While configurations of the five ships are unknown, the Victoria has been the most studied, and life-size replicas have been built (see the above video of a replica Victoria at sea). Listed at 85 tons, the Victoria was the second-smallest of the Armada de Molucca, but also the second-most-expensive, costing more than Magellan’s flagship, the Trinidad.
The Crew
The Victoria started off with a crew of 45. Its captain, Luis Mendoza, and 27 others were from Castile. Beyond that it was an international group with seven crew members from Portugal, three each from Genoa and Naples, one each from Sicily and Venice, two from Navarre in northern Spain, three from France, and one each from Germany, Austria, and Rhodes. The large number of non-Castilians turned out to be an important factor during the Easter mutiny in 1520.
In addition to the ship’s officers and seamen were a carpenter, a caulker, a cooper, two blacksmiths, and three gunners. The carpenter, Martin de Garate, drowned off the Patagonian shore in August 1520 while crossing the Santa Cruz estuary to assess whether the just-shipwrecked Santiago could be rebuilt.
This video's footage shows how uncomfortable the voyage was: Imagine 45 or more men competing for space to eat, sleep, and do all the other things humans do … with cargo, armaments, and provisions including livestock (at one point crammed with penguins)—all against the pitching and rolling of the sea. For beds they had at best straw mats and during storms little or no dry space to lay them out. The handful of crew who returned to Spain aboard the Victoria had spent three years living in these conditions, aboard the Victoria or other ships in Magellan's five-carrack armada. Note there are four parts, covering the details of the Magellan-Elcano expedition.
Part 1, Ferdinand Magellan Voyages of Discovery
Part 2, Ferdinand Magellan Voyages of Discovery