For his historic circumnavigation of the globe, Ferdinand Magellan's fleet stored up to 6,000 liters of olive oil in the holds of his ships in Seville, Spain, before departing. Olive oil was an essential provision for the voyage, valued not only as a foodstuff but also as a way to preserve other foods like salted fish and vegetables. This detail highlights the crucial role of olive oil in the age of exploration, serving as a dietary staple and a preservative that enabled sailors to survive long months at sea.

Magellan's use of olive oil connects the technology of food preservation and transport to the grand narrative of exploration, a theme that would be taken up by poets and writers celebrating the age of discovery. The voyage itself became an epic subject, and the practical details of provisioning, including the olive oil, grounded these heroic tales in the material realities of seafaring. The story of the circumnavigation, with its reliance on preserved foods, entered into the literary imagination as a symbol of human daring and the global connections being forged through the transport of goods.