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 | Arctic[1] | North Atlantic | Indian | Pacific | South Atlantic | Southern |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portuguese | Portugal | de Abreu, António | 1507 | 1512 | ||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | de Albuquerque, Afonso | 1503 | |||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | de Alenquer,Pêro | 1487 | 1488 | ||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | de Almeida, Francisco | ||||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | Álvares, Jorge | ||||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | de Azambuja, Diogo | ||||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | de Barcelos, Pêro | ||||||||
| 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, Pêro Vaz | ||||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | Cão,Diogo | ||||||||
| French | France | Cartier, Jacques | 1534 | |||||||
| English | England | Cavendish, Thomas | 1586-88 | |||||||
| French | France | de Champlain, Samuel | ||||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | Coelho, Gonçalo | ||||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | Coelho, Nicolau | ||||||||
| Italian | Spain | Columbus, Christopher | ||||||||
| English | Britain | Cook, James | 1768–71 | 1776–79 | 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, Pêro | ||||||||
| Portuguese | Portugal | do Pó, Fernão | ||||||||
| English | England | Drake,Francis | 1577–81 | 1577–81 | 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 | 1497-99 | 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 | 1567-69 | |||||||
| 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 |
See also
- Explorer
- Polar explorer
- List of Italian explorers
- List of Russian explorers
- Timeline of maritime migration and exploration
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