The Great Explorer

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Cook set new standards in the extent and accuracy of his surveys, but to see his voyages simply in terms of geographical knowledge would be to miss their broader significance. Abel Tasman (1603–1659) was a Dutch seafarer who was the first known European to sight the islands of Tasmania (named after him), New Zealand, and Fiji (1642–43). Francisco Pizarro helped Vasco Núñez de Balboa discover the Pacific Ocean and, after conquering Peru, founded its capital city, Lima. Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. On his eventual ‘homeward’ journey, he crossed through ancient Persia and Turkey, experiencing all manner of escapades along the way.

Significant Explorers KS1 Unit Pack - Twinkl History: Significant Explorers KS1 Unit Pack - Twinkl

After hiking to a whaling station to sound the alarm and three aborted rescue attempts in the three months that follow, Shackleton finally gets back to Elephant Island on a steam tug boat. Ericson is the first European to set foot on North America, even before Christopher Columbus who did it 500 years after Leif had done so. His name has been associated to not just things explored during his voyages, but to the stars and galaxies above us as well.This was in part because Portugal wanted to recognise a Portuguese explorer, and because of Spanish fears of Basque nationalism. years later, though, in 1492, after a decade-long bid to acquire funding, he set sail to the west in an attempt to find a new, shorter, and easier route to Asia (and wealth and fame with it).

Captain Cook: Explorer, Navigator and Pioneer - BBC Captain Cook: Explorer, Navigator and Pioneer - BBC

He gained surveying experience in North American waters during the Seven Years War - as Britain and France fought for supremacy in North America - and spent the first years of peace between 1763 and 1767 charting the fog-shrouded coastline of Newfoundland.The story of the Great Explorer follows the adventures of a child who sets off to the North Pole to rescue his Dad. In the centuries since his death, Polo has received the recognition that failed to come his way during his lifetime. There were no recorded deaths from scurvy on any of his voyages, and few from natural causes generally - except during the Endeavour's disastrous stay at Batavia in 1770, when 30 members of the crew, who had been remarkably healthy until then, died of fever and dysentery. In so doing, he became the first European to stand in the New World since the Vikings- a whole 500 years’ earlier.