swap_horiz Vasco da Gama Alternatives

1

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese navigator who entered Spanish service and commanded an expedition that departed in 1...

Pacific Maritime Portuguese Circumnavigation

9.2 Excellent

2

Zheng He

Zheng He was a Chinese Muslim admiral and explorer who commanded seven massive maritime expeditions from China between 1...

Medieval Chinese Maritime Admiral

9.1 Excellent

3

Cheng Ho

Zheng He, historically romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Chinese admiral and court official of the Ming dynasty who commanded...

Medieval Chinese Maritime Indian Ocean

9.1 Excellent

4

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a Genoese navigator who led four Atlantic voyages for the Spanish Crown beginning in 1492. His...

Transatlantic Maritime Americas Age Of Exploration

8.7 Great

5

Leif Erikson

Leif Erikson was a Norse explorer, probably born in Iceland and raised in Greenland, who is described in medieval Icelan...

Medieval North America Maritime Viking

8.6 Great

6

Juan Sebastián Elcano

Juan Sebastián Elcano was a Spanish navigator who completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth. After Ferd...

Spanish Maritime Circumnavigation Age Of Exploration

8.5 Great

7

Robin Knox-Johnston

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston is a British sailor who became the first person to complete a solo, nonstop circumnavigation of...

Contemporary Global British Maritime

8.5 Great

8

Joshua Slocum

Joshua Slocum was a Canadian-born American mariner and writer who completed the first documented solo circumnavigation o...

American Global 19TH Century Maritime

8.4 Great

9

Henry the Navigator

Henry the Navigator, or Infante Henry of Portugal, was a 15th-century prince who sponsored Portuguese voyages along the...

Africa Maritime Portuguese Patron

8.3 Great

10

Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias was a Portuguese mariner and explorer who led the first recorded European expedition to round the southe...

Africa Maritime Portuguese Age Of Exploration

8.3 Great

11

Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain was a French navigator, cartographer, explorer, and colonial administrator active in northeastern No...

French Canada Great Lakes Terrestrial

8.2 Great

12

Vitus Bering

Vitus Bering was a Danish-born navigator and officer in the service of the Russian Empire. He commanded the First and Se...

18TH Century Maritime Alaska Arctic Pacific

8.2 Great

13

Francis Drake

Francis Drake was an English mariner, privateer and naval commander active during the reign of Elizabeth I. His expediti...

Privateer British Maritime Circumnavigation

8.0 Great

14

Pedro Álvares Cabral

Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese navigator who commanded a large fleet sent to India in 1500 to develop the maritim...

Brazil Maritime Atlantic Portuguese

7.8 Good

15

John Cabot

John Cabot, also known as Giovanni Caboto, was an Italian navigator who sailed under the authority of England's King Hen...

North America Maritime Atlantic Italian British

7.7 Good

16

Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson was an English navigator and explorer active in the early seventeenth century who undertook voyages seeking...

English Arctic Maritime Age Of Exploration

7.7 Good

17

Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci was a Florentine navigator and writer associated with European voyages to the Atlantic coast of South A...

Italian Maritime Cartography Americas

7.6 Good

18

Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier was a French navigator whose three voyages to North America between 1534 and 1542 helped establish Franc...

French Canada Maritime St Lawrence

7.5 Good

19

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo was a sixteenth-century maritime explorer who led a Spanish expedition along the Pacific coast o...

Spanish California North America Maritime

6.9 Fair

20

Martin Frobisher

Sir Martin Frobisher was an English sea captain and privateer who led three voyages to the Canadian Arctic in 1576, 1577...

British Arctic Maritime Age Of Exploration

6.5 Fair