Collection
Language
Publication
William Morrow (2003), Edition: 1st, 480 pages
Description
The riveting story of Ferdinand Magellan's historic 60,000-mile ocean voyage-now updated with a new introduction commemorating the 500th anniversary of his journey. Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World, prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of discovery that changed both the way explorers would henceforth navigate the oceans and history itself. Now updated to include a new introduction commemorating the 500th anniversary of Magellan's voyage.
User reviews
LibraryThing member cyderry
It's hard to believe that Magellan who was as important as he was to history, doesn't even get a first page hit in Google - if it's not a GPS, Magellan is nothing. Magellan was the first person who set out and proved that by sailing west you can get to the east.
At the time of Magellan's expedition
The story was filled with tales of mutiny, cannibalism, disease, orgies, superstitions, and religious zeal. I found it fascinating.
At the time of Magellan's expedition
Show More
that was a great rivalry between Spain and Portugal. When Magellan was denied support from his own country (Portugal) he turned to King Charles of Spain. With Spanish backing, Magellan's expedition was the best-equipped during the age of Discovery. Even with this only one ship of the 5 that set out returned filled with the spices for which they had searched. The captain was dead, more than 200 of the men had died either from scurvy, drowning, torture, or execution.The story was filled with tales of mutiny, cannibalism, disease, orgies, superstitions, and religious zeal. I found it fascinating.
Show Less
LibraryThing member woollymammoth
Magellen was an amazingly determined Portugese man who became the first person to cicrcumnagivate the world. Even getting the trip going was an amazing feet of dertermination, some of his crews thought he was a despot and very few of the men he took came back.
It's a great combination of an easy
This is leaving my bookshelf over my dead body.
It's a great combination of an easy
Show More
read , historical accuracy and good research. This is leaving my bookshelf over my dead body.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
History that reads like a novel. Fascinating account of Magellan's 1520s first circumnavigation of the world. Widely considered the greatest voyage of the Age of Discovery. Left with 5 ships and 260 men, arrived 3 years later with 1 ship and 18 men. Beset from the start by corrupt officials,
If you liked this, be sure to pick up 12-years later with "Brutal Journey"
Show More
rotting supplies, feuding crew, mutinous captains, scurvy, starvation, blank charts, unreliable instruments, storms, tiny boats, deadly natives, disease -- fear of sailing off the edge of the earth -- a captain hell-bent on personal glory at the exspense of the mission -- all the while changing how humans see the world -- there are few comparable stories of human exploration.If you liked this, be sure to pick up 12-years later with "Brutal Journey"
Show Less
LibraryThing member co_coyote
This is a most interesting book about Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century. I'm always amazed (I don't know why, since I'm certainly old enough to know better by now) at how at odds my grade school history education is with how things really happened. This is
Show More
a fascinating story of an extremely complex man, leading a fractious crew on the ultimate journey of discovery. It relies heavily on Antonio Pigafetta's remarkable journal of the voyage, and describes in great detail the dangers and sights of the journey, from a mutinous crew, to dangerous natives, to the privations of life on ship. I highly recommend this book to people interested in this remarkable journey. Show Less
LibraryThing member sergerca
Once again, I'm just enthralled at naval/meritime adventure books. But what a wasted opportunity for Magellan. He spends most of his life being dumped on by his homeland (Portugal), finally get his big chance to follow his dream of finding a route to the spice islands, and he blows it only half-way
The book could have been a little more descriptive, more of a travelogue, regarding the various points of the voyage (the information about Patagonia was very interesting), but the author has a lot to cover, so I understand the glossing over in some areas.
Very much worth reading. I just can't imagine ever living through something like this, or others such as Shakleton's adventure, or the tragedy of the whaleship Essex.
Show More
through! It just goes to show that the nature of man is constant and will always be subject to the same character flaws. The book could have been a little more descriptive, more of a travelogue, regarding the various points of the voyage (the information about Patagonia was very interesting), but the author has a lot to cover, so I understand the glossing over in some areas.
Very much worth reading. I just can't imagine ever living through something like this, or others such as Shakleton's adventure, or the tragedy of the whaleship Essex.
Show Less
LibraryThing member BrokenSpines
"Terrifying" is right! This book is a page-turner from prologue to epilogue -- a thrilling account of Magellan's voyage around the world. He didn't make it all the way, but some of his crew and one of his ships did. There's no conjecture in this telling of the Magellan story. Bergreen didn't have
Show More
to fill in any blanks or skip over unknown evet nts thanks to Magellan's prolific scribe who recorded every harrowing thing that happened along the way. As a reader, I didn't feel cheated. Show Less
LibraryThing member mdtwilighter
I had to read this book for a summer reading assignment, but it was surprisingly good. It took a subject that could have been dry and boring and made it exciting and interesting. I'm glad I read it and recommend it to all history and adventure fans.
LibraryThing member pbjwelch
Everything I knew about Magellan I learned in 6th or 7th grade so it clearly was time for an update, but it took a desire to learn more about the 16th century exploration and colonisation of Asia by the European nations to introduce me to some of the most fascinating and entertaining books I've
Bergreen's history is one of those fun reads that includes everything from the origin of words ("Arabs...formulated elixirs and syrups derived from spices, including julab, from which the word "julep" derived its very name; and how Portugal's famous Guadalqivir River derived its name from the Arabic original Wadi al-Kabir, meaning "great river") to discovering that Magellan was once a page in the Lisbon royal court, together with his brother (Diogo) before seeking patronage for his planned expedition to the Indies. Three times he was turned down by the Portuguese king before he emigrated to Spain, home of Magellan's boyhood hero, Christopher Columbus, where he finally found his desired patron and hoped he would succeed where Columbus didn't. We learn that hammocks weren't yet used on board ships during Magellan's lifetime; sailors would just "appropriate a plank" or sprawl wherever there was space. That cats were only newly domesticated in Europe in the 16th century and unfortunately none had been brought onboard to keep the rat population at bay. If you're interested in obscure historical facts, you'll love Over the Edge of the World.
The story of that 1519 expedition is, of course, the main story, but it is enriched by many side stories, such as that of Faleiro, who was a brilliant cosmographer and Magellan's planned companion, but who also suffered from bipolar disorder "or some other form of extreme depression" and in the end, never went to sea. And one of the few survivors of the voyage, the Basque shipmaster Elcano, who was one of the initial mutineers.
Easy to read, fun, and a page-turner. If only secondary school history teachers would add such titles to their reading lists.
Show More
read in recent years. This is one of them.Bergreen's history is one of those fun reads that includes everything from the origin of words ("Arabs...formulated elixirs and syrups derived from spices, including julab, from which the word "julep" derived its very name; and how Portugal's famous Guadalqivir River derived its name from the Arabic original Wadi al-Kabir, meaning "great river") to discovering that Magellan was once a page in the Lisbon royal court, together with his brother (Diogo) before seeking patronage for his planned expedition to the Indies. Three times he was turned down by the Portuguese king before he emigrated to Spain, home of Magellan's boyhood hero, Christopher Columbus, where he finally found his desired patron and hoped he would succeed where Columbus didn't. We learn that hammocks weren't yet used on board ships during Magellan's lifetime; sailors would just "appropriate a plank" or sprawl wherever there was space. That cats were only newly domesticated in Europe in the 16th century and unfortunately none had been brought onboard to keep the rat population at bay. If you're interested in obscure historical facts, you'll love Over the Edge of the World.
The story of that 1519 expedition is, of course, the main story, but it is enriched by many side stories, such as that of Faleiro, who was a brilliant cosmographer and Magellan's planned companion, but who also suffered from bipolar disorder "or some other form of extreme depression" and in the end, never went to sea. And one of the few survivors of the voyage, the Basque shipmaster Elcano, who was one of the initial mutineers.
Easy to read, fun, and a page-turner. If only secondary school history teachers would add such titles to their reading lists.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Lord_Boris
As others have said this is primarily a page-turning adventure on the high seas featuring endurance, fear, starvation, mutiny, scurvy, greed, death, torture etc. All for a few barrels of cloves. The backdrop is the 'Age of Discovery' and the rivalry between the then two naval superpowers of Spain
Show More
and Portugal, both bidding for control over the lucrative spice economy. This was an unfamiliar period of history for me so I found the book enlightening in that respect. We are reminded that at the start of the voyage there was still no consensus that the earth was round, maps and charts were next to useless and superstitions regarding mythical sea creatures and cannibals abounded. The author successfully draws characters for the main players from the historical sources available. Pigafetta, the main chronicler of the voyage perhaps emerging as something of the true hero, certainly more engaging and sympathetic than Magellan. But the story is the thing here and it is quite staggering and more compelling to know that it was all true. Show Less
LibraryThing member Shrike58
A solid popular history of the first circumnavigation of the world, which gives the reader a good balance between high adventure, realpolitik, and the gritty realities of early modern seafaring. The other point that I find most striking is the dichotomy of the Magellan himself; while he drove his
Show More
subordinates over the edge in terms of allegience, it's hard to imagine a less driven and self-contained man being willing to attempt the feat in question. Show Less
LibraryThing member Doondeck
Very readable chronicle of Magellan's voyage of discovery. Many original sources/diaries were used but the narrative flowed well.
LibraryThing member darlenejoy
Any Filipino grade schooler knows that Magellan ‘discovered’ the Philippines in March 1521. What they didn’t teach in school was what happened on the historic journey that eventually proved that the world was round. Laurence Bergreen provides a gripping and detailed account of Magellan’s
We learned from school that Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sailor who sailed for the King of Spain, Charles. Bergreen tells the underlying political issues that led to this awkward situation. After much lobbying, Magellan was granted the most ambitious fleet ever–the Armada de Molucca, but his largely Spanish crew distrusted him and were forever plotting to unseat him.
Like an adventure tale, we sail with the Armada as it seeks the Spice Islands of Moluccas. In those days, spices like cloves and cinnamon were worth more than their weight in gold and whoever controlled the spice trade controlled the world economy (or at least that of Western Europe). We learn about what it was like to be a sailor in those days, that is, to risk death by scurvy or survive tumultuous waters on a diet of moldy biscuits in very unhygienic conditions. Bergreen sets the right tone for the reader to appreciate the grand scale of the voyage. It was only when I read this book that I began to understand what Magellan had done and get a glimpse into his persona. He is portrayed as fiercely loyal to King Charles, an able navigator, a discipline leader and single-minded in the pursuit of the Spice Islands.
Most interesting to me was the part where the fleet reach what is now known as the Philippine Islands. After a mutiny and unfavorable weather, the five-ship Armada is now down to three. Magellan befriends the local leader, Rajah Humabon, but earns the ire of the neighboring chieftain, Lapu-Lapu. The devout Catholic had made it his personal crusade to convert the locals to Christianity and when Lapu-Lapu’s tribe refused, Magellan burned his village. We know what happened after– Magellan was killed by a poisoned arrow that hit his leg. What is left of his crew learns from the follies of Magellan and gets back on track to finding spices and going back to Spain. They reach the Moluccas, load spices, and arrive in Seville three years after they set sail. But not without considerable adventure from their dealings with the islanders and trying to run away from the Portuguese who were hot on their trail. Only 18 out of the 260 men who left with Magellan arrive in Seville in just one ship out of the five that made up the Armada de Molucca.
Reading the book, I felt the grandeur of the expedition that was ground-breaking and broke commonly held myths 500 years ago. I wish they taught history like this. I couldn’t stop reading Bergreen’s narrative and it often felt like I was reading a thriller, not a historical account. Obviously backed by tons of research, he cites historical documents but the storytelling never gets boring; in the end the characters felt like real people and not just names in some history book. I was immersed in the world that existed then, a world eager to discover what lay beyond the vast oceans.
Rating: 5 out of 5: Highly recommended. A great story of an amazing journey during a magical time of wonder and exploration.
Show More
terrifying circumnavigation of the world in “Over the Edge of the World.” Terrifying it is, because of the wild waters, ‘uncivilized’ islanders, and mutinous crew.We learned from school that Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sailor who sailed for the King of Spain, Charles. Bergreen tells the underlying political issues that led to this awkward situation. After much lobbying, Magellan was granted the most ambitious fleet ever–the Armada de Molucca, but his largely Spanish crew distrusted him and were forever plotting to unseat him.
Like an adventure tale, we sail with the Armada as it seeks the Spice Islands of Moluccas. In those days, spices like cloves and cinnamon were worth more than their weight in gold and whoever controlled the spice trade controlled the world economy (or at least that of Western Europe). We learn about what it was like to be a sailor in those days, that is, to risk death by scurvy or survive tumultuous waters on a diet of moldy biscuits in very unhygienic conditions. Bergreen sets the right tone for the reader to appreciate the grand scale of the voyage. It was only when I read this book that I began to understand what Magellan had done and get a glimpse into his persona. He is portrayed as fiercely loyal to King Charles, an able navigator, a discipline leader and single-minded in the pursuit of the Spice Islands.
Most interesting to me was the part where the fleet reach what is now known as the Philippine Islands. After a mutiny and unfavorable weather, the five-ship Armada is now down to three. Magellan befriends the local leader, Rajah Humabon, but earns the ire of the neighboring chieftain, Lapu-Lapu. The devout Catholic had made it his personal crusade to convert the locals to Christianity and when Lapu-Lapu’s tribe refused, Magellan burned his village. We know what happened after– Magellan was killed by a poisoned arrow that hit his leg. What is left of his crew learns from the follies of Magellan and gets back on track to finding spices and going back to Spain. They reach the Moluccas, load spices, and arrive in Seville three years after they set sail. But not without considerable adventure from their dealings with the islanders and trying to run away from the Portuguese who were hot on their trail. Only 18 out of the 260 men who left with Magellan arrive in Seville in just one ship out of the five that made up the Armada de Molucca.
Reading the book, I felt the grandeur of the expedition that was ground-breaking and broke commonly held myths 500 years ago. I wish they taught history like this. I couldn’t stop reading Bergreen’s narrative and it often felt like I was reading a thriller, not a historical account. Obviously backed by tons of research, he cites historical documents but the storytelling never gets boring; in the end the characters felt like real people and not just names in some history book. I was immersed in the world that existed then, a world eager to discover what lay beyond the vast oceans.
Rating: 5 out of 5: Highly recommended. A great story of an amazing journey during a magical time of wonder and exploration.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ursula
I found this book fascinating, and an extremely quick read. I have to admit that I didn't know more than the headline version of Magellan's circumnavigation; perhaps to someone who knows more it wouldn't be nearly as interesting. The only complaint I have is that after Magellan's death, the last
Show More
part of the journey drags without the force of his personality. However, that is a short section of the book and I'd still highly recommend this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member hailelib
Over the Edge of the world is a detailed account of the Armada with Magellan as its Captain-General that set out from Spain to find the Strait that was thought to connect the Atlantic with the Seas on the other side of the Americas. Leaving Seville in 1519, the fleet's ultimate mission was to find
Magellan's mission was complicated by politics, unscrupulous suppliers, officers at odds with him and with the other officers, incompetence and inexperience among the officers, and ignorance about the size of the South American continent, the location of a possible strait and the fact that the Pacific was huge instead of the the narrow body of water they were expecting. This is a detailed account of rivalries, mutinies, and extreme hardships, the deaths of their Captain-General and many of their officers and fellow crewmen, largely drawn from the diaries and recollections of men who participated in the voyage.
Finally, in September of 1522, the last remaining ship of the fleet made it back to Seville with less than one-tenth of the men aboard who had set out on the Armada's five ships. Eighteen of the original expedition had come home having circumnavigated the globe and acquiring a cargo consisting of precious spices. It was nearly sixty years before another expedition would repeat their feat.
This was a very informative book and included detailed Notes and sources. If you like books about exploration or about the rivalry between Spain and Portugal during the Age of Discovery give this book a try.
Show More
an alternate route to the Spice Islands and claim new lands for Spain.Magellan's mission was complicated by politics, unscrupulous suppliers, officers at odds with him and with the other officers, incompetence and inexperience among the officers, and ignorance about the size of the South American continent, the location of a possible strait and the fact that the Pacific was huge instead of the the narrow body of water they were expecting. This is a detailed account of rivalries, mutinies, and extreme hardships, the deaths of their Captain-General and many of their officers and fellow crewmen, largely drawn from the diaries and recollections of men who participated in the voyage.
Finally, in September of 1522, the last remaining ship of the fleet made it back to Seville with less than one-tenth of the men aboard who had set out on the Armada's five ships. Eighteen of the original expedition had come home having circumnavigated the globe and acquiring a cargo consisting of precious spices. It was nearly sixty years before another expedition would repeat their feat.
This was a very informative book and included detailed Notes and sources. If you like books about exploration or about the rivalry between Spain and Portugal during the Age of Discovery give this book a try.
Show Less
LibraryThing member peggyar
This is the story of Magellan's voyage around the world. The details are fascinating and it gives you a true sense of the world during that time.
LibraryThing member Miro
As Bergreen says, the distance covered by the last of Magellan's ships was fifteen times longer than that covered by Columbus's first voyage to the New World. Only 18 men returned to Seville in the Victoria in 1522 having circumnavigated the globe and found a westward route through the storms and
It's almost unbelievable that they acheived this with primitive 16th century knowledge and equipment.
Show More
ice of southern tip of South America (eventual Strait of Magellan), sailing a stretch of more than 7000 miles in the Pacific without a landfall and eventually reaching the Moluccas spice islands.It's almost unbelievable that they acheived this with primitive 16th century knowledge and equipment.
Show Less
LibraryThing member stephenmakin
This is one of the best books I've ever read. I'd never heard of Magellen before this book, I don't even know why I picked it up at Waterstones. But I was gripped from the begining. Whatever challenges you are facing I am sure they are minimal compared to the challenges faced by Magellen.
LibraryThing member lyzadanger
1521: It's the height of the Spanish Inquisition. The New World has been discovered, but is mostly a cartographic blank spot (embellished with dragons and mermaids). European men and women are dirty and poor, for the most part, and the continent's cultural centers are still dragging themselves out
Bergreen's story gives us the political backdrop--a bit too much political backdrop, sometimes--a tawdry mess of Spanish-Portuguese territorial squabbles and the power ambitions of Charles V, the adolescent, Teutonic king of Spain who would be Holy Roman Emperor (he did succeed eventually). Both Spain and Portugal had been having an impetuous tantrum at each other, both wanting to lay claim to lucrative new finds. Both especially coveted the Spice Islands, the location of which had only moved from vague and legendary and unknown to vague but definitely extant. Cloves, grown only on those tiny spots in the sea (so hard to find!), were worth fortunes inconceivable in the modern context. It was primarily this aim--establishing an economic stranglehold on these agricultural cash cows--that was the driving thrust behind Magellan's trip, not a scientific or philosophic desire to discover.
Magellan himself is Portuguese--his last name has been Anglicized from the original Magalhães--but ultimately absconded to Spain when he got tired of trying to talk his own country's bureaucratic leaders into a voyage. With the air of someone who is perhaps not very large in size and who has been much stymied, Magellan embarks on a ferocious-obsessed campaign to get an armada outfitted and ultimately set off into the yonder toward South America, in pursuit of his eponymous strait, a water route to Asia and thus the Spice Islands. Well, after chugging along down the West African coast for fear of pursuit by the Portuguese, who are, you see, peeved that he went expat.
Thus commences Magellan's voyage and its concomitant, horrible attrition: ships and souls lost to disease, shipwreck, mutiny, starvation, execution, natives, accidents, drownings, stabbings. Magellan's iron-fisted authority results in grisly, punitive disembowelments and beheadings. The magical and otherworldly landscape of Tierra del Fuego is overshadowed by the stench of the holds and the scurvy tormenting the crew. The armada's chronicler (one of only 18 or so survivors of the original crew of 237) notes cultural gaffes and barbarisms that make 21st century readers cringe: we've got pillaging and raping and mass conversions and manipulations.
In short, these are not the good old days. Though the landscapes are in some cases starkly charismatic, the quotidian lives of the crew were downright dreadful, and their encounters with natives often brutal or deadly.
There are times when the vacuum left by lack of primary sources can be felt. Only Pigafetta, the chronicler, and a few other among the crew take any written notes during the voyage itself. Much of what historians have to work with are tangential, filtered viewpoints of second-, third-, seventh-hand accounts. Magellan himself is especially made enigmatic by the widely varying accounts of his personality. To some, a genius; to many, a tyrant, a liar, a crook. There are questions here that can never be answered. We will never know what drove the inner workings of Magellan during his bouts of Christian pique or authoritarianism. We'll never really know how much he really towed the line for Spain (though it does seem that he was loyal to his adopted country). And we'll never have an uncomplicated explanation of his death, in the shallows off of Cebu, in present-day Philippines.
Despite the paucity of available references, Bergreen does an admirable job of stitching together a narrative. But the path he takes is at times disappointingly linear and rigidly chronological. There are digressions--about the sexual practices of Pacific Islanders, the cartographic blunders of early mapmakers--but what a richer experience this would have been with more depth, more wildness.
Recommended.
Show More
the Middle Ages. Romanticize all you want the call of the sea, the jolly rum-soaked life of the sailor, or the noble call of exploration, but the machinations behind Ferdinand Magellan's historic first circumnavigation of the globe are much darker: greed and imperialism, mostly.Bergreen's story gives us the political backdrop--a bit too much political backdrop, sometimes--a tawdry mess of Spanish-Portuguese territorial squabbles and the power ambitions of Charles V, the adolescent, Teutonic king of Spain who would be Holy Roman Emperor (he did succeed eventually). Both Spain and Portugal had been having an impetuous tantrum at each other, both wanting to lay claim to lucrative new finds. Both especially coveted the Spice Islands, the location of which had only moved from vague and legendary and unknown to vague but definitely extant. Cloves, grown only on those tiny spots in the sea (so hard to find!), were worth fortunes inconceivable in the modern context. It was primarily this aim--establishing an economic stranglehold on these agricultural cash cows--that was the driving thrust behind Magellan's trip, not a scientific or philosophic desire to discover.
Magellan himself is Portuguese--his last name has been Anglicized from the original Magalhães--but ultimately absconded to Spain when he got tired of trying to talk his own country's bureaucratic leaders into a voyage. With the air of someone who is perhaps not very large in size and who has been much stymied, Magellan embarks on a ferocious-obsessed campaign to get an armada outfitted and ultimately set off into the yonder toward South America, in pursuit of his eponymous strait, a water route to Asia and thus the Spice Islands. Well, after chugging along down the West African coast for fear of pursuit by the Portuguese, who are, you see, peeved that he went expat.
Thus commences Magellan's voyage and its concomitant, horrible attrition: ships and souls lost to disease, shipwreck, mutiny, starvation, execution, natives, accidents, drownings, stabbings. Magellan's iron-fisted authority results in grisly, punitive disembowelments and beheadings. The magical and otherworldly landscape of Tierra del Fuego is overshadowed by the stench of the holds and the scurvy tormenting the crew. The armada's chronicler (one of only 18 or so survivors of the original crew of 237) notes cultural gaffes and barbarisms that make 21st century readers cringe: we've got pillaging and raping and mass conversions and manipulations.
In short, these are not the good old days. Though the landscapes are in some cases starkly charismatic, the quotidian lives of the crew were downright dreadful, and their encounters with natives often brutal or deadly.
There are times when the vacuum left by lack of primary sources can be felt. Only Pigafetta, the chronicler, and a few other among the crew take any written notes during the voyage itself. Much of what historians have to work with are tangential, filtered viewpoints of second-, third-, seventh-hand accounts. Magellan himself is especially made enigmatic by the widely varying accounts of his personality. To some, a genius; to many, a tyrant, a liar, a crook. There are questions here that can never be answered. We will never know what drove the inner workings of Magellan during his bouts of Christian pique or authoritarianism. We'll never really know how much he really towed the line for Spain (though it does seem that he was loyal to his adopted country). And we'll never have an uncomplicated explanation of his death, in the shallows off of Cebu, in present-day Philippines.
Despite the paucity of available references, Bergreen does an admirable job of stitching together a narrative. But the path he takes is at times disappointingly linear and rigidly chronological. There are digressions--about the sexual practices of Pacific Islanders, the cartographic blunders of early mapmakers--but what a richer experience this would have been with more depth, more wildness.
Recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Scrub
Amazing!!! I loved this book from beginning to end. Being portuguese and having heard of Magellan, I would have never thought reading about his voyage would keep me in such suspense. I kind of wished I was there to experience the adventure first hand. This book was fantastic.
LibraryThing member smb45
This was a wonderful book, one of my all time favourites. I love the details about how the sailors lived. I gave a copy to my son for Christmas and I was so pleased that he loved it too. He took it with him on a trip to the Philippines, which gave him a whole new perspective on Magellan!
LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
Synopsis:
In 1519 Spain and Portugal dominated the seas, and spice, which the author states was the oil of the time, enveloped both countries in an intense rivalry for control of the spice trade. Why couldn't both countries share the wealth? Well, after Columbus had reported his New World
Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan wanted to lead an expedition for his king to the spice Islands and a new way of getting there. However, politically, Magellan was on the wrong side of the fence; so every time he asked the king turned him down. Finally out of exasperation, he begged the king to let him seek his fortune elsewhere, the king relented and Magellan went to Spain to offer his services. Not knowing what to make of this, those in charge in Spain listened, ruminated, and allowed Magellan his expedition, yet with some controls. For example, one of the "nephews" (a euphemism for illegitimate sons of high-ranking bishops, popes, etc) of a bishop with ties to ther oyal house was sent on the mission, because even though Magellan had turned over Portuguese charts, etc, and declared his loyalty to Spain, the Spanish could never be certain of him. So...to make a long story short, eventually Magellan and his little fleet began their adventure, not only to find the spice islands & claim them for Spain, but to try to discover a water route of which the Portuguese had no knowledge. The result of his voyage was tragic for everyone but Spain, in the long run. You've all heard of the Straits of Magellan, so the outcome is no big surprise...but the story of the fleet getting to that point and then to the death of Magellan is the meat of this book.
In fact, the book to the point of Magellan's death is perfect. I was so into the story that another long night of reading ensued until I realized at 3 am that I had to be up at 6:30 and probably needed rest. Not only did the author use a great source in the voice of the voyage's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, to give details, but he also supplied references to works that would have been familiar at the time to sailors, including fantastic stories of Pliny and Marco Polo of sea monsters & cyclopean-type natives, etc etc. I have to go find those now & read them for myself. After seeking out and reading reviews of this book, I noticed that many current readers thought that Bergreen failed to provide answers to certain details Pigafetta had mentioned, such as "giants" among the Patagonian natives. Well, you can't have everything & that certainly didn't spoil the reading for me, although I did find myself wondering. What wasn't explained was certainly more than made up for in the author's story of the voyage up to Magellan's death.
It seems to me, though, that after that point, the book lapsed. Of course, Bergreen has to get the survivors of the skirmishes back to Spain and tell what happened, but IMHO, the ardor & depth with which the author told the story up to that time just vanished. That doesn't mean it wasn't good, by any stretch.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the subject matter. The details of the problems caused by the need to convert the poor natives along the way to Catholicism are great; without armchair quarterbacking from the view of time & knowledge you can just see what this led to in later voyages and with what zeal the missionaries were going to screw up the rest of the the islanders/natives not yet discovered.
In 1519 Spain and Portugal dominated the seas, and spice, which the author states was the oil of the time, enveloped both countries in an intense rivalry for control of the spice trade. Why couldn't both countries share the wealth? Well, after Columbus had reported his New World
Show More
discoveries back in 1493 to the Pope, both countries got into it over territory. A bit later the Pope divided the world into two parts, half belonging to Spain and half belonging to Portugal. I had to go and look this up because it is somewhat confusing & I studied East Asian history, not medieval Spanish history. Anyway, the Treaty of Tordesillas was born, and this line of demarcation meant that within the Portuguese zone, the Portuguese could claim lands newly discovered & the same for Spain within theirs. However, the spice trade was incredibly lucrative, according to the author, bringing more money than gold ever could. Thus the equivalent of the arms race was born, with Spain wanting control of lands yielding spices and the Portuguese in control of maps with routes leading to the sources of spice kept under lock and key, highly guarded state secrets.Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan wanted to lead an expedition for his king to the spice Islands and a new way of getting there. However, politically, Magellan was on the wrong side of the fence; so every time he asked the king turned him down. Finally out of exasperation, he begged the king to let him seek his fortune elsewhere, the king relented and Magellan went to Spain to offer his services. Not knowing what to make of this, those in charge in Spain listened, ruminated, and allowed Magellan his expedition, yet with some controls. For example, one of the "nephews" (a euphemism for illegitimate sons of high-ranking bishops, popes, etc) of a bishop with ties to ther oyal house was sent on the mission, because even though Magellan had turned over Portuguese charts, etc, and declared his loyalty to Spain, the Spanish could never be certain of him. So...to make a long story short, eventually Magellan and his little fleet began their adventure, not only to find the spice islands & claim them for Spain, but to try to discover a water route of which the Portuguese had no knowledge. The result of his voyage was tragic for everyone but Spain, in the long run. You've all heard of the Straits of Magellan, so the outcome is no big surprise...but the story of the fleet getting to that point and then to the death of Magellan is the meat of this book.
In fact, the book to the point of Magellan's death is perfect. I was so into the story that another long night of reading ensued until I realized at 3 am that I had to be up at 6:30 and probably needed rest. Not only did the author use a great source in the voice of the voyage's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, to give details, but he also supplied references to works that would have been familiar at the time to sailors, including fantastic stories of Pliny and Marco Polo of sea monsters & cyclopean-type natives, etc etc. I have to go find those now & read them for myself. After seeking out and reading reviews of this book, I noticed that many current readers thought that Bergreen failed to provide answers to certain details Pigafetta had mentioned, such as "giants" among the Patagonian natives. Well, you can't have everything & that certainly didn't spoil the reading for me, although I did find myself wondering. What wasn't explained was certainly more than made up for in the author's story of the voyage up to Magellan's death.
It seems to me, though, that after that point, the book lapsed. Of course, Bergreen has to get the survivors of the skirmishes back to Spain and tell what happened, but IMHO, the ardor & depth with which the author told the story up to that time just vanished. That doesn't mean it wasn't good, by any stretch.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the subject matter. The details of the problems caused by the need to convert the poor natives along the way to Catholicism are great; without armchair quarterbacking from the view of time & knowledge you can just see what this led to in later voyages and with what zeal the missionaries were going to screw up the rest of the the islanders/natives not yet discovered.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nbmars
In The European Discovery of America, Samuel Elliot Morrison described Ferdinand Magellan as “Tough, Tough, TOUGH.” Laurence Bergreen’s Over the Edge of the World reinforces that notion, and in addition, gives us a detailed portrait of the remarkable man who planned and led the first
It had been 27 years since Columbus had first reached the New World when Magellan set out from Seville in 1519. Spain had reached what it still thought was the “Indies,” by sailing west, but had not turned its discoveries into a paying proposition since the Western hemisphere had few trade goods, and the gold and silver of South America had yet to be developed. Both Spain and Portugal were aware that the South American land mass was very large, and neither had found a route around it or through it to the very profitable Moluccas or Spice Islands. Portugal, in the mean time, had reached the Moluccas by sailing south and then east around Africa. [It still surprises many people to learn that Vasco da Gama did not reach the real Indies until several years after Columbus had reached the Caribbean islands.]
In 1494, Pope Alexander VI issued a papal bull dividing the world for new discovery between Spain and Portugal, ceding to Spain all the undiscovered land west of a line 100 leagues (about 400 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands. Portugal was given all the undiscovered land east of that line. This compromise raised some very thorny questions. First, because at that time longitude was difficult to determine accurately, there was ample room for dispute about the actual location of the line. Second, the line was far enough west to cede part of what became Brazil to Portugal. (Later negotiation would fix the ultimate boundaries of that country.) Third, the line extended all the way around the globe through the poles, and no one knew where the line extended in the Eastern hemisphere. Thus, no one knew on which side of the line the Spice Islands were located.
Magellan was Portuguese by birth. He first tried to induce the King of Portugal to outfit an expedition to the Spice Islands by sailing west. Possibly because Portugal had already found an attractive route to the east, the king showed little interest in Magellan’s plan. In Charles I of Spain (later the most Catholic Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V), Magellan found a willing patron.
Obtaining five well provisioned and well armed ships was a good start, but Magellan had a long way to go. For one thing, his efforts to provision the fleet became known in Portugal, and the Portuguese wanted to prevent him from finding an alternate route to the Spice Islands. In order to avoid the Portuguese, he first set sail along the coast of Africa before crossing the Atlantic. The crew might have inferred their destination from the name of the fleet, The Armada de Molucca, but Magellan kept their mission a secret for fear of mutiny. Moreover, the other ship captains disliked and distrusted him, perhaps because of his Portuguese background.
Magellan thwarted two serious mutinies from Juan de Cartegena, one of his captains. He merely demoted Cartegena after the first, but marooned him with no hope of rescue after the second.
Magellan endured horrible weather at various times during the voyages. He had to spend several months at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata before attempting to go farther south in search of the strait or cape leading to the Pacific. He was able to distinguish rivers from straits because they discharged fresh water. Finally, on October 21, 1520, more that 13 months after setting sail, they rounded the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins and entered what later became known as the Strait of Magellan. Navigating the Strait was no mean task—it took 38 days to debouche into the Pacific. On the way, the captain of one of the ships of the armada decided it would safer to return to Spain, and snuck away instead of exploring the water ahead as Magellan had ordered.
No one at the time had any idea of just how immense the Pacific Ocean is. Nor did anyone with Magellan know the location or existence of hospitable islands. Once into the Pacific, Magellan headed west, with favorable winds, but still took 98 days to traverse 7,000 miles of open ocean and reach land (probably Guam) where he could obtain fresh water and food! During that stretch, he lost many of the crew to scurvy and malnutrition.
Magellan’s encounters with indigenous people, either in South America or the Pacific islands, were always fraught with danger and ambiguity. Some resulted in profitable trading and occasional sharing of native women, but several resulted in battles and mutual killing. The Spanish always had more advanced weapons and armor, but the natives were often lethal and always more numerous.
The armada made land fall in the Philippines on March 28, 1521. After impressing the natives with Spanish prowess in the form of guns and armor, Magellan made friends with a local war lord. Until that time he had been sagacious, disciplined, and prudent. But here, driven in part by a desire to convert the locals to Catholicism, he very unwisely offered his services as a military force to destroy the Mactans, who were enemies of his new best friend. The Mactans turned out to be tougher and more numerous that he had anticipated, and he and a few of his crew (mostly part of the Portuguese minority) were slaughtered in the surf while attempting an amphibious landing. Many of the crew watched his demise from the safety of their two remaining ships. Antonio Pigafetta, the chief chronicler of the voyage, implies that more might have been done to save him, but many of the remaining Spanish officers were jealous of Magellan and disliked him.
The surviving crew members still were a long way from home and had not reached the Moluccas. With the help of local traders, they reached the fabled Spice Islands and loaded their ships with the precious cargo. The return trip was nearly as harrowing as the outward voyage. One of the two remaining vessels decided to return by way of the Pacific in order to avoid the Portuguese. They were never heard from again. The other ship, piloted by Sebastian Elcano, luckily slipped through the Portuguese and limped home along the better known route around Africa, arriving in Spain three years after leaving.
The voyage of the armada represented a tremendous exercise in heroic endurance and navigation. It did not pay off for Spain, however, which never developed a thriving trade in spices. Magellan’s route to the Moluccas was simply too long, dangerous, and costly. Spain’s fortunes were made by developing the New World.
Show More
circumnavigation of the globe. It had been 27 years since Columbus had first reached the New World when Magellan set out from Seville in 1519. Spain had reached what it still thought was the “Indies,” by sailing west, but had not turned its discoveries into a paying proposition since the Western hemisphere had few trade goods, and the gold and silver of South America had yet to be developed. Both Spain and Portugal were aware that the South American land mass was very large, and neither had found a route around it or through it to the very profitable Moluccas or Spice Islands. Portugal, in the mean time, had reached the Moluccas by sailing south and then east around Africa. [It still surprises many people to learn that Vasco da Gama did not reach the real Indies until several years after Columbus had reached the Caribbean islands.]
In 1494, Pope Alexander VI issued a papal bull dividing the world for new discovery between Spain and Portugal, ceding to Spain all the undiscovered land west of a line 100 leagues (about 400 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands. Portugal was given all the undiscovered land east of that line. This compromise raised some very thorny questions. First, because at that time longitude was difficult to determine accurately, there was ample room for dispute about the actual location of the line. Second, the line was far enough west to cede part of what became Brazil to Portugal. (Later negotiation would fix the ultimate boundaries of that country.) Third, the line extended all the way around the globe through the poles, and no one knew where the line extended in the Eastern hemisphere. Thus, no one knew on which side of the line the Spice Islands were located.
Magellan was Portuguese by birth. He first tried to induce the King of Portugal to outfit an expedition to the Spice Islands by sailing west. Possibly because Portugal had already found an attractive route to the east, the king showed little interest in Magellan’s plan. In Charles I of Spain (later the most Catholic Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V), Magellan found a willing patron.
Obtaining five well provisioned and well armed ships was a good start, but Magellan had a long way to go. For one thing, his efforts to provision the fleet became known in Portugal, and the Portuguese wanted to prevent him from finding an alternate route to the Spice Islands. In order to avoid the Portuguese, he first set sail along the coast of Africa before crossing the Atlantic. The crew might have inferred their destination from the name of the fleet, The Armada de Molucca, but Magellan kept their mission a secret for fear of mutiny. Moreover, the other ship captains disliked and distrusted him, perhaps because of his Portuguese background.
Magellan thwarted two serious mutinies from Juan de Cartegena, one of his captains. He merely demoted Cartegena after the first, but marooned him with no hope of rescue after the second.
Magellan endured horrible weather at various times during the voyages. He had to spend several months at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata before attempting to go farther south in search of the strait or cape leading to the Pacific. He was able to distinguish rivers from straits because they discharged fresh water. Finally, on October 21, 1520, more that 13 months after setting sail, they rounded the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins and entered what later became known as the Strait of Magellan. Navigating the Strait was no mean task—it took 38 days to debouche into the Pacific. On the way, the captain of one of the ships of the armada decided it would safer to return to Spain, and snuck away instead of exploring the water ahead as Magellan had ordered.
No one at the time had any idea of just how immense the Pacific Ocean is. Nor did anyone with Magellan know the location or existence of hospitable islands. Once into the Pacific, Magellan headed west, with favorable winds, but still took 98 days to traverse 7,000 miles of open ocean and reach land (probably Guam) where he could obtain fresh water and food! During that stretch, he lost many of the crew to scurvy and malnutrition.
Magellan’s encounters with indigenous people, either in South America or the Pacific islands, were always fraught with danger and ambiguity. Some resulted in profitable trading and occasional sharing of native women, but several resulted in battles and mutual killing. The Spanish always had more advanced weapons and armor, but the natives were often lethal and always more numerous.
The armada made land fall in the Philippines on March 28, 1521. After impressing the natives with Spanish prowess in the form of guns and armor, Magellan made friends with a local war lord. Until that time he had been sagacious, disciplined, and prudent. But here, driven in part by a desire to convert the locals to Catholicism, he very unwisely offered his services as a military force to destroy the Mactans, who were enemies of his new best friend. The Mactans turned out to be tougher and more numerous that he had anticipated, and he and a few of his crew (mostly part of the Portuguese minority) were slaughtered in the surf while attempting an amphibious landing. Many of the crew watched his demise from the safety of their two remaining ships. Antonio Pigafetta, the chief chronicler of the voyage, implies that more might have been done to save him, but many of the remaining Spanish officers were jealous of Magellan and disliked him.
The surviving crew members still were a long way from home and had not reached the Moluccas. With the help of local traders, they reached the fabled Spice Islands and loaded their ships with the precious cargo. The return trip was nearly as harrowing as the outward voyage. One of the two remaining vessels decided to return by way of the Pacific in order to avoid the Portuguese. They were never heard from again. The other ship, piloted by Sebastian Elcano, luckily slipped through the Portuguese and limped home along the better known route around Africa, arriving in Spain three years after leaving.
The voyage of the armada represented a tremendous exercise in heroic endurance and navigation. It did not pay off for Spain, however, which never developed a thriving trade in spices. Magellan’s route to the Moluccas was simply too long, dangerous, and costly. Spain’s fortunes were made by developing the New World.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cmbohn
Themes: sailing, meeting strange and possibly unpleasant people, religion, trade, nationalism, exploration, the Spanish Inquisition!
Great story of the larger issues involved in the story of Magellan, who Magellan was, and why this story matter. Plus it's just an exciting story. Never got the whole,
Great story of the larger issues involved in the story of Magellan, who Magellan was, and why this story matter. Plus it's just an exciting story. Never got the whole,
Show More
grisly picture of this one before. Definitely worth reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member MiaCulpa
I admit to knowing little about Magellen before reading this book and came away still not knowing too much about the man but instead being somewhat gobsmacked about the voyage, the men who sailed on it and the actions of these and the people they met.
If I wasn't wincing upon reading aout the art of
Reading "Over the edge of the world" did make me wonder why it is Magellen is so well known, yet barely made it 1/2 way through the voyage, while others, like Magellen's slave Enrique, who appears to be the first person to successfully circumnavigate the world, or the Basque Juan Elcano, who commanded the voyage finally back to Spain?
I have read other sources that claim Elcano is not mentioned much due to the fact he was Basque. Who knows? Anyhoo, read the book; it's a ripping tale.
If I wasn't wincing upon reading aout the art of
Show More
"palang" (genital stretching) and how men attached a bell to their testicles and the local women could claim they would recognise the ring of each man's testes bell as he wandered by, I was bemused by the story of the Chamarro people of Guam who were looking for a fun fight with the sailors and were disappointed the sailors couldn't fight back. As for the sailors' diet of rat faeces mixed with sawdust, I will try to excise it from my nightmares.Reading "Over the edge of the world" did make me wonder why it is Magellen is so well known, yet barely made it 1/2 way through the voyage, while others, like Magellen's slave Enrique, who appears to be the first person to successfully circumnavigate the world, or the Basque Juan Elcano, who commanded the voyage finally back to Spain?
I have read other sources that claim Elcano is not mentioned much due to the fact he was Basque. Who knows? Anyhoo, read the book; it's a ripping tale.
Show Less
LibraryThing member amerynth
Laurence Bergreen's "Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe" is yet another book that proves my theory that my childhood history books boiled great stories down into the most uninteresting nuggets of facts and figures. We certainly learned about Magellan's
Bergreen's book is an excellent account of the voyage, offering a fairly balanced look at Magellan's accomplishments and failings. He did not have a particularly enlightened view about the native people he encountered (and few of the early explorers did admittedly) so parts were hard to read as he mistreated many, often in the name of his religion. The book relies heavily on the account by Pigafetta, who chronicled the voyage, supplementing to add balance to Pigafetta's near hero-worship of his "captain general."
I thought it was a good book, though for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, this was not an easy read for me. It may have been something about the writing style that didn't appeal to me as I could only read it in short bursts. I'm glad I struggled through though, as I learned a lot and found much of the material interesting.
Show More
voyage in school, but certainly nothing about its triumphs and travails along the way.Bergreen's book is an excellent account of the voyage, offering a fairly balanced look at Magellan's accomplishments and failings. He did not have a particularly enlightened view about the native people he encountered (and few of the early explorers did admittedly) so parts were hard to read as he mistreated many, often in the name of his religion. The book relies heavily on the account by Pigafetta, who chronicled the voyage, supplementing to add balance to Pigafetta's near hero-worship of his "captain general."
I thought it was a good book, though for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, this was not an easy read for me. It may have been something about the writing style that didn't appeal to me as I could only read it in short bursts. I'm glad I struggled through though, as I learned a lot and found much of the material interesting.
Show Less
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — Non-Fiction — 2005)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2003
Physical description
480 p.; 6.13 inches
ISBN
0066211735 / 9780066211732