Luke Fox
Luke Fox, also spelled Foxe, explorer (b at Kingston-upon-Hull, Eng 20 Oct 1586; d c 15 July 1635). He left for the Arctic in 1631, 2 days after Thomas JAMES left on a rival voyage.
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Create AccountLuke Fox, also spelled Foxe, explorer (b at Kingston-upon-Hull, Eng 20 Oct 1586; d c 15 July 1635). He left for the Arctic in 1631, 2 days after Thomas JAMES left on a rival voyage.
Juan Josef Pérez Hernández, naval officer, explorer (b c 1725 at Majorca, Spain; d 2 Nov 1775 off California). Pérez served as a pilot and marine officer in Spain's Pacific trade between Mexico and the
André Michaux, botanist, explorer (b near Versailles, France 8 Mar 1746; d on Madagascar 11 Oct 1803?). He compiled the first North American flora which includes many plants collected in Lower Canada in 1792.
Sir David Kirke, trader and privateer, first governor of Newfoundland (born at Dieppe, France c1597; died near London, England 1654). Kirke, with Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, formed the Company of Adventurers, which was granted patents by King Charles I. It gave them the right to trade and settle in Canada. Kirke was the owner of the first recorded Black chattel-slave in New France, Olivier Le Jeune.
Joao Fernandes, explorer (flourished 1486-1505). A Portuguese of the Azores, he had traded with Bristol from 1486. He likely sailed with John CABOT in 1498 as a pilot. Cabot's ship went down, but Fernandes returned with charts of discoveries around Greenland and Newfoundland.
On a search mission for John ROSS in 1834, Back found and travelled the Thlew-ee-choh R, later named for him.
Gaspar Corte-Real, explorer (b 1450?; d 1501). A native of the Azores, he initiated Portuguese claims in the North Atlantic. It is thought that he reached Greenland and worked his way south to Newfoundland in 1500, and that he
Leif Eriksson (Old Norse Leifr Eiríksson, a.k.a. Leifr hinn heppni, Leif the Lucky), explorer, chieftain (born in the 970s CE in Iceland; died between 1018 and 1025 in Greenland). Leif Eriksson was the first European to explore the east coast of North America, including areas that are now part of Arctic and Atlantic Canada. Upon the death of his father, Erik the Red, Leif became paramount chieftain of the Norse colony in Greenland. The two main sources on him are The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Erik the Red. There are also references to him in The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason and The Saga of St. Olaf.
Sir James Clark Ross, naval officer, polar discoverer (b at London, Eng 15 Apr 1800; d at Aylesbury, Eng 13 Apr 1862).
Thomas Griffith Taylor, geographer, educator, explorer (b at Walthamstow, Eng 1 Dec 1880; d at Sydney, Australia 4 Nov 1963). A dynamic personality who did research on every continent, Taylor founded the first Canadian department of geography at U of T (1935).
Sir Henry Kellett, naval officer, arctic explorer (b at Clonabody, Ire 2 Nov 1806; d there 1 Mar 1875). Kellett joined the British navy in 1822 and served in the West Indies and on survey vessels in Africa, the Far East and Central America.
Albert Peter Low, geologist, explorer (b at Montréal 24 May 1861; d at Ottawa 9 Oct 1942). Low joined the Geological Survey of Canada on graduation from McGill. The Québec-Labrador border was eventually defined on the basis of his 1893-95 explorations.
Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure, explorer, adventurer (born 28 Jan 1807 in Wexford, Ireland; died 17 Oct 1873 in London, England).
Sir William Edward Parry, naval officer, Arctic explorer (born 19 December 1790 in Bath, England; died 8 or 9 July 1855 in Bad Ems, present-day Germany).
John Rae, fur trader, explorer, surgeon, author (born 30 Sept 1813 in Orkney, Scotland; died 22 July 1893 in London, England).
Bernard Voyer, explorer and lecturer (born 7 March 1953 in Rimouski, Québec) is a born adventurer.
Joshua Slocum, sea captain and author (b at Wilmot Township, NS 20 Feb 1844; d at sea sometime after 14 Nov 1909).
Eenoolooapik, also known as Bobbie, Inuk traveller, guide (born circa 1820 in Qimisuk [or Qimmiqsut], Cumberland Sound, NT; died in 1847 in Cumberland Sound, NU). Eenoolooapik provided British whaling captain William Penny with a map of Cumberland Sound that led to the rediscovery of that area 255 years after English explorer John Davis first saw it. The geographic information Eenoolooapik provided to whalers led to years of permanent whaling camps in Cumberland Sound.
Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, arctic mariner (born 1 January 1852 in L'Islet, QC; died on 26 December 1934 in Lévis, QC). Captain of the government steamship Arctic, Bernier led seagoing expeditions into the Arctic between 1904 and 1911, certifying Canada's claim to the northern archipelago (see Canadian Arctic Exploration; Arctic Archipelago).
Joseph Whiteside Boyle (born 6 November 1867 in Toronto, ON; died 14 April 1923 in Hampton Hill, Middlesex, United Kingdom). Nicknamed Klondike Joe, Boyle founded a gold mining company and became a millionaire in the aftermath of the Klondike gold rush. During the First World War, he equipped a machine gun unit and was a spy with the British secret service in Russia and Romania. He also reorganized the Russian military supply network, rescued Romanian prisoners of war and became the confidant and possibly lover of Queen Marie of Romania.