Circumnavigate - Definition and Overview

To circumnavigate a place, such as an island, a continent, or the Earth is to travel all the way around it by boat or ship. More recently, the term has also been used to cover aerial round-the-world flights.

First maritime circumnavigations

• The surviving crew of Ferdinand Magellan, 1519-1522. Magellan was (Portuguese, but sailed for Spain). He died in the Philippines in 1521 during his attempted circumnavigation. The circumnavigation was completed under the command of Sebastian del Cano
• Henry(Enrique, under dispute), 1511-1521, The interpreter of Ferdinand Magellan. Also Henry the Black
• Francis Drake (English), 1577-1580
• Thomas Cavendish (English), 1586-1588
• Olivier van Noort (Dutch), 1598-1601

Other maritime circumnavigations

• Pharaoh Necho II, first circumnavigation of Africa
• Robert Gray, 1787-1790, first American circumnavigation
• Adam Johann von Krusenstern, 1803-1806 first Russian circumnavigation
• Joshua Slocum, 1895-1898, first solo circumnavigation of the world
• USS Nautilus, first underwater circumnavigation of the world
• Matthew Flinders, first circumnavigation of Australia
• James Cook, first circumnavigation of New Zealand
• Harry Pidgeon, 1921-1925 1932-1937, second solo circumnavigation of the world, first person to circumnavigate solo twice
• Sir Francis Chichester (English), 1966-1967, first single-handed circumnavigation of the world with just one port of call
• Robin Knox-Johnston (English), 1968-1969, first single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world
• Chay Blyth (Scottish), 1971, first westwards single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world
• Kay Cottee, 1988, first woman to perform a solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world

Record maritime circumnavigations

• Steve Fossett (American), 2004, fastest circumnavigation 58 days 9 hours 32 minutes 45 seconds
• Jean Luc van de Heede (French), 2004, fastest westward single-handed circumnavigation, 122 days 14 hours 3 minutes 49 seconds
• Ellen MacArthur (English), 2004- 2005, Fastest single-handed 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes 33 seconds

Notable aerial circumnavigations

• United States Army Air Service, 1924, first round the world trip in airplanes
• LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, 1929, first circumnavigation in an airship by Hugo Eckener
• Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1 was the first human spaceflight and orbited the Earth in 1961
• Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, 1986, Voyager, first non-refueled circumnavigation in an airplane
• Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, 1999, first non-stop balloon circumnavigation in Breitling Orbiter 3