[thaumasiotes]

> Also recently read about Magellan's voyage and it is remarkable that they made it.

Well, they didn't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan#Voyage

> Of the 270 men who left with the expedition, only 18 or 19 survivors returned.

A 93% mortality rate really isn't a success by any metric. Losing 80% of your ships is nothing to be proud of either.

[obmelvin]

I don't see the point of your snark. What they did was quite hard for the time. What point are you trying to make?

[thaumasiotes]

They set themselves a task that they weren't up to, and they failed at it. It doesn't make sense to say "it is remarkable that they made it", because they didn't make it.

[obmelvin]

You know this happened 500 years ago, right? If someone did this today and had that death rate, I would absolutely agree, but the challenges then were drastically different. No, not everyone made it, but those who did were the first to circumnavigate the planet - and they very much did make it.

A little off topic, but as a reminder of how different the world used to be: families used to move across the US on foot, maybe with a wagon carrying their supplies, and many died doing so. I'm quite thankful I can just get on a plane to see my family :).

Also, as someone who needs to remind themselves occasionally to be less negative, I would encourage you to be less negative about things that aren't 100% a success.

P.S. If you really want to hate on Magellan it would make sense to do so for something like him burning a village in Mactan because they didn't want to convert to Catholicism[0], not this. You may be pleased to hear that this directly led to his death.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan

[distribot]

I know this is days late but I don't understand how you can say the voyage was a failure? They hobbled back home for sure, but they made it!

[didericis]

By any metric related to exploration they were wildly successful. The amount of information that was gathered and relayed on a single voyage at that point in history was astounding, and the story was incredible.