The Megallanic Diaries 3

“Here Begins the Dark Sea”

A common misunderstanding among those who know a little more about the Magellan expedition than most is that its circumnavigation proved the earth is round. Some people said the same almost 500 years later about the famous photo of Earth from Apollo 8 in Moon orbit. Leaving aside the understanding of proof we wish to adopt for the consideration, the further implication, in the first instance, is that people didn’t already believe the earth round. One can’t say with any confidence what most people then believed (Gallup wasn’t polling in those days) but amongst the educated, the earth had been understood as round for centuries. Of course, the vast majority of people during the Middle Ages were uneducated, and then, as now – as much evidence now attests – there was little reliable correlation between education and reason or even reason’s fine young sibling or stalwart old aunt, common sense. Accordingly, many of Magellan’s mariners – who were not told of an intent to circumnavigate the g…