Victoria was the only ship from Ferdinand Magellan's fleet to complete the circumnavigation of the Earth. Although Magellan led the expedition, the ship returned to Spain under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano after Magellan was killed in the Philippines.
The expedition left Spain in 1519 with five ships: Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria, and Santiago. The fleet faced mutiny, storms, disease, starvation, and ship losses. Santiago was wrecked, San Antonio deserted the expedition and returned to Spain, and Concepción was later burned because too few sailors remained to operate it. Trinidad became unseaworthy in the Moluccas.
Victoria sailed west across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522. It had spent almost three years at sea and carried a valuable cargo of spices. A common confusion is to choose Trinidad, Magellan's flagship, but Trinidad did not make the journey home. Victoria is generally identified as the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.