September 6, 1522

Magellan expedition

Victoria returns to Sanlúcar after completing the first recorded circumnavigation

Pigafetta counted eighteen returning expedition men when Victoria entered Sanlúcar — and said most of them were sick.

Saturday, 6 September 1522

On Saturday, 6 September 1522, Victoria entered the bay of Sanlúcar de Barrameda under Juan Sebastián Elcano's command, completing a continuous westward circuit of the globe. Antonio Pigafetta reported that only eighteen members of the sixty-person crew that had left the Moluccas remained, most of them ill.

The named returning Europeans included Elcano, Pigafetta, the pilots Francisco Albo, Miguel de Rodas and Juan de Acurio, Hans of Aachen, and the page Juan de Zubileta. The ship carried on up the river to Seville two days later, on 8 September.

One ship out of five

Victoria was the only one of the expedition's five ships to complete the circuit and return to Spain. It had reached the Moluccas alongside Trinidad and sailed home alone only after Trinidad developed a serious leak and attempted a different route.

Elcano took Victoria west across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and escaped Portuguese detection after a dangerous stop at Cape Verde — where thirteen crewmen were detained only weeks before home came into sight.

What the count leaves out

The ship returned heavy with a commercial cargo dominated by cloves: 381 sacks, recorded at a net 524 quintals and 21½ libras. Spain now had direct proof that a ship could complete a global circuit by continuing westward.

The famous eighteen counts returning European expedition members; scholarship notes several Moluccan men aboard whom Pigafetta's list omits, with sources differing between three and four.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 8 sources 3 audit passes

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

Contemporary and modern sources give different totals for the expedition’s original complement—commonly about 239, 265, or 270—depending on whom and which departure point they count. The exact “270 sailors” claim should not be presented as settled.
The conventional eighteen-person list counts returning European expedition members. Scholarship also notes several Moluccan men aboard Victoria who were omitted from Pigafetta’s count; sources differ between three and four.
Whether Magellan’s enslaved interpreter Enrique had already completed an individual circumnavigation after leaving the expedition in Southeast Asia is unknown. The secure claim is that Victoria completed the first recorded shipboard circumnavigation and that its returning through-voyagers completed the continuous expedition route.
“Maestre Anes” appears to correspond to Hans of Aachen/Hans de Aquisgrán, but names and occupational labels vary among transcriptions.