WHEN THE WORLD WENT FROM FLAT TO ROUND
"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church."
— Ferdinand Magellan
Over the Edge of the Earth by Lawrence Bergreen
I've recently finished Bergreen's Book, OVER THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
http://www.amazon.com/Over-Edge-World-Terrifying-Circumnavigation/dp/0066211735
In brief:
If I were to turn this book into a movie, I would work my way back from the ending. A reader needs to have a sense of the enormity of the event which is daunting .
To really get a sense of this, in many ways a miracle, you have to get a sense for just how fragile they were and we are in the greater picture. It’s like the beginning of a horror movie were in the character is oblivious and for the most part unprepared for what lies ahead. You can say, they had not the imagination for it, such a poor frame of reference and in many way completely wrong. It was so bad, it is laughable . They started their journey with the notion their world was flat, had edges they would fall off and horrific monsters.
Magellan was the first to circumnavigate the Earth that is 60,000 miles; imagine traveling only 1000 miles. It is accepted that you will have to replenish your food and water supplies many times over and many repairs on the ships with have to be improved. Further, beginning the journey, they had no idea how long it would take nor what they would face. It would be like you or me walking to Argentina with a simple back pack. We would walk through Mexico. At some point, our supplies would run out and we will have to barter with the locals. For the first part of the trip, you will probably farewell, but as you get further down, it will get allot more uncertain. It will be harder gage who you're dealing with and how to deal with them. Are you dealing with friendlies or foe? Also, the terrain and all it possesses will change. In sum, it will get harder to estimate and forecast your trip. For the better part of the 3 years at sea and the 60,000 miles the voyage was not only uncertain but it was out right perilous . On top of all this, in many ways you could say it was nearly hopeless. Out of nearly 300 men who left Seville 3 years earlier only 18 survived . Of the 5 ships that set out to see, only the smallest Victoria barely survived . It was in fact sinking manned by a dying skeleton crew .
Out of this 18 only 3 senior officers survived and came before King Charles to tell their story. Magellan was not only not present , he was forgotten and disparaged despite being the most loyal Captain to the crown. His body never recovered . He was hacked to pieces by indians. A boat full of mutineers returned early slandered Magellan to save themselves. Magellan, was not Spanish but Portuguese and was considered a traitor and his family was persecuted . The families coat of arms removed.....
Despite all of this, Magellan is considered one of the greatest explorers. His circumnavigation of Earth was very instrumental to Spain's success and knowledge of Earth. Quite literally, in mankind's mind, the world went from flat to round. This was a huge step in that there entire way of in visioning the planet .
Countless ways to address this unique step for mind kind so I'll start was a few subtle changes.
The moment The Virginia made it back to port and the information started to sink in, our entire way of envisioning the world started to unwind. Suddenly, there were no limits and our entire orientation changed . There were no longer edges of earth and we weren't traveling on flat ground nor sea. A colossal paradigm shift was underway. In a way, we went from a two dimensional world outlook to that of a three dimensional out look.
This is quite a mouthful and you need to pause and let it sink in and resonate.
Continuing, In 1522, the smallest of the 5 ships The Victoria was seen coming up the Guadalquivir river leading to Seville. It had quite literally a skeleton crew of 18 starving , diseased men. 18 was the minimum number of men that could man a sailing-ship. Half of these men were working a pump below to keep the badly damaged ship afloat . The main mast was torn and very faded, so much so it saved them from the Portuguese who were looking for them. The small ship was loaded with spice which ended up paying for the entire fleet and voyage .
After Magellan , 3 larger armadas where sent out to follow Magellans course. All of them failed with even worst results.
The final stretch of the voyage was probably the most dramatic . Lead by an inexperienced Army officer who took over because all the captains and most senior officers were dead, made a disastrous miss calculation and lead the ship out to the sea . After sailing for a month, they realized their mistake and out of desperation sailed to a Portuguese port. At the time, the Portuguese were hostile and particularly hostile because of their voyage.
They played themselves off as an ill fated cargo ship. They managed to resupply enough to make it back to Span.
Most of the tell of Magellans voyage came from one journal faithfully keep by a scholar brought along by Magellan .
I find this last stretch quite amazing and have formed a mental image of what it might have been like. The only way I can convey this thought is much like a scene from a movie.
THE PHYSICAL SETING:
FIST PERSON POINT OF VIEW:
Have you ever been out on an incredibly hot day in the desert?
You're numb, parched, and it seems like a barley conscious dream. You don't care much and are depleted . When you're starving and dehydrated it is hard to consume water and food. Some times you question why you're living and it seems you're barely holding on to a thread that leads home. Oddly, you reflect on your entire life as if you're an angel above yourself. It is so easy to give up and in a way it is uncertain why you hang on.
Imagine this person on a wooden deck . He's very aware that the ship is very damaged. It feels like a loose raft of wood, which in a way it is. It could fail any time. It is clear it would not survive an other storm.
Now consider, you are very much fearing the sea and especially the deep. You're a very superstitious fearful 1500 man. Imagine these waters were still inhabited by strange monsters and spirits. So if another storm came, the ship would disintegrate ; it will be a slow, chili death. You've seen sharks eat men alive and you know they are waiting for you. Given your weakened condition you felt absolutely vulnerable and probably would sink and or die of shock very rapidly. It is likely you would just give up. This was disgusting , you're a brave spaniard of the day. You're a devoted catholic and you're reciting hail marries in their sleep. You saying it often to drown out their fear and to keep yourself conscious. Your feeling gods presence near.
You're on the deck, and your not sure if the your were on the right course. Your rations of rice and water are horrible. You have to force yourself to eat and to keep it down. Given you're starving , it would feel like it wasn't doing any good. You probably did not want to look at the other sailors because you would be looking at men dying and in horrible condition. Further , their skeletal bodies would look like death. Given it was 1522, they would know of the black death that went through Europe killing nearly 2/3 of the population. You've heard about these horrible times from your parents who where survivors.
Having experienced so much, you feel like a indecipherable, silent encyclopedia of experiences . Returning home, you feel like an astronaut of the day. You had been in space for three years and most of there territory unknown and inhabited. You had survived treachery and desperate survival at it's worst. It was like an entire medium size rock concert going through an a Friday the 13th. Men where captured, tortured and or hacked to death by crazed savages. Drowned, strangled, hanged, drawn and quartered and dying slowly from silly accidents. Given that there were three mutinies, it was fraught with drama. The crew was full of different nationalities and even indians so their were all kinds of loyalties. so on.
So here you are turning up Guadalquivir river headed for Seville. It's surreal. You're in disbelief they made it. It is a waking dream sort of a de ju vu, you've dreamt of this day over and over. YOu feel detached yet euphoric . You couldn't even cry physically and out of fear you would go insane. Most worst, you're also so apathetic they forgot how to cry. When you're close to death, you tune everything out and in a way you're already dead. So oddly, you would have to be revived. You would have to be slowly brought back to life and probably by fascinated people. It would take awhile to fully gather yourself to make a coherent story. You know well you have been forgotten . Life would have a magical quality, a sort of heaven and you would be a bit disoriented. You would become more and more aware of just how callus and worn your body was from the elements. To some degree, you would notice your eccentricities having been in such condition for so long.
