am currently watching bbc4 about magellan being the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

i remember watching a doc a while ago that said china actually had done it first (with maps to prove it) in giant super junks.

am i a big fat liar ❓ or is there some truth to this?

Generally, no matter who we all think was the first person to do something, the Chinese did it first. Or the Vikings. Or an Irish saint off the spread the good news.

I thought so too but look at this comparison … 😆

Slightly better drawing …

Yes there’s a theory that a flotilla of treasure ships set sail in 1492. A retired submariner did a lot of research and has written a book “1492- the year China discovered the world”. As usual some agree and others dispute this. He even believes China got to Australia as well. It is also claimed that as a result of these voyages they developed a way of navigating the a Southern Hemisphere.

i didnt realise there was any disputing the 1492 stuff, interesting read anyhow

Magellan didn’t circumnavigate the world. He set off with 5 ships, most of his men died on the way, he died in the Philippines, and only one ship made it back to Spain with about a dozen men left.

Francis Drake did little better. Same – five ships out, one ship back, but he never intended to sail around the world, just couldn’t find a way back to the Atlantic after sack Spanish ports on the west coast of South America. Turned west, kept going, made it back a rich man.

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…A retired submariner did a lot of research … As usual some agree and others dispute this. He even believes China got to Australia as well.

Very few people realise it was Jonathan Swift who discovered Australia in 1715, long before Caotain Cook et al.

The clue is in his books on Gullivers Travels where he places a race of people known as Yahoos in a great southern land.

If that isn’t a fair dinkum description of Australians, I don’t know what is. 🙂

1492 is a great book, well worth the read, even if apparently not reliable

All I know for sure is that Sir Francis Chichester circumcised the world solo, with a 54 foot cutter.