Great Explorers

Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa (c. 1453 – 16 December 1515) was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean and built a reputation as a fierce and skilled military Read more…

Jorge Álvares (died 8 July 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is credited as the first European to have reached China by sea during the Age of Discovery. His starting of settlements on an island in what is now Hong Kong is still considered a significant achievement, “for establishing commercial Read more…

Dom Francisco de Almeida, also known as the Great Dom Francisco (c. 1450 – 1 March 1510), 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 Read more…

Pêro de Alenquer was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer of the African coast. Born: Alenquer, Kingdom of Portugal Occupation: Explorer Pêro was born in Alenquer. He accompanied Bartolomeu Dias on his journey around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487/1488. He was the pilot of Vasco da Gama’s flagship on the Read more…

António de Abreu (c. 1480 – c. 1514) 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. Departing from Malacca in November 1511 with four ships, in an exploratory Read more…

William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. Born: baptised 5 September 1651East Coker, Somerset, England Died: Read more…

Sebastian Cabot, Spanish: Sebastián Caboto, Gaboto or Cabot; c. 1474 – c. December 1557 was a Venetian explorer, likely born in the Venetian Republic and a Venetian citizen. He was the son of Venetian explorer John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) and his Venetian wife Mattea. After his father’s death, Cabot conducted Read more…

Luís Vaz de Torres (Galician and Portuguese), or Luis Váez de Torres in the Spanish spelling (born c. 1565; fl. 1607), was a 16th- and 17th-century maritime explorer of a Spanish expedition noted for the first recorded European navigation of the strait that separates the Australian mainland from the island Read more…

Álvaro de Mendaña y Neira (or Neyra) (October 1, 1542 – October 18, 1595) was a Spanish navigator and discoverer, best known for two of the earliest recorded expeditions across the Pacific in 1567 and 1595. His voyages led to the discovery of the Marquesas, Cook Islands and Solomons among Read more…

Sir Martin Frobisher (/ˈfroʊbɪʃər/; c. 1535 – 22 November 1594) was an English seaman and privateer who made three voyages to the New World looking for the North-west Passage. He probably sighted Resolution Island near Labrador in north-eastern Canada, before entering Frobisher Bay and landing on present-day Baffin Island. Born: Read more…