Juan Sebastian de Elcano (1486-1526), Spanish navigator. Elcano is best known for completing the first circumnavigation of the Earth. He set sail on the Concepcion, one of five ships in Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan's expedition fleet from Seville, Spain, in August 1519. The ships sailed south and west around the tip of South America and then sailed for 100 days across the Pacific. Magellan died in the Philippines, and only the Nao Victoria with Elcano as master of the ship, completed the circumnavigation, returning to Spain in September 1522.