European explorers first ventured in to the Pacific region in the early sixteenth century. By 1850, they had “discovered” and charted most of the ocean, the islands in it and the outline of the neighbouring continent of Australia. As well as criss-crossing the ocean, some explorers had ventured into Antarctic and Arctic waters. The northwest Coast of North America saw a lot of activity, largely through the men exploiting the sea otter fur trade while people worked on Russia’s behalf to investigate the Northwest Pacific and help establish a Russian presence in the region.
Various logs and journals have been published highlighting the exploits of the explorers. To those have been added many reworkings by historians. Some general works are listed below but the bibliography in the Historical dictionary of the discovery and exploration of the Pacific islands is especially useful.
Most of the above works are textual with only a smattering of maps to show where explorers may have sailed. This database aims to remedy that lack of maps by providing maps that have been purpose-drawn to show the lives and careers of the principal explorers.
Each explorer has a set of maps depicting, in chronological order, where they were on their voyages and at other times in their lives.
Text, representing a biography, has been added to the maps to explain the events that were taking place at the locations shown. I have shown tracks for only a few explorers where detailed information was available – for most, the information is too vague.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is correct. However, it is acknowledged there may be some errors, for which apologies. There are probably some spelling errors which, usually, are down to my typing. Map purists will object to the lack of a north point and a scale – however, north with very few exceptions is at the top of the page while the maps have been manipulated to fit the space allowed. They are not intended be exact “true” maps but representational.
Should anyone want to use or copy any of the maps, please feel free to do so but please acknowledge the source and keep the “corgi in a maze” emblem. John Robson. Hamilton New Zealand. December 2024. [email protected]