September 20, 1519

Magellan expedition

Magellan's Armada of the Moluccas sails from Sanlúcar

The ships had already been afloat for more than a month: they left Seville in August and sat at Sanlúcar finishing their provisioning.

20 September 1519, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir

Ferdinand Magellan's five-ship fleet sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, on 20 September 1519 and entered the Atlantic. The eyewitness Antonio Pigafetta recorded that it took a southwesterly course.

The ships were Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria and Santiago, with Trinidad as Magellan's flagship.

How many men is unsettled

The archival embarkation roll used by modern scholarship gives 239 crew; Pigafetta's contemporary account says 237.

Pigafetta also records that before the ocean departure Magellan required the men to confess and barred women from joining the fleet.

Juan Sebastián Elcano sailed as master aboard Concepción — he became captain of Victoria only much later.

Not yet a voyage around the world

The expedition had begun moving from Seville on 10 August; 20 September was its definitive departure into the Atlantic.

Its stated objective was to reach the Moluccas by a western route within the Spanish demarcation, not explicitly to circumnavigate the Earth.

Six days out, on 26 September, the armada reached Tenerife to obtain meat, water and firewood.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The 20 September departure date and five-ship fleet are well supported.
Crew totals vary with the roster and moment counted: the archival roll used by modern scholarship gives 239, while Pigafetta wrote 237. Neither supports the article's exact figure of 270.