The first circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magellan Expedition, which sailed from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain in 1519 and returned in 1522, after crossing the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Since the rise of commercial aviation in the late 20th century, circumnavigating Earth is straightforward, usually taking days instead of years.[1] Today, the challenge of circumnavigating Earth has shifted towards human and technological endurance, speed, and less conventional methods.
The word circumnavigation is a noun formed from the verb circumnavigate, from the past participle of the Latin verb circumnavigare,[2] from circum "around" + navigare "to sail".[3]
Definition
A person walking completely around either pole will cross all meridians, but this is not generally considered a "circumnavigation". The path of a true (global) circumnavigation forms a continuous loop on the surface of Earth separating two regions of comparable area.[citation needed] A basic definition of a global circumnavigation would be a route which covers roughly a great circle, and in particular one which passes through at least one pair of points antipodal to each other.[4] In practice, people use different definitions of world circumnavigation to accommodate practical constraints, depending on the method of travel. Since the planet is quasispheroidal, a trip from one Pole to the other, and back again on the other side, would technically be a circumnavigation. There are practical difficulties (namely, the Arctic ice pack and the Antarctic ice sheet) in such a voyage, although it was successfully undertaken in the early 1980s by Ranulph Fiennes.[5]
History
The first circumnavigation was that of the ship Victoria between 1519 and 1522, now known as the Magellan–Elcano expedition. It was a Castilian (Spanish) voyage of discovery. The voyage started in Seville, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and—after several stops—rounded the southern tip of South America, where the expedition named the Strait of Magellan. It then continued across the Pacific, discovering a number of islands on its way (including Guam), before arriving in the Philippines. The voyage was initially led by the PortugueseFerdinand Magellan but he was killed on Mactan in the Philippines in 1521. The remaining sailors decided to circumnavigate the world instead of making the return voyage—no passage east across the Pacific would be successful for four decades—and continued the voyage across the Indian Ocean, round the southern cape of Africa, north along Africa's Atlantic coasts, and back to Spain in 1522. Of the 270 crew members who set out from Seville, only 18 were still with the expedition at the end including its surviving captain, the Spaniard Juan Sebastián Elcano.[6]
The next to circumnavigate the globe were the survivors of the Castilian/Spanish expedition of García Jofre de Loaísa between 1525 and 1536. None of the seven original ships of the Loaísa expedition nor its first four leaders—Loaísa, Elcano, Salazar, and Íñiguez—survived to complete the voyage. The last of the original ships, the Santa María de la Victoria, was sunk in 1526 in the East Indies (now Indonesia) by the Portuguese. Unable to press forward or retreat, Hernando de la Torre erected a fort on Tidore, received reinforcements under Alvaro de Saavedra that were similarly defeated, and finally surrendered to the Portuguese. In this way, a handful of survivors became the second group of circumnavigators when they were transported under guard to Lisbon in 1536. A third group came from the 117 survivors of the similarly failed Villalobos Expedition in the next decade; similarly ruined and starved, they were imprisoned by the Portuguese and transported back to Lisbon in 1546.[citation needed]
In 1577, Elizabeth I sent Francis Drake to start an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas. Drake set out from Plymouth, England in November 1577, aboard Pelican, which he renamed Golden Hind mid-voyage. In September 1578, the ship passed south of Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of South America, through the area now known as the Drake Passage.[7][8] In June 1579, Drake landed somewhere north of Spain's northernmost claim in Alta California, presumably Drakes Bay. Drake completed the second complete circumnavigation of the world in a single vessel on September 1580, becoming the first commander to survive the entire circumnavigation.
Thomas Cavendish completed his circumnavigation between 1586 and 1588 in record time—in two years and 49 days, nine months faster than Drake. It was also the first deliberately planned voyage of the globe.[9]
Captain James Cook became the first navigator to record three circumnavigations through the Pacific aboard the Endeavour from 1769 to 1779. He was among the first to complete west–east circumnavigation in high latitudes.
For the wealthy, long voyages around the world, such as was done by Ulysses S. Grant, became possible in the 19th century, and the two World Wars moved vast numbers of troops around the planet. However, it was the rise of commercial aviation in the late 20th century that made circumnavigation, when compared to the Magellan–Elcano expedition, quicker and safer.[1]
Nautical
The nautical global and fastest circumnavigation record is currently held by a wind-powered vessel, the trimaran IDEC 3. The record was established by six sailors: Francis Joyon, Alex Pella, Clément Surtel, Gwénolé Gahinet, Sébastien Audigane and Bernard Stamm. On 26 January, 2017, this crew finished circumnavigating the globe in 40days, 23hours, 30minutes and 30seconds.[10] The absolute speed sailing record around the world followed the North Atlantic Ocean, Equator, South Atlantic Ocean, Southern Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, Equator, North Atlantic Ocean route in an easterly direction.
Wind powered
The route of a typical modern sailing circumnavigation, via the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal is shown in red; its antipodes are shown in yellow.
The map on the right shows, in red, a typical, non-competitive, route for a sailing circumnavigation of the world by the trade winds and the Suez and Panama canals; overlaid in yellow are the points antipodal to all points on the route. It can be seen that the route roughly approximates a great circle, and passes through two pairs of antipodal points. This is a route followed by many cruising sailors, going in the western direction; the use of the trade winds makes it a relatively easy sail, although it passes through a number of zones of calms or light winds.[11]
The route of a typical yacht racing circumnavigation is shown in red; its antipodes are shown in yellow.
In yacht racing, a round-the-world route approximating a great circle would be quite impractical, particularly in a non-stop race where use of the Panama and Suez Canals would be impossible. Yacht racing therefore defines a world circumnavigation to be a passage of at least 21,600nautical miles (40,000km) in length which crosses the equator, crosses every meridian and finishes in the same port as it starts.[12] The second map on the right shows the route of the Vendée Globe round-the-world race in red; overlaid in yellow are the points antipodal to all points on the route. It can be seen that the route does not pass through any pairs of antipodal points. Since the winds in the higher southern latitudes predominantly blow west-to-east it can be seen that there are an easier route (west-to-east) and a harder route (east-to-west) when circumnavigating by sail; this difficulty is magnified for square-rig vessels due to the square rig's dramatic lack of upwind ability when compared to a more modern Bermuda rig.[11]
For around the world sailing records, there is a rule saying that the length must be at least 21,600nautical miles calculated along the shortest possible track from the starting port and back that does not cross land and does not go below 63°S. It is allowed to have one single waypoint to lengthen the calculated track. The equator must be crossed.[13]
The solo wind powered circumnavigation record of 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds was established by François Gabart on the maxi-multihull sailing yacht MACIF and completed on 7 December 2017.[14] The voyage followed the North Atlantic Ocean, Equator, South Atlantic Ocean, Southern Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, Equator, North Atlantic Ocean route in an easterly direction.
Mechanically powered
Since the advent of world cruises in 1922, by Cunard'sLaconia, thousands of people have completed circumnavigations of the globe at a more leisurely pace. Typically, these voyages begin in New York City or Southampton, and proceed westward. Routes vary, either travelling through the Caribbean and then into the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal, or around Cape Horn. From there ships usually make their way to Hawaii, the islands of the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, then northward to Hong Kong, South East Asia, and India. At that point, again, routes may vary: one way is through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean; the other is around Cape of Good Hope and then up the west coast of Africa. These cruises end in the port where they began.[11]
In 1960, the American nuclear-powered submarine USS Triton circumnavigated the globe in 60 days, 21 hours for Operation Sandblast.
The current circumnavigation record in a powered boat of 60 days 23 hours and 49 minutes[15] was established by a voyage of the wave-piercing trimaran Earthrace which was completed on 27 June 2008. The voyage followed the North Atlantic Ocean, Panama Canal, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea route in a westerly direction.
Since the development of commercial aviation, there are regular routes that circle the globe, such as Pan American Flight One (and later United Airlines Flight One). Today planning such a trip through commercial flight connections is simple.
Aviation records take account of the wind circulation patterns of the world; in particular the jet streams, which circulate in the northern and southern hemispheres without crossing the equator. There is therefore no requirement to cross the equator, or to pass through two antipodal points, in the course of setting a round-the-world aviation record.
For powered aviation, the course of a round-the-world record must start and finish at the same point and cross all meridians; the course must be at least 36,770 kilometres (19,850nmi) long (which is approximately the length of the Tropic of Cancer). The course must include set control points at latitudes outside the Arctic and Antarctic circles.[17]
In ballooning, which is at the mercy of the winds, the requirements are even more relaxed. The course must cross all meridians, and must include a set of checkpoints which are all outside of two circles, chosen by the pilot, having radii of 3,335.85 kilometres (2,072.80mi) and enclosing the poles (though not necessarily centred on them).[18] For example, Steve Fossett's global circumnavigation by balloon was entirely contained within the southern hemisphere.[11]
Astronautics
The first person to fly in space, Yuri Gagarin, also became the first person to complete an orbital spaceflight in the Vostok 1 spaceship within 2 hours on April 12 1961.[19] The flight started at 63°E, 45N and ended at 45°E 51°N; thus Gagarin did not circumnavigate Earth completely.
Gherman Titov in the Vostok 2 was the first human to fully circumnavigate Earth in spaceflight and made 17.5 orbits on August 6, 1961.
According to adjudicating bodies Guinness World Records and Explorersweb, Jason Lewis completed the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe on 6 October 2007.[20][21] This was part of a thirteen-year journey entitled Expedition 360.
In 2012, Turkish-born American adventurer Erden Eruç completed the first entirely solo human-powered circumnavigation, travelling by rowboat, sea kayak, foot and bicycle from 10 July 2007 to 21 July 2012,[22] crossing the equator twice, passing over 12 antipodal points, and logging 66,299 kilometres (41,196mi)[23] in 1,026 days of travel time, excluding breaks.[24]
National Geographic lists Colin Angus as being the first to complete a human-powered global circumnavigation in 2006.[25] However, his journey did not cross the equator or hit the minimum of two antipodal points as stipulated by the rules of Guinness World Records and AdventureStats by Explorersweb.[26][27][28]
People have both bicycled and run around the world, but the oceans have had to be covered by air or sea travel, making the distance shorter than the Guinness guidelines.[citation needed] To go from North America to Asia on foot is theoretically possible but very difficult. It involves crossing the Bering Strait on the ice, and around 3,000 kilometres (1,900mi) of roadless swamped or freezing cold areas in Alaska and eastern Russia. No one has so far travelled all of this route by foot. David Kunst was the first person that Guinness verified to have walked around the world between 20 June 1970 and 5 October 1974, by "[walking] 23,250 km (14,450 miles) through four continents".[29]
A replica of Magellan and Elcano's Nao Victoria, the first vessel to circumnavigate the planetIn 2012, the Swiss boat PlanetSolar became the first solar electric vehicle to circumnavigate the globe.
The survivors of García Jofre de Loaísa's Spanish expedition 1525–1536, including Andrés de Urdaneta and Hans von Aachen, who was also one of the 18 survivors of Magellan's expedition, making him the first to circumnavigate the world twice.
Francis Drake carried out the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition (and on a single independent voyage), from 1577 to 1580.[32]
Jeanne Baret is the first woman to complete a voyage of circumnavigation, in 1766–1769.[33][34]
John Hunter commanded the first ship to circumnavigate the World starting from Australia, between 2 September 1788 and 8 May 1789, with one stop in Cape Town to load supplies for the colony of New South Wales.[35]
HMSDriver completed the first circumnavigation by a steam ship in 1845–1847.
The Spanish frigate Numancia, commanded by Juan Bautista Antequera y Bobadilla, completed the first circumnavigation by an ironclad in 1865–1867.
In 2012, Laura Dekker became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handed, with stops, at the age of 16.
In 2017, trimaran IDEC 3 with sailors: Francis Joyon, Alex Pella, Clément Surtel, Gwénolé Gahinet, Sébastien Audigane and Bernard Stamm completes the fastest circumnavigation of the globe ever; in 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds. The voyage followed the North Atlantic Ocean, Equator, South Atlantic Ocean, Southern Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, Equator, North Atlantic Ocean route in an easterly direction.
In 2022, the MV Astra, a former Swedish Sea Rescue Society ship became the first sub-24m motor-powered vessel to circumnavigate the globe via the southern capes.[37][38]
In 1949, the Lucky Lady II, a Boeing B-50 Superfortress of the U.S. Air Force, commanded by Captain James Gallagher, became the first aeroplane to circle the world non-stop (by refueling the plane in flight). Total time airborne was 94 hours and one minute.
In 2002, Steve Fossett, after flying on the Spirit of Freedom balloon gondola, became the first person to fly around the world alone, nonstop in any kind of aircraft. Fossett's sole source of aid was a control center in Brookings Hall of Washington University in St. Louis.
In 2005, Steve Fossett, flying a Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, set the current record for fastest aerial circumnavigation (first non-stop, non-refueled solo circumnavigation in an airplane) in 67 hours, covering 37,000 kilometers.
In 2014, Matt Guthmiller became the youngest person to solo circumnavigate by air at age 19 years, 7 months, and 15 days.[39]
In 2020, One More Orbit[40] completed the fastest circumnavigation via both geographic poles in a Gulfstream G650ER.[41]
In 2020, Robert DeLaurentis and his twin-engine aircraft "Citizen of the World" became the first pilot and plane to successfully use biofuels over the North and South poles.
Land
In 1841–1842 Sir George Simpson made the first "land circumnavigation", crossing Canada and Siberia and returning to London.
On 13 June 2003, Robert Garside completed the first recognized run around the world, taking 5+1⁄2 years; the run was authenticated in 2007 by Guinness World Records after five years of verification.[42][43]
On 6 October 2007, Jason Lewis completed the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe (including human-powered sea crossings).[20][21]
On 21 July 2012, Erden Eruç completed the first entirely solo human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.[22][23]
Juan Sebastián Elcano was a Spanish navigator, ship-owner and explorer of Basque origin from Getaria, part of the Crown of Castile when he was born, best known for having completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth in the Spanish ship Victoria on the Magellan expedition to the Spice Islands. He received recognition for his achievement by Charles I of Spain with a coat of arms bearing a globe and the Latin motto Primus circumdedisti me.
Toribio Alonso de Salazar was a Spanish navigator of Basque origin, who was the first Westerner to arrive on the Marshall Islands on 21 August 1526.
Andrés de Urdaneta was a maritime explorer for the Spanish Empire of Basque heritage, who became an Augustinian friar. At the age of seventeen, he formed part of the Loaísa expedition to the Spice Islands where he spent more than eight years. Around 1540 he settled in New Spain and became an Augustinian friar in 1552. At the request of Philip II he joined the Legazpi expedition for a return to the Philippines. In 1565, Urdaneta discovered and plotted an easterly route across the Pacific Ocean, from the Philippines to Acapulco in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The route made it practical for Spain to colonize the Philippines and was used as the Manila galleon trade route for more than two hundred years.
The Loaísa expedition was an early 16th-century Spanish voyage of discovery to the Pacific Ocean, commanded by García Jofre de Loaísa and ordered by King Charles I of Spain to colonize the Spice Islands in the East Indies. The seven-ship fleet sailed from La Coruña, Spain in July 1525 and became the second naval expedition in history to cross the Pacific Ocean, after the Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation. The expedition resulted in the discovery of the Sea of Hoces south of Cape Horn, and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. One ship ultimately arrived in the Spice Islands in September 1526.
The clipper route was derived from the Brouwer Route and was sailed by clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route, devised by the Dutch navigator Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, reduced the time of a voyage between The Netherlands and Java, in the Dutch East Indies, from almost 12 months to about six months, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese monsoon route.
Expedition 360 is the name of a successful attempt by Briton Jason Lewis to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe using only human power – no motors or sails. It was begun by Lewis and Stevie Smith in 1994 and ended at 12:24 pm on 6 October 2007, when Lewis re-crossed the prime meridian at Greenwich, London, having travelled 74,842 km (46,505 mi).
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America, Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.
Colin Angus is a Canadian author and adventurer who is the first person to make a self-propelled global circumnavigation. Due to varying definitions of the term "circumnavigation", debate has arisen as to whether or not the route travelled fulfilled the strictest criteria. As part of the circumnavigation, Angus and his then fiancé Julie Wafaei made the first rowboat crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from mainland Europe to mainland North America, and Wafaei became the first Canadian woman to row across any ocean. Colin and Julie have two sons: Leif, born September 2010, and Oliver, born June 2014.
The Magellan expedition, also known as the Magellan–Elcano expedition, was a 16th-century Spanish expedition planned and led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. One of the most important voyages in the Age of Discovery—and in the history of exploration—its purpose was to cross the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to open a trade route with the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, in present-day Indonesia. The expedition departed Spain in 1519 and returned there in 1522 led by Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, who crossed the Indian Ocean after Magellan's death in the Philippines. Totaling 60,440 km, or 37,560 mi, the nearly three-year voyage achieved the first circumnavigation of Earth in history. It also revealed the vast scale of the Pacific Ocean and proved that ships could sail around the world on a western sea route.
Erden Eruç is a Turkish-American adventurer who became the first person in history to complete an entirely solo and entirely human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth on 21 July 2012 in Bodega Bay, California, United States. The journey had started from Bodega Bay a little more than five years earlier on 10 July 2007. The modes of transport included a rowboat to cross the oceans, a sea kayak for shorelines, a bicycle on the roads and hiking on trails, along with canoes for a few river crossings. The route he followed was 66,299 km (41,196 mi) long, crossed the equator twice and all lines of longitude, and passed over twelve pairs of antipodal points, meeting all the requirements for a true circumnavigation of the globe. Guinness World Records has officially recognized Eruç for the "First solo circumnavigation of the globe using human power" on a journey that lasted 5 years 11 days 12 hours and 22 minutes.
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean to open a maritime trade route, during which he discovered the interoceanic passage thereafter bearing his name and achieved the first European navigation to Asia via the Pacific. After his death, this expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe in 1519–22 in the service of Spain.
The Treaty of Zaragoza or Saragossa, also called the Capitulation of Zaragoza or Saragossa, was a peace treaty between Castile and Portugal, signed on 22 April 1529 by King JohnIII of Portugal and the Habsburg emperor Charles V in the Aragonese city of Zaragoza. The treaty defined the areas of Castilian and Portuguese influence in Asia in order to resolve the "Moluccas issue", which had arisen because both kingdoms claimed the lucrative Spice Islands for themselves, asserting that they were within their area of influence as specified in 1494 by the Treaty of Tordesillas. The conflict began in 1520, when expeditions from both kingdoms reached the Pacific Ocean, because no agreed meridian of longitude had been established in the far east.
The first around the world sailing record for circumnavigation of the world can be attributed to the surviving crew of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, including the last captain Juan Sebastián Elcano who completed their journey in 1522.
Operation Sandblast was the code name for the first submerged circumnavigation of the world, executed by the United States Navy nuclear-powered radar picket submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) in 1960 under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach Jr.
The Guinness World Record (GWR) for fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle is awarded for completing a continuous journey around the globe by bicycle and other means, consisting of a minimum 29,000 km in total distance cycled.
The Magellan expedition was the first voyage around the world in human history. It was a Spanish expedition that sailed from Seville in 1519 under the initial command of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor, and completed in 1522 by Spanish Basque navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano.
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe is a book written by biographer Laurence Bergreen, first published by William Morrow and Company in 2003.
The Concepción was an early 16th-century Spanish carrack during the Age of Discovery, chiefly remembered as part of the five-ship Molucca Fleet that undertook the historic 1519–22 Magellan expedition.
Maestre Anes was a member of the first circumnavigation under Ferdinand Magellan 1519–1522 and one of the 18 surviving returnees under Elcano. He sailed around the world again as a participant in the Loaísa Expedition (1525–1526), making him the first German circumnavigator and the first person to circumnavigate the earth twice.
1 2 "Media Kit – Project Summary Document"(PDF). Around-n-Over (PDF file linked from "around-n-over.org/media/mediakit.htm"). 22 August 2012. Archived(PDF) from the original on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
↑ Pigafetta, Antonio; Skelton, Raleigh Ashlin (1994). Magellan's Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN978-0-486-28099-8.[pageneeded]
↑ Coote, Stephen (2003). Drake: The Life and Legend of an Elizabethan Hero. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN978-0-312-34165-7.
↑ Dunmore, John (2002), Monsieur Baret: First Woman Around the World, Heritage Press, ISBN978-0-908708-54-3
↑ Ridley, Glynis (2010), The Discovery of Jeanne Baret, Crown Publisher New York, ISBN978-0-307-46352-4
↑ "The first fully-authenticated run around the world record has just been accepted"(PDF) (Press release). Guinness World Records. Although Robert's record attempt finished in 2003, it has taken 5 years to collate and confirm the record evidence [...] We are very cautious to accept records like this because they are difficult to certify, however Robert has provided us with full evidence which enabled us to authenticate his amazing achievement. We initially evaluated 15 boxes full of credit card statements, receipts in Robert's name and other useful evidence, which supported Robert's presence in all of the 29 countries within the time specified. We then moved on to establish whether Robert had actually been running and started to look through an astronomical number of pictures and newspaper cuttings from different parts of Robert's route. We also reviewed over 300 time-coded tapes featuring Robert running at different locations during his journey. We could finally double check the route followed through statements from several witnesses, and passports stamps and visas...
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