List of maritime explorers

This is a list of maritime explorers. 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...

Ocean explorers

Nationality	Sailed for	Name	First voyage of exploration	Last voyage of exploration	Indian	Pacific	South Atlantic	Southern
Portuguese	Portugal	de Abreu, António	1507	1512
Portuguese	Portugal	de Albuquerque, Afonso	1503
Portuguese	Portugal	de Alenquer, Pero	1487	1488
Portuguese	Portugal	de Almeida, Francisco
Portuguese	Portugal	Álvares, Jorge
Portuguese	Portugal	de Azambuja, Diogo
Portuguese	Portugal	de Barcelos, Pero
Newfoundlander^[2]	United States	Bartlett, Robert
Estonian^[3]	Russia	von Bellingshausen, Fabian Gottlieb				*^[4]
Danish^[5]	Russia	Bering, Vitus				*
French	France	de Bougainville, Louis Antoine
English	Britain	Byron, John
Italian	England	Cabot, John
Italian	England and Aragon	Cabot, Sebastian
Portuguese	Portugal	Cabral, Pedro Álvares
Portuguese^[6]	Spain	Cabrilho, João Rodrígues
Venetian	Portugal	Cadamosto. Alvise
Portuguese	Portugal	Caminha, Álvaro
Portuguese	Portugal	de Caminha, Pero Vaz
Portuguese	Portugal	Cão, Diogo
French	France	Cartier, Jacques	1534
English	England	Cavendish, Thomas	1586-1588
French	France	de Champlain, Samuel
Portuguese	Portugal	Coelho, Gonçalo
Portuguese	Portugal	Coelho, Nicolau
Italian	Spain	Columbus, Christopher
English	Britain	Cook, James	1768–1771	1776–1779		3		1
Portuguese	Portugal	Corte-Real, Gaspar
Portuguese	Portugal	Corte-Real, Miguel
Portuguese	Portugal	da Cunha, Tristão
English	England	Dampier, William
English	England and Netherlands	Davis, John
Russian	Russia	Dezhnev, Semyon				*
Portuguese	Portugal	Dias, Bartolomeu
Portuguese	Portugal	Dias, Dinis
Portuguese	Portugal	Dias, Diogo
Portuguese	Portugal	Dias, Pero
Portuguese	Portugal	do Pó, Fernão
English	England	Drake, Francis	1577–1581	1577–1581	1	1	1
Portuguese	Portugal	Eanes, Gil
Norwegian	Norse	Erik the Red
Icelandic	Norse	Ericson, Leif
Portuguese	Portugal	Escobar, Pedro
Portuguese	Portugal	Fernandes, Álvaro
English	Britain	Flinders, Matthew
English	England	Frobisher, Martin
Portuguese	Portugal	da Gama, Estêvão
Portuguese	Portugal	da Gama, Paulo
Portuguese	Portugal	da Gama, Vasco	1497-1499	1524
English	England and Ireland	Gilbert, Humphrey
Russian	Russia	Golovnin, Vasily				*
Portuguese	Portugal	Gonçalves, André
Portuguese	Portugal	Gonçalves, Antão
Portuguese	Portugal	Gonçalves, Lopes
Portuguese	Portugal	Grego, João
English	England	Hudson, Henry
Portuguese	Portugal	Infante, João
Baltic German	Russia	von Kotzebue, Otto				*
Baltic German	Russia and Britain	Kruzenshtern, Ivan Fedorovich				*
French	France	de Lapérouse, Jean François de Galaup, comte
Portuguese	Portugal and England	Lavrador, João Fernandes
Russian	Russia and Britain	Lazarev, Mikhail Petrovich				*
Portuguese	Portugal	de Lemos, Gaspar
Russian	Russia	Litke, Fyodor Petrovich				*
Portuguese	Spain and Portugal	Magellan, Ferdinand
Dutch	Netherlands	le Maire, Jacob
Portuguese	Portugal	Martins, Álvaro
Portuguese	Portugal	Mascarenhas, Pedro
Spanish	Spain	de Mendaña, Álvaro	1567-1569
Genoese	Portugal	Noli, António
Portuguese	Portugal	de Noronha, Fernão
Galician	Portugal	da Nova, João
French	France	Paulmyer, Binot
Portuguese	Portugal	Pereira, Duarte Pacheco
Portuguese	Portugal	Perestrelo, Bartolomeu
German	Denmark and Hamburg	Pining, Didrik
Portuguese	Portugal	Pinto, Fernão Mendes
Portuguese	Portugal	Pires, Luís
Portuguese	Spain	de Queirós, Pedro Fernandes
Portuguese	Portugal	Rodrigues, Diogo
Portuguese	Portugal	de Santarém, João
Dutch	Netherlands	Schouten, Willem
Irish	Britain	Shackleton, Ernest
Portuguese	Portugal	Silves, Diogo
Portuguese	Portugal	de Sintra, Pedro
Portuguese^[7]	Spain	Soromenho, Sebastião Rodrígues
Portuguese	Portugal	de Sousa, Martim Afonso
Dutch	Netherlands	Tasman, Abel
Portuguese	Portugal	Teixeira, Tristão Vaz
Portuguese or Spanish (Galician)	Spain	de Torres, Luis Váez
Portuguese	Portugal	Tristão, Nuno
English	Britain	Vancouver, George
Portuguese	Portugal	Vaz Corte-Real, João
Portuguese	Portugal	Velho, Gonçalo
Italian	France	da Verrazzano, Giovanni
Italian	Spain and Portugal	Vespucci, Amerigo
English	Britain	Wallis, Samuel
Baltic German	Russia	Wrangel, Ferdinand Petrovich				*
Portuguese	Portugal	Zarco, João Gonçalves
Chinese	China (Three Kingdoms period of China)	Kang Tai	300
Chinese	China (Three Kingdoms period of China)	Zhu Ying	300
Chinese	China (Yuen dynasty)	Wang Dayuan	1330
Chinese	China (Ming dynasty)	Zheng He	1405	1431
Chinese	China (Ming dynasty)	Ma Huan	1413
Chinese	China (Ming dynasty)	Fei Xin	1409

References and notes

^ 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.
^ Newfoundland then part of the British Empire
^ Estonia - then part of the Russian Empire
^ Indicates a voyage
^ Sailed for the Russian Empire
^ In some sources Spanish
^ In some sources Spanish

[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

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

Ocean explorers

See also

References and notes