Ferdinand Magellan is widely known and studied, yet his common image can be misleading. Magellan was not the first Circumnavigator. In fact, neither his mission nor even his intent was to sail around the world. In his captivating book In Pursuit of Longitude Magellan and the Antimeridian, marine geologist and explorer Andr Rossfelder reminds us that the Portuguese navigator's strict instructions were only to lay a Spanish claim to the fabled Spice Islands, the Moluccas. Charles of Spain had endorsed his proposal to find the seaway rumored to exist through the New World, and then to cross the unexplored face of Earth and confirm that these treasure islands were on Spain's side of the Antimeridian, the Line separating the Portuguese and Spanish domains. This meant ascertaining their position within two degrees of longitude by sole means of dead-reckoning after sailing across some 200 meridians of uncharted waters -- an extraordinaty feat. Magellan's credibility was supported by years of