Trinidad was a nao (carrack) of 100 or 110 tonels[a][3] with square sails on the fore and main masts and a lateen mizzen.

In mid-December both ships attempted to depart loaded with cloves, but Trinidad almost immediately began to leak badly.

[4] Her commander was Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, Magellan's alguacil (master-at-arms), a good soldier, but no sailor.

The previous May a fleet of seven Portuguese ships under António de Brito reached Tidore, seeking to arrest Magellan.

The remaining three – commander Espinosa, seaman and expedition diarist Ginés de Mafra, and Norwegian gunner Hans Vargue (or Bergen) – spent two years at hard labor before being shipped to Lisbon and more prison.

De Mafra, the last to be released because of the many documents he possessed, in time did become a pilot — in part because of the experience he gained with Magellan's expedition.