OVER THE EDGE OF THE WORLD: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

Sea Power, Feb 2004 by Munns, David W

OVER THE EDGE OF THE WORLD: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen, New York, N. Y.: William Morrow, Oct. 2003. 458 pp. $27.95 ISBN: 0-06-621173-5.

Ferdinand Magellan's bold 16th-century circumnavigation of the globe has historical ramifications perhaps more significant than any other discovery of that century. It altered Europe's commonly accepted perception of the world's limits. The journey itself was a three-year expedition, spanning more than 41,000 miles. In Over the Edge of the World, Laurence Bergreen, a prize-winning biographer and journalist, details the lives of Magellan and his crew as they experienced this execrable odyssey. The book is filled with wild tales of torture, starvation, disease, foreboding sailing conditions, and, ultimately, the collapse of Magellan's sanity.