Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was born in northern Portugal to a noble family and served as a page at the royal court. After quarreling with King Manuel, he went to Spain and convinced King Charles I to back a plan to reach the Spice Islands by sailing west, around the Americas. In September 1519 he left Spain with five ships and about 270 men. He put down a mutiny in Patagonia, and in late 1520 found the narrow, stormy passage at the tip of South America now called the Strait of Magellan. He named the calm ocean beyond it the Pacific. The crossing took more than three months, and many sailors died of scurvy and starvation, eating leather and sawdust. In the Philippines, Magellan converted local rulers to Christianity, but in April 1521 he was killed in battle on the island of Mactan by warriors led by the chief Lapulapu. Juan Sebastián Elcano led the last ship, the Victoria, back to Spain in 1522 with eighteen survivors, completing the first voyage around the world.

Faith: A Catholic who tried to convert the people he met in the Philippines to Christianity. Source: Wikipedia