JUAN SEBASTIAN DEL CANO 

Born in 1476, Juan Sebastian del Cano was both a Spanish explorer and adventurer.  Although he was successful at many things, his legacy is that of being the captain of the first ship to circumnavigate the globe after Ferdinand Magellan died who was the original commander.  Although Cano did in 1526, he left his mark on history.  Setting sail in 1519 as a soldier with Magellan, the mission of the fleet was to find a sea passage that went through the mainland, and then to set sail heading west to Spice Islands. 

Once the islands were found, they would claim it for the Spanish crown.  During this particular voyage, Megallan’s captains and officers, along with Cano mutinied off the coast of South America.  With the mutiny put down, Cano was punished with the other people involved.  However, the ships continued their journey to the Philippine Islands, which is where Magellan was killed by the natives, as well as the majority of his officers. 

With Megallan dead, there were two ships remaining in the fleet, the Trinidad and Victoria, that had holds full of cloves.  Therefore, they turned and quickly sailed back to Spain.  At this time, the survivors disagreed as to who should become the leader of the expedition.  Not being able to agree, the ships split up.  As the Trinidad headed east toward the Spanish colonies in America, Victoria fell under Cano’s leadership, heading west to Spain.  With this, Cano accomplished his greatest feat of completing the circumnavigation of the world. 

At this point, Cano was hailed a national hero for this achievement.  Because of this, he received a pension from Spain’s king, King Charles.  Now, over time people began to realize the important role Megallan played in this, which caused Cano’s fame to fade.  When Cano died, he was in command of yet another expedition, just off the coast of South America.  Although Cano was the one that sailed around the world, he would never get the full credit that he was due.  Instead, our history books would go on to give the majority of the credit to Magellan.