Quotes from Laurence Bergreen

executioner placed the noose around the condemned man's neck, Elizabeth intervened to spare him.

Magellan spoke excitedly of his intention to sail along the eastern coast of what is now called South America until the land ended and he would be able to turn west toward the Spice Islands;

they rarely ate with the crew. To most of the men aboard the fleet, even the flagship, Trinidad, Ferdinand Magellan

possibly even food, to drift onto the pebbly beach

Magellan located a rumored passage near the southern tip of South America.

At sea, days were divided into six four-hour shifts, called watches.

Magellan brought with him many of Portugal's most precious and sensitive secrets: information about secret expeditions

he would be able to turn west toward the Spice Islands;

By this time, he had lost two ships. The three remaining vessels ventured into the passage without benefit of maps.

For four anxious years, from 1554 to 1558, he was the jure uxoris king of England

During a watch, a ship's boy supervised the half-hourglass

general, knighthood was conferred on those who glorified the Crown through military service

schooled in the royal tradition established by Prince Henry the Navigator. But he needed a sponsor.

crucial part of the map was obscured, however: the part that showed a waterway extending through South America

but the sea yielded only a few planks broken off from Santiago's hull.

Magellan's crew, confined aboard their ships, relied on worm-eaten biscuits

several glasses were generally employed for greater precision.

On April 4, 1581, almost seven months after his return, she strode onto the deck of the Golden Hind at Deptford

Magellan seemed a remote, imperious figure, authoritarian and arbitrary, a man whose every word was law

the castaways evolved a plan. They would drag the planks over the mountains until they reached the river

By March 6, 1521, the fleet reached the island of Guam

Her Majesty dined on board, and after dinner conferred the honour of knighthood on the captain.

and on whose skill, luck, and good judgment their lives depended.

Ten days later Magellan's fleet reached what is now called the Philippines