Ships' Captains

Captain for the Cunard Line and was the master of the ocean liner RMS Carpathia when it rescued the survivors of the RMS Titanic which sank on April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg. He was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the U.S. Congress, and after World War I was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was made the Commodore of the Cunard fleet before retiring in 1931.

The Santa Maria was a carrack, nicknamed Gallega (the Gallician) and was the flagship for his first voyage.

Was master of the Mayflower between at least 1609 and 1622 and captained it on the transatlantic voyage that established the Plymouth Colony settlement. Also owned the Marie Fortune and a ship called the Josian, named after his wife.

On 14 April 1912 the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank with the loss of 1,500 lives.

A notorious English pirate in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic during the early 18th C. His best known vessel was the Queen Anne's Revenge, which is believed to have run aground near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina in 1718.

Endurance became trapped in pack ice en route to Antarctica and was eventually crushed by the growing pressure.

Magellan's flagship, a caravel. Other carrack ships included in the voyage were: the Victoria, the San Antonio, the Concepción and the Santiago

Halve Maen = Half Moon. The Hudson River is named after him.

Having previously gained a fearsome reputation as a naval strategist and ruthless pirate operating against Britain's enemies, Spain, France and Holland, Morgan eventually become Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica.

It was as captain of the Agamemnon that Nelson lost his eye.

(1728 – 1779) was an English explorer, navigator, cartographer and Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia & the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.[

Cabot attempted to discover the Northwest passage to Asia in the Matthew. A replica of the Matthew may be seen at Floating Harbour, Bristol.

An English pirate captain during the early 18th C. His nickname was derived from the calico clothing he wore. John Rackham is most remembered for two things, his black flag featuring the skull and crossed cutlasses, and employing the two notorious female pirates of The Golden Age of Piracy – Anne Bonny and Mary Read – in his crew.

Captain at the time of its 1989 oil spill.

HMS Investigator was Flinder's first ship. He also captained the Cumberland. Lincolnshire-born explorer Matthew Flinders is revered in Australia but almost unknown in his homeland, partly because he lived in the shadow of Captain Cook.

The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship. Built in 1869, she served as a merchant vessel (the last clipper to be built for that purpose), and then as a training ship until being put on public display in 1954. Under Captain Richard Woodget, she posted Australia-to-Britain times of as little as 67 days. Her best run, 360 nautical miles (666 km) in 24 hours (an average 15 kn (28 km/h), was said to have been the fastest of any ship of her size.

The vessel took Amundsen expedition to South Pole. They reached it on 14th December 1911. You can visit the ship as it was in The Fram Museum, in Oslo (Norway).

1868–1912. Was a Royal Naval officer and Antarctic explorer who in the so-called "Race to the South Pole" came second, behind the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

Lieutenant in the British Royal Navy he is most famous for defeating the infamous pirate Blackbeard in battle.

Chichester became the first person to sail single-handed around the world.

Previously known as The Pelican, The Golden Hind was the first British ship to circumnavigate the globe.

Accompanying Sir Walter Raleigh

Also captained the Gabriel, the Ayde and the Primrose. An English seaman who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage. He thought he had discovered gold but it was fool's gold. Was an English privateer/pirate (sanctioned by the government). He was later knighted for his service in repelling the Spanish Armada in 1588. He captained the Primrose as as vice-admiral to Sir Francis Drake in his expedition to the West Indies in 1585. In 1586 he was given command of the largest man-o-war – Triumph – in the battle against the Spanish Armada.

1578. Accompanying Sir Humphrey Gilbert who captained the Anne Archer with letters patent from the Queen to sail in search of remote heathen and barbarous lands and territories not possessed by any Christian princes.

The fictional naval hero, Captain Jack Aubrey in Peter Weir's 2003 film Master and Commander is based on Thomas Cochrane

Victory was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar but was actually captained by Hardy.

Heyerdahl used the raft, Kon-Tiki, to demonstrate that South Americans could have populated Polynesia before Europeans reached the New World.

The Bounty was subject to mutiny, led by Fletcher Christian.