and it caused no shame to expose oneself outdoors to satisfy bodily needs.

Urinating posed no problem: it was enough to lean slightly over the side, holding on to a handrail, a lifeline or a stay, and above all taking care to choose the leeward side of the ship. This, however, was a strictly enforced rule; even the most inexperienced cabin boy observed it scrupulously, under threat of mockery and cruel punishment. Defecating was more complicated, because it required a certain skill and "seaman's footing." These were acquired quickly, after a few days at sea and, naturally, through unavoidable habit. In the stern area of the ship, to starboard or port depending on the wind direction, for the occasion an outboard platform was set up between two poles, a secured gangway. At its end a ring was fixed on which it was relatively easy to squat and evacuate directly into the sea.

Hygienic conditions on board sailing ships were therefore rudimentary. Food was insufficient and lacking the essential vitamins during long voyages. The most unbearable limitation of life on board, however, was the scarcity of personal space and living areas, which allowed no intimacy whatsoever. There was no designated sleeping area. Each crew member found a little corner under deck for rest, amid the unpleasant smells rising from the hatches of putrid provisions, from the tar with which the planking was impregnated, and from the rotten hemp of the ropes.

All this lasted until, little by little, hammocks began to spread on sailing ships, an practice adopted from the Caribbean islanders and the inhabitants of Brazil. Pigafetta himself bears witness to this.

Many men had died during the crossing and the living, during the voyage, suffered from scurvy and were reduced to the limits of their strength. They had fed on everything that could be chewed and on the most repugnant things; they had even eaten rats, which were habitual inhabitants of ships

THE DEATH OF MAGELLAN AT MACTAN

It is always Pigafetta who speaks and describes the admiral's death. He does not abandon him even at the moment of the clash at Mactan, in the Philippines, when Magellan is struck down by a scimitar blow. Pigafetta was at his side and attributes to him a heroic death, since Magellan is said to have exposed himself in order to allow him and his companions to save themselves by returning to the boats that were distant from the reef where the clash took place. This occurred on April 27, 1521.

Magellan was 41 years old. His was not a glorious death. His remains disappeared without even the honor of a Christian burial. Upon that mutilated body, the island's ruler, the victor Lapu Lapu, built his future glory. In the Philippines (so named by the navigator Ruy López de Villalobos, in honor of Philip II of Spain), where the Portuguese is still regarded with contempt, Lapu Lapu is remembered as the great defender of the archipelago against the proud foreigner, whose body and armor he refused to return.

In honor of Ferdinand Magellan, the strait that divides the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was given his name. At first he had called it Canal de todos los Santos (Channel of All Saints) because the sighting of its entrance occurred on November 1, 1520.

After Magellan's death, it turned out that only 108 of the original 270 men remained, far too few to carry out the work necessary to ensure the navigation of three such large ships. It was therefore decided to abandon the smallest one in the open sea; all valuables were transferred to the Trinidad and the Victoria, and then the Concepción was set on fire. And so Magellan's fleet, originally composed of five ships, now had only two

THE TERM "ORIENTING"

The choice of the western route reflected the obsession of Christopher Columbus, who was the first to attempt to seek the Levant by going westward, convinced that he would more quickly reach the dreamed-of regions of eastern riches. There is no verb in our language that indicates going toward the West. The only verb that Westerners still use today to establish a geographical position refers to a single cardinal point: the East. To indicate a direction there are only two verbs, the canonical "to orient" and "to orient oneself." The East is the geographical preference of millennia of civilizations.

ERATOSTHENES CALCULATES THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE EARTH

Already in the 3rd century BC, the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes of Cyrene had calculated with surprising precision that the circumference of the Earth (considering it perfectly spherical, which is not entirely accurate) was 250,000 stadia, equivalent to 39,690 km compared to the actual 40,076. Therefore, with an underestimation of only 386 km! That Eratosthenes was right could only be demonstrated after Magellan's circumnavigation.