Juan Sebastián Elcano was a Spanish navigator, ship-owner and explorer of Basque origin from Getaria, part of the Crown of Castile when he was born, best known for having completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth in the Spanish ship Victoria on the Magellan expedition to the Spice Islands. He received recognition for his achievement by Charles I of Spain with a coat of arms bearing a globe and the Latin motto Primus circumdedisti me.

João Rodrigues Serrão, also known as Juan Rodríguez Serrano, was a Portuguese and Spanish pilot and explorer. He served in the Portuguese India Armadas that secured control of the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca for the Portuguese but is most well known for his participation in Ferdinand Magellan's 1519–1521 expedition to the Spice Islands for Charles I of Spain, which discovered a path around South America to the Pacific and initiated Spanish involvement in the Philippines. Serrão and Duarte Barbosa became leaders of the expedition after Magellan's death at the Battle of Mactan but did not live to complete the circumnavigation with Elcano. They were both killed shortly thereafter during a massacre of the Spanish by their supposed convert and ally Humabon, raja of Cebu.