This is a list of notable maritime explorers throughout the history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 of Human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

ity.

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 maritime explorer is the noted leader of the expedition http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/expedition which primarily depends on a naval vessel

Ship

Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...

 mode of transportation to reach previously unknown or less known parts of the planet

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

's maritime and coast

Coast

A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...

al regions!
Some explorers combined expeditionary roles with naturalist studies

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 and scientific research, means of establishing communication with other populations, commercial trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

, and military missions such as establishment of colonies

Chronology of colonialism

This is a non-exhaustive chronology of colonialism-related events, which may reflect political events, cultural events, and important global events that have influenced colonization and decolonization.- 15th to 18th century :...

.

List scope

Necessarily the list can only relate to individuals and their missions which used watercraft

Watercraft

A watercraft is a vessel or craft designed to move across or through water. The name is derived from the term "craft" which was used to describe all types of water going vessels...

 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

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

, the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

 and the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 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 Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...	North Atlantic	Indian Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...	Pacific	South Atlantic	Southern Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
Portuguese		de Abreu, António António de Abreu António de Abreu was a 16th century Portuguese navigator and naval officer. He participated under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque in the conquest of Ormus in 1507 and Malacca in 1511, where he got injured...
Portuguese		de Albuquerque, Afonso Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
Portuguese		de Alenquer,Pêro Pêro de Alenquer Pêro de Alenquer Portuguese explorer of the African coast. Accompanied Bartolomeu Dias in his journey around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487/1488. Latter wrote a description of Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India. Pêro was born in Alenquer....
Portuguese		de Almeida, Francisco Francisco de Almeida Dom Francisco de Almeida , also known as "the Great Dom Francisco" , was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Granada in 1492...
Portuguese		Álvares, Jorge Jorge Álvares Jorge Álvares is credited as the first Portuguese explorer to have reached China and Hong Kong. The Fundação Jorge Álvares , founded by Vasco Joaquim Rocha Vieira prior to the handover of Macau, got its name from him also having reached there.-Exploration:In May 1513 Álvares sailed under the...
Portuguese		de Azambuja, Diogo Diogo de Azambuja Diogo de Azambuja was a Portuguese noble.He was a knight of the Order of Aviz in the service of the Infante Dom Pedro, son of the Regent Infante Peter, Duke of Coimbra. After Peter's defeat and death in the battle of Alfarrobeira , he accompanied his master into exile...
Portuguese		de Barcelos, Pêro Pêro de Barcelos Pêro de Barcelos , sometimes Pedro de Barcelos, was a Portuguese explorer of North America, whom, together with João Fernandes Lavrador, was the first to sight the Coast of Labrador in 1499....
Newfoundlander		Bartlett, Robert
Estonian		von Bellingshausen, Fabian Gottlieb Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen was an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer, who ultimately rose to the rank of Admiral...						*
Danish		Bering, Vitus Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...						*
French		de Bougainville, Louis Antoine Louis Antoine de Bougainville Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of James Cook, he took part in the French and Indian War and the unsuccessful French attempt to defend Canada from Britain...
British		Byron, John John Byron Vice Admiral The Hon. John Byron, RN was a Royal Navy officer. He was known as Foul-weather Jack because of his frequent bad luck with weather.-Early career:...
Italian	Henry VII of England Henry VII of England Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....	Cabot, John John Cabot John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the continent of North America since the Norse Vikings in the eleventh century...
Italian	Henry VII of England Henry VII of England Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....  and Ferdinand II of Aragon Ferdinand II of Aragon Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...	Cabot, Sebastian Sebastian Cabot (explorer) Sebastian Cabot was an explorer, born in the Venetian Republic.-Origins:...
Portuguese		Cabral, Pedro Álvares Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
Portuguese		Cabrilho, João Rodrígues Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a Portuguese explorer noted for his exploration of the west coast of North America on behalf of Spain. Cabrillo was the first European explorer to navigate the coast of present day California in the United States...
		Cadamosto. Alvise
Portuguese		Caminha, Álvaro Álvaro Caminha Álvaro Caminha was appointed by King John II of Portugal in 1492 Captain-major – apparently the second – of São Tomé and Príncipe which had been discovered 22 years earlier....
Portuguese		de Caminha, Pêro Vaz Pêro Vaz de Caminha Pêro Vaz de Caminha , was a Portuguese knight that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral to India in 1500, as a secretary to the royal factory. Caminha wrote the detailed official report of the April 1500 discovery of Brazil by Cabral's fleet...
Portuguese		Cão,Diogo Diogo Cão Diogo Cão was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most remarkable navigators of the Age of Discovery, who made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa to Namibia in the 1480s.-Early life and family:...
		Cartier, Jacques Jacques Cartier Jacques Cartier was a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big...
		Cavendish, Thomas Thomas Cavendish Sir Thomas Cavendish was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe...
		de Champlain, Samuel Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain , "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608....
Portuguese		Coelho, Gonçalo Gonçalo Coelho Gonçalo Coelho was a Portuguese explorer who belonged to a prominent family in northern Portugal. He commanded two expeditions which explored much of the coast of Brazil....
Portuguese		Coelho, Nicolau Nicolau Coelho Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil...
Italian	Spain	Columbus, Christopher Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
English	Britain	Cook, James James Cook Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...	1768–71	1776–79				3		1
Portuguese		Corte-Real, Gaspar Gaspar Corte-Real Gaspar Corte-Real was a Portuguese explorer.He was the youngest of three sons of João Vaz Corte-Real, also a Portuguese explorer, and had accompanied his father on his expeditions to North America...
Portuguese		Corte-Real, Miguel Miguel Corte-Real Miguel Corte-Real was a Portuguese explorer who charted about 600 miles of the coast of Labrador. In 1501 he disappeared while on an expedition and was believed lost at sea.-Life:...
Portuguese		da Cunha, Tristão Tristão da Cunha Tristão da Cunha was a Portuguese explorer and naval commander. In 1514 he served as ambassador from king Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X leading a luxurious embassy presenting in Rome the new conquests of Portugal...
		Dampier, William William Dampier William Dampier was an English buccaneer, sea captain, author and scientific observer...
English		Davis, John John Davis (English explorer) John Davis , was one of the chief English navigators and explorers under Elizabeth I, especially in Polar regions and in the Far East.-Early life:...
		Dezhnev, Semyon Semyon Dezhnev Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnyov was a Russian explorer of Siberia and the first European to sail through the Bering Strait. In 1648 he sailed from the Kolyma River on the Arctic Ocean to the Anadyr River on the Pacific...						*
Portuguese		Dias, Bartolomeu Bartolomeu Dias Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...
Portuguese		Dias, Dinis Dinis Dias Dinis Dias was a 15th century Portuguese explorer.In 1445, as Dias was beginning to enter old age and made the decision to take up exploring because "he was unwilling to let himself grow soft in the well being of repose", left Portugal and sailed down the West African coast, setting a new record by...
Portuguese		Dias, Diogo Diogo Dias Diogo Dias, also known as Diogo Gomes, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli....
Portuguese		Dias, Pêro Pêro Dias Pêro Dias was a Portuguese explorer of the African coast. He accompanied his brother Bartolomeu Dias on his journey around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487/1488, having commanded the supply-ship...
Portuguese		do Pó, Fernão Fernão do Pó Fernão do Pó , also Fernão Pó, Fernando Pó, Fernando Poo was a Portuguese navigator and explorer of the West African coast. He discovered the islands in the Gulf of Guinea around 1472, one of which until the mid 1900s bore a version of his name, Fernando Pó or Fernando Poo. The island is...
		Drake,Francis Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...	1577–81	1577–81			1	1	1
Portuguese		Eanes, Gil Gil Eanes Gil Eanes was a 15th-century Portuguese navigator and explorer.Little is known about the personal life of Gil Eanes, prior to his role in the Portuguese Age of Discovery, and was considered a household servant and shield-bearer of the Infante Henry the Navigator...
		Ericson, Leif Leif Ericson Leif Ericson was a Norse explorer who is regarded as the first European to land in North America , nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus...
Spanish		Escobar, Pedro Pedro Escobar Pedro Escobar, also known as Pêro Escobar, was a 15th century Portuguese navigator who discovered São Tomé and Príncipe together with João de Santarém and Fernão do Pó circa 1470. He is then recorded sailing with Diogo Cão on his first voyage in 1482, and as the pilot of the famous Bérrio caravel...
Portuguese		Fernandes, António
		Frobisher, Martin Martin Frobisher Sir Martin Frobisher was an English seaman who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage...
Portuguese		da Gama, Estêvão Estêvão da Gama Estêvão da Gama was the Portuguese governor of Portuguese Gold Coast and Portuguese India . He was the second son of Vasco da Gama and brother of Cristóvão da Gama, and named after his paternal grandfather Estêvão da Gama....
Portuguese		da Gama, Paulo Paulo da Gama Paulo da Gama was a Portuguese explorer, son of Estevão da Gama and the older brother of Vasco da Gama.He was a member of the first voyage from Europe to India, led by his brother, commanding the ship São Rafael, which would be later scuttled in the return trip. Paulo da Gama joined the São Gabriel...
Portuguese		da Gama, Vasco Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
		Gilbert, Humfry
		Golovnin, Vasily Vasily Golovnin Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin .-Early life and career:Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin was born in April 1776, in the village of Gulyniki in Ryazan Oblast, on his father's country estate. Both his father and grandfather had served in the Russian military as officers in the elite Preobrazhensky...						*
Portuguese		Gonçalves, André André Gonçalves André Gonçalves , Portuguese explorer that accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil. Gonçalves was one of Cabral's captains of the fleet. According to some sources he was sent back to Lisbon with important news and not Gaspar de Lemos ....
Portuguese		Gonçalves, Antão Antão Gonçalves Antão Gonçalves was a 15th century Portuguese explorer and slave trader who was the first European to buy Africans as slaves from black slave traders....
Portuguese		Gonçalves, Lopes Lopes Gonçalves Lopes Gonçalves or Lopo Gonçalves was a Portuguese explorer of the African coast. He was the first European sailor to cross the equator, the first to reach the point where the coast turns south and the first to reach Gabon...
Portuguese		Grego, João João Grego João Grego was a Portuguese explorer of the African coast. He accompanied Bartolomeu Dias in his journey around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487/1488....
Chinese		He, Zheng Zheng He Zheng He , also known as Ma Sanbao and Hajji Mahmud Shamsuddin was a Hui-Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral, who commanded voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa, collectively referred to as the Voyages of Zheng He or Voyages of Cheng Ho from...						*
		Hudson, Henry Henry Hudson Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
Portuguese		Infante, João João Infante João Infante Portuguese explorer of the African coast. Accompanied Bartolomeu Dias in his journey around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487/1488....
		von Kotzebue, Otto Otto von Kotzebue Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service....						*
		Kruzenshtern, Ivan Fedorovich						*
Portuguese		Lavrador, João Fernandes João Fernandes Lavrador João Fernandes Lavrador was a Portuguese explorer of the late 15th century. He was the first modern explorer in the coasts of the Northeast of Northern America, including the Labrador peninsula, which bears his name.-Expeditions:Fernandes was granted a patent by King Manuel I in 1498 given him...
		Lazarev, Mikhail Petrovich Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev was a Russian fleet commander and explorer who discovered Antarctica.-Education and early career:Lazarev was born in Vladimir, a scion of the old Russian nobility from the Vladimir province. In 1800, he enrolled in Russia's Naval College. Three years later he...						*
Portuguese		de Lemos, Gaspar Gaspar de Lemos Gaspar de Lemos , Portuguese explorer and captain of the supply ship of Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet that discovered Brazil. Sent back to Portugal with news of their discovery, he was credited by the Viscount of Santarém as having discovered the Fernando de Noronha archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean....
		Litke, Fyodor Petrovich Fyodor Petrovich Litke Count Fyodor Petrovich Litke , born Friedrich Benjamin Lütke, was a Russian navigator, geographer, and Arctic explorer. He became a count in 1866, and an admiral in 1855. He was a Corresponding Member , Honorable Member , and President of the Russian Academy of Science in St.Petersburg...						*
Portuguese		Magellan, Ferdinand Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....
		le Maire, Jacob Jacob Le Maire Jacob Le Maire was a Dutch mariner who circumnavigated the earth in 1615-16. The strait between Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados was named the Le Maire Strait in his honor, though not without controversy...
Portuguese		Martins, Álvaro Álvaro Martins Álvaro Martins, also known as Álvaro Martins Homem, was a 15th century Portuguese alleged to have explored the western Atlantic and later the African coast...
Portuguese		Mascarenhas, Pedro Pedro Mascarenhas Pedro Mascarenhas was a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator. He was the first European to discover the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 1512...
Portuguese		de Mendaña, Álvaro
		Noli, António António Noli Antonio de Noli was a 15th century Genoese nobleman and navigator, and the first governor of the earliest European overseas colony in Subsaharan Africa. He discovered some of the Cape Verde islands on behalf of Henry the Navigator and he was made first Governor of Cape Verde by King Afonso V...
Portuguese		de Noronha, Fernão Fernão de Noronha Fernão de Loronha , whose name is often corrupted to Fernando de Noronha or Fernando della Rogna, was a prominent 16th C. Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, of Jewish descent. He was the first charter-holder , the first donatary captain in Brazil and sponsor of numerous early Portuguese overseas...
Portuguese		da Nova, João João da Nova João da Nova , Xoán de Novoa or Joam de Nôvoa galician spellings, Juan de Nova, Spanish spelling, was a Galician explorer of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the service of Portugal...
		Paulmyer, Binot
Portuguese		Pereira, Duarte Pacheco Duarte Pacheco Pereira Duarte Pacheco Pereira, called the Great, was a 15th century Portuguese sea captain, soldier, explorer and cartographer. He travelled particularly in the central Atlantic Ocean west of the Cape Verde islands, along the coast of West Africa and to India...
Portuguese		Perestrelo, Bartolomeu Bartolomeu Perestrelo Bartolomeu Perestrello , 1st Capitão Donatário, Lord and Governor of the Island of Porto Santo was a Portuguese navigator and explorer that is claimed to have discovered and populated Porto Santo Island together with João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira...
		Pining, Didrik Didrik Pining Didrik Pining was a German privateer, nobleman and governor of Iceland and Vardøhus. He is most notable because some have proposed that he may have landed in North America in the 1470s, almost twenty years before Columbus' voyages of discovery...
Portuguese		Pinto, Fernão Mendes Fernão Mendes Pinto Fernão Mendes Pinto was a Portuguese explorer and writer. His exploits are known through the posthumous publication of his memoir Pilgrimage in 1614, an autobiographical work whose truthfulness is nearly impossible to assess...
Portuguese		Pires, Luís Luís Pires Luís Pires , was a Portuguese explorer who accompanied Pedro Álvares Cabral in the discovery of Brazil, being one of the captains of the fleet. On leaving the Cape Verde Islands, Pires was forced by a storm to return to Lisbon, never having reached Brazil or India .-See also:*Exploration of Asia...
Portuguese		de Queirós, Pedro Fernandes
Portuguese		Rodrigues, Diogo Diogo Rodrigues Diogo Rodrigues was a Portuguese explorer of the Indian Ocean, after whom the island of Rodrigues is named. In 1528 he explored the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues, naming it the Mascarene or Mascarenhas Islands, after his countryman Pedro Mascarenhas, who had been there...
Portuguese		de Santarém, João João de Santarém João de Santarém Portuguese explorer that discovered São Tomé and Príncipe together with Pedro Escobar....
		Schouten, Willem Willem Schouten Willem Cornelisz Schouten was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean.- Biography :Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born in c...
Portuguese		Silves, Diogo
Portuguese		de Sintra, Pedro Pedro de Sintra Pedro de Sintra also known as Pêro de Sintra was a Portuguese explorer. He was among the first Europeans to explore the West African coast. Around 1462 his expedition reached contemporary Sierra Leone and named it. Continuing their journey, they visited the Benin Empire.-References and notes:...
Portuguese		Soromenho, Sebastião Rodrígues Sebastián Rodríguez Cermeño Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho , was a Portuguese explorer, born in Sesimbra , appointed by the king Philip II to sail along the shores of California, in the years 1595 and 1596, in order to map the American west coast line and define the maritime routes of the Pacific Ocean in the 16th...
Portuguese		de Sousa, Martim Afonso Martim Afonso de Sousa Martim Afonso de Sousa was a Portuguese fidalgo and explorer.Born in Vila Viçosa, he was commander of the first official Portuguese expedition into mainland Brazil...
		Tasman, Abel Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the VOC . His was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand and to sight the Fiji islands...
Portuguese		Teixeira, Tristão Vaz Tristão Vaz Teixeira Tristão Vaz Teixeira was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who, together with João Gonçalves Zarco and Bartolomeu Perestrelo, discovered the Madeira Islands...
Portuguese or Spanish (Galician)		de Torres, Luis Váez
Portuguese		Tristão, Nuno Nuno Tristão Nuno Tristão was a 15th century Portuguese explorer and slave trader, active in the early 1440s, traditionally thought to be the first European to reach the region of Guinea .-First Voyage:Nuno Tristão was a knight of the household of Henry the Navigator...
		Vancouver, George George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
Portuguese		Vaz Corte-Real, João
Portuguese		Velho, Gonçalo Gonçalo Velho Gonçalo Velho Cabral was a Portuguese monk and Commander in the Order of Christ, explorer and hereditary landowner responsible for administering Crown lands on the same islands, during the Portuguese Age of Discovery.-Biography:He was son of...
		da Verrazzano, Giovanni
Italian		Vespucci, Amerigo
		Wallis, Samuel Samuel Wallis Samuel Wallis was a Cornish navigator who circumnavigated the world.Wallis was born near Camelford, Cornwall. In 1766 he was given the command of HMS Dolphin to circumnavigate the world, accompanied by the Swallow under the command of Philip Carteret...
		Wrangel, Ferdinand Petrovich						*
Portuguese		Zarco, João Gonçalves João Gonçalves Zarco João Gonçalves Zarco was a Portuguese explorer who established settlements and recognition of the Madeira Islands, and was appointed first captain of Funchal by Henry the Navigator.-Life:...