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A Short History of Voyages around the World

More of this Feature

• Part 2: Taking to the Air

On this Site

• Magellan's Voyage Around the World • Steve Fossett's Balloon Success • Geography Links

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Part 1: Sailing the High Seas

The first ever around-the-world voyage was planned and carried out by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor who set out in 1519. Magellan himself didn't make it all the way back because he was killed on a small island along the way, but one of the ships returned and completed the epic voyage. English sailor Francis Drake sailed around the world several years later. Each of these voyages took three years.

Exploration of the world's waterways continued throughout the next few hundred years. So, too, continued the quest to sail around the world.

A Canadian named Joshua Slocumb sailed his ship, the Spray, around the world by himself at the end of the 19th Century. He wrote a book about it when he returned, three years later.

As exploration of the planet continued, more and more ships sailed around the world, although not often at one time.

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