Magellan, monsters and Cameron in the Pacific

finished the well-written "Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe -- Over the Edge of the World" (2003) by Laurence Bergreen. 5 ships with 260 crew left Seville August 10, 1519; on September 8, 1522, 1 ship of 18 bare survivors returned to Seville (Magellan not among them).

what is interesting -- in a year when a private explorer, James Cameron, in his own submarine can view the deepest known place in the earth's seafloor, in the Mariana Trench (not so far from where Magellan was killed unnecessarily attacking natives) -- was the transition in viewing the world.

"At the time, Europe was deeply ignorant of the world at large. Magellan undertook his ambitious voyage in a world ruled by superstition, populated with strange and demonic creatures....To the average person, the world beyond Europe resembled the fantastic realms depicted in The Thousand and One Nights....Going to sea was the most adventurous thing one could do, the Renaissance equivalent of becoming an astronaut, but the likelihood of death and disaster was far higher. These days there are no undiscovered places on earth; in the age of the Global Positioning System, no one need get lost. But in the Age of Discovery, more than half the world was unexplored, unmapped, and misunderstood by Europeans. Mariners feared they could literally sail over the edge of the world. They believed that sea monsters lurked in the briny depths, waiting to destroy them." (p. 73)

Cameron saw some odd sea life, but hardly monsters. someone perhaps has written an appropriate 'eulogy to monsters'...the predecessors of eg recent years' physical challenges and "extreme sports". however that may be, Bergreen has written a good word on the circumnavigation undertaken with Magellan as Captain General.