List of maritime explorers

Purpose of the list

The purpose of the list is to enable the reader to navigate between Wikipedia entries of diverse maritime explorers from a central encyclopedic point of reference.

Definition

A communication with other populations, commercial trade, and military missions such as establishment of colonies.

List scope

Necessarily the list can only relate to individuals and their missions which used watercraft for much of their duration. Maritime exploration has not diminished in importance with the emergence of the aircraft, and remains an important part of contemporary scientific research.

Although human maritime exploration is very ancient, only explorers known in recorded histories of their cultures are noted here. As such they represent three global maritime regions (in English alphabetic order): the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and their sub-regional seas as points of origin of the exploration missions.

Notability criteria

The list includes explorers which had contributed, and continue to contribute to human knowledge of the planet's geography, weather, biodiversity, human cultures, the expansion of trade, or established communication between diverse populations.

Although many maritime explorers also used force as part of their missions, these are not considered as a reason for exclusion from the list because it represents a subjective contemporary view of the use of force.

Ocean explorers

Nationality Sailed for Name First voyage of exploration Last voyage of exploration Arctic[1] North Atlantic Indian Pacific South Atlantic Southern
Portuguese de Abreu, António        
Portuguese de Albuquerque, Afonso        
Portuguese de Alenquer,Pêro        
Portuguese de Almeida, Francisco        
Portuguese Álvares, Jorge        
Portuguese de Azambuja, Diogo        
Portuguese de Barcelos, Pêro        
Newfoundlander[2] Bartlett, Robert        
Estonian[3] von Bellingshausen, Fabian Gottlieb     *[4]  
Danish[5] Bering, Vitus     *  
French de Bougainville, Louis Antoine        
British Byron, John        
Italian Henry VII of EnglandCabot, John        
ItalianHenry VII of England and Ferdinand II of AragonCabot, Sebastian        
Portuguese Cabral, Pedro Álvares        
Portuguese[6] Cabrilho, João Rodrígues        
VenetianPortugalCadamosto. Alvise        
Portuguese Caminha, Álvaro        
Portuguese de Caminha, Pêro Vaz        
Portuguese Cão,Diogo        
French Cartier, Jacques        
  Cavendish, Thomas        
French de Champlain, Samuel        
Portuguese Coelho, Gonçalo        
Portuguese Coelho, Nicolau        
ItalianSpainColumbus, Christopher        
EnglishBritainCook, James1768–711776–79   3 1
Portuguese Corte-Real, Gaspar        
Portuguese Corte-Real, Miguel        
Portuguese da Cunha, Tristão        
  Dampier, William        
English Davis, John        
  Dezhnev, Semyon     *  
Portuguese Dias, Bartolomeu        
Portuguese Dias, Dinis        
Portuguese Dias, Diogo        
Portuguese Dias, Pêro        
Portuguese do Pó, Fernão        
English Drake,Francis1577–811577–81  111 
Portuguese Eanes, Gil        
Norwegian Erik the Red        
  Ericson, Leif        
Portuguese Escobar, Pedro        
Portuguese Fernandes, Álvaro        
English Flinders, Matthew        
  Frobisher, Martin        
Portuguese da Gama, Estêvão        
Portuguese da Gama, Paulo        
Portuguese da Gama, Vasco        
  Gilbert, Humphrey        
  Golovnin, Vasily     *  
Portuguese Gonçalves, André        
Portuguese Gonçalves, Antão        
Portuguese Gonçalves, Lopes        
Portuguese Grego, João        
  Hudson, Henry        
Portuguese Infante, João        
German von Kotzebue, Otto     *  
  Kruzenshtern, Ivan Fedorovich     *  
French de Lapérouse,Jean François de Galaup,comte        
Portuguese Lavrador, João Fernandes        
  Lazarev, Mikhail Petrovich     *  
Portuguese de Lemos, Gaspar        
  Litke, Fyodor Petrovich     *  
Portuguese Magellan, Ferdinand        
  le Maire, Jacob        
Portuguese Martins, Álvaro        
Portuguese Mascarenhas, Pedro        
Spanish de Mendaña, Álvaro        
GenoesePortugalNoli, António        
Portuguese de Noronha, Fernão        
Portuguese da Nova, João        
  Paulmyer, Binot        
Portuguese Pereira, Duarte Pacheco        
Portuguese Perestrelo, Bartolomeu        
  Pining, Didrik        
Portuguese Pinto, Fernão Mendes        
Portuguese Pires, Luís        
Portuguese de Queirós, Pedro Fernandes        
Portuguese Rodrigues, Diogo        
Portuguese de Santarém, João        
  Schouten, Willem        
Irish Shackleton, Ernest        
Portuguese Silves, Diogo        
Portuguese de Sintra, Pedro        
Portuguese[7] Soromenho, Sebastião Rodrígues        
Portuguese de Sousa, Martim Afonso        
  Tasman, Abel        
Portuguese Teixeira, Tristão Vaz        
Portuguese or Spanish (Galician) de Torres, Luis Váez        
Portuguese Tristão, Nuno        
  Vancouver, George        
Portuguese Vaz Corte-Real, João        
Portuguese Velho, Gonçalo        
  da Verrazzano, Giovanni        
Italian Vespucci, Amerigo        
German Wallis, Samuel        
  Wrangel, Ferdinand Petrovich     *  
Portuguese Zarco, João Gonçalves        
Chinese Zheng He     *  

See also

References and notes

  1. The numbers indicate the number of exploratory voyages. A ship sailing from port through familiar seas does not start exploring until terra incognita is sighted, or a new sea is sailed confirming the lack of land as in the case of James Cook's second voyage, when he could confirm that the Terra Australis land mass did not exist in the regions of the Southern Ocean that he sailed.
  2. Newfoundland then part of the British Empire
  3. Estonia - then part of the Russian Empire
  4. Indicates a voyage
  5. Sailed for the Russian Empire
  6. In some sources Spanish
  7. In some sources Spanish
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