Best Circumnavigation
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese navigator who entered Spanish service and commanded an expedition that departed in 1519 seeking a westward route to the Spice Islands. His fleet discovered the passage now called the Strait of Magellan and completed the first recorded European crossing of the Paci...
Juan Sebastián Elcano was a Spanish navigator who completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth. After Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, Elcano eventually took command of the Victoria and sailed westward across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, r...
Laurence Bergreen’s *Over the Edge of the World* chronicles Ferdinand Magellan’s ambitious 16th-century voyage. This travelogue recounts his expedition's first circumnavigation of Earth, a pivotal moment in maritime history. The book details the challenges faced by Magellan and his crew during their...
Joshua Slocum’s *Sailing Alone Around the World* details his remarkable 1900 journey aboard the sloop *Spray*. The book chronicles his three-year circumnavigation, a feat previously unmatched by any solo sailor. Slocum's detailed account offers insights into 19th-century seafaring and navigation. It...
The Ocean Race, formerly known as the Volvo Ocean Race and originally the Whitbread Round the World Race, is a crewed offshore sailing competition held every three or four years. First contested in 1973–74, the race is divided into legs between host cities and covers approximately 36,000 nautical mi...
Francis Drake was an English mariner, privateer and naval commander active during the reign of Elizabeth I. His expedition of 1577 to 1580 completed the second circumnavigation of the globe and made him the first commander to survive an entire circumnavigation, although the voyage also involved raid...
Ivan Fyodorovich Krusenstern, born Adam Johann von Krusenstern, was a Baltic German admiral and explorer in the Imperial Russian Navy. He is best known for leading the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe from 1803 to 1806, commanding the ships Nadezhda and Neva alongside Yuri Lisyansky. Krus...
Nellie Bly’s *Around the World in 72 Days* recounts her extraordinary journalistic journey undertaken in 1894. The book details her attempt to circumnavigate the globe for the New York World within a remarkably short timeframe. Bly's ambitious feat, achieved primarily through steamship travel, offer...
Jupiter's Travels is Ted Simon's account of a four-year journey around the world by motorcycle, begun in the 1970s on a Triumph Tiger 100. The route carried the British journalist through Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia, covering roughly 63,000 miles and more than forty countries. Rather than...
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, was an eighteenth-century French naval officer and explorer who commanded a scientific expedition intended to survey much of the Pacific. Sailing from France in 1785 with the ships Boussole and Astrolabe, the expedition visited the Americas, Asia, Austral...
Mike Horn is a South African-born Swiss explorer known for long-distance expeditions in polar regions, oceans, and remote terrestrial environments. His journeys have included a latitude-following circumnavigation near the equator, an Arctic Circle circumnavigation, and a traverse of Antarctica. He h...
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen was a Russian naval officer and explorer who lived from 1778 to 1852. He commanded the Vostok during the Russian Antarctic expedition of 1819 to 1821, with Mikhail Lazarev commanding the accompanying Mirny, and the expedition completed a circumnavigation of Antarct...
The Jules Verne Trophy is a prize awarded for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by a yacht, with no stops and no outside assistance. Established in 1993, the award is named in honor of French author Jules Verne and his novel "Around the World in Eighty Days." Competing crews typically use la...
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville was an eighteenth-century French naval officer, navigator, and explorer. He commanded the 1766-1769 expedition that completed the first French circumnavigation of the globe, traveling through the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. His published account helped shape E...
Jules Dumont d'Urville was a French naval officer, explorer, and cartographer who led voyages through the Pacific, the Mediterranean, and Antarctic waters during the nineteenth century. His expeditions contributed to European mapping and scientific study of Oceania, and he helped identify the site a...
*Across Asia on a Bicycle* is an 1894 travelogue co-authored by Thomas Gaskell Allen Jr. and William Lewis Sachtleben. The book documents the authors' ambitious bicycle journey across the Eurasian landmass, starting from Constantinople and extending through Asia Minor, Persia, and into China. Their...
