Quotes from Laurence Bergreen

Every captain sponsored by Prince Henry was under orders to record the tides, the currents, and the winds

Defecating was even more difficult, calling for a precarious balancing act as a sailor eased himself

over the rail and lowered himself onto a crude seat suspended high above the waves.

Over time, the plate from the east smashed into the plate from the west, which slid underneath.

and to compile accurate charts of the coastlines.

On May 8, 1519, amid frenzied preparations for departure, King Charles delivered his final instructions

As the two struggled, Quesada's guard took Hernández hostage, and suddenly the ship was without officers

for the voyage to Magellan and Faleiro, instructions so detailed that the two commanders might have thought the king

To urinate, they simply stood and faced the ocean wherever they could be sure that the wind would

crew, without anyone to give them orders and fearing for their lives, gave up their arms to the mutineers.

would be coming along with them in one of the ships.

he lowered his breeches and eased himself into the seat, the sailor had to void himself in full view of anyone who cared to watch

The first phase of the mutiny had gone off as planned.

Portuguese knowledge of the oceans and of the world beyond the Iberian peninsula.

Magellan could seize any Arabs he found in the Portuguese hemisphere

privacy did not exist aboard these ships—and if the sea happened to be rough

Magellan came across Arabs in the Spanish hemisphere, he was to treat them well

frigid spray splattered his exposed bottom. (More than one sailor lost his life when he plunged from the jardines

a Magellan loyalist, he resisted the temptation to hear or repeat any ill concerning his beloved captain.

When he was done, he wiped himself with a length of pitch-covered rope, and then

but at the same time he turned a blind eye to the scandals and mutinies surrounding Magellan

Magellan was to go in search of spices and lands, and nothing else, and when he reached the Spice Islands

climbed back on deck, where he no doubt breathed a sigh of relief.

The mutineers in control of San Antonio swiftly converted her into a battleship.