This is a list of notable crossings or attempted crossings of the Atlantic Ocean. For the purposes of this list, a transatlantic voyage goes between the Americas, Caribbean, or nearby islands; and Europe, Iceland, Africa, or nearby islands.
Voyages of Christopher Columbus: 1492-1493, 1493-1496, 1498-1500, and 1502-1504. Departing from various ports in Spain, Columbus led exploration and attempted conquest of the
Caribbean coast from
Honduras to
Venezuela and numerous Caribbean islands. Word of these voyages led to widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas, and a period of
Columbian Exchange that permanently altered human cultures and the environment on both sides of the Atlantic.
Bartholomew Columbus traveled from Spain to the Antilles in 1494 and 1509, in addition to occasionally accompanying his brother Christopher and nephew Diego.
Gonçalo Coelho mapped Brazil in 1501–02 and 1503–04 voyages
Sebastian Cabot returned to England from a 1504 expedition with North American fish. In 1508–09, his second expedition searched for the
Northwest Passage around North America to the Pacific.
In 1560, the Portuguese
carrackSão Paulo, captained by Ruy de Mello da Camera, sailed from
Recife (Brazil) around the
Cape of Good Hope to
Sumatra, in whose South coast she was wrecked; actually crossing both the Atlantic and Indian oceans in one non-stop sailing.
In April 1563, Nicolas Barre and 20 other stranded
Huguenots were the first to build a (crude) boat in the Americas and sail across the Atlantic. They sailed from
Charlesfort, South Carolina to just off the coast of England where they were rescued by an English ship. Though they resorted to cannibalism, seven men survived the voyage, including Barre.[5][6]
In 1566, the first trade route across the Atlantic was inaugurated by Spain with the establishment of the
West Indies fleets, a convoy system which regularly linked its territories in the
Americas with Spain for over two centuries.
English soldier and courtier
Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed across the Atlantic in 1583, landing in what is now
St. John's, Canada and claiming the land for England. His ship sank somewhere off the
Azores during the return voyage and he drowned.[7]
The first group attempting to found
Roanoke Colony crossed in 1585, led by
Ralph Lane. The second group crossed in 1587, led by
John White. The 1590 resupply crossing found the colony mysteriously abandoned.
17th to 18th centuries
On 16 September 1620 (New Style), the sailing ship
Mayflower, carrying English and Dutch Pilgrims on board, set sail from England to North America, reaching New England on 21 November (New Style) the same year,[8] founding the
Plymouth Colony.
In November 1732 the ship Ann crossed the Atlantic, from London to
Georgia, carrying British soldier, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist
James Oglethorpe. The journey took 88 days, arriving in Savannah in February 1733. Oglethorpe would found the colony of Georgia, of which he was the governor.
In 1952,
Ann Davison was the first woman to single-handedly
sail the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1956, the sail-equipped raft L'Égaré II crossed from Newfoundland to England, after the failure of L'Égaré I.[12]
In 1965,
Robert Manry crossed the Atlantic from the U.S. to England non-stop in a 4.1-metre (13-foot) sailboat named Tinkerbelle.[13] Several others also crossed the Atlantic in very small sailboats in the 1960s, none of them non-stop, though.
In 1969 and 1970
Thor Heyerdahl launched expeditions to cross the Atlantic in boats built from
papyrus. He succeeded in crossing the Atlantic from
Morocco to
Barbados after a two-month voyage of 6,100 km (3,800 mi) with Ra II in 1970, thus conclusively proving that boats such as the Ra could have sailed with the
Canary Current across the Atlantic in prehistoric times.[14]
In 1980,
Gérard d'Aboville was the first man to cross the Atlantic Ocean rowing solo.[15]
In 1984, five
Argentines sail in a 10-metre long (33 ft) raft made from tree trunks named Atlantis from
Canary Islands and after 52 days 4,800 kilometres (3,000 mi) journey arrived to
Venezuela in an attempt to prove travellers from Africa may have crossed the Atlantic before
Christopher Columbus.[17][18]
In 1985, American boatbuilder, Al Grovers, Sr., made the first outboard crossing of the Atlantic.[19][20]
In 1994,
Guy Delage was the first man to allegedly swim across the Atlantic Ocean (with the help of a
kick board, from
Cape Verde to
Barbados). Controversy followed because of lack of supervision and the time spent drifting on a support vessel.[21]
In 1997-98, the Floating Neutrinos sailed a vessel made from recycled materials across the North Atlantic from Maine to Ireland by way of Nova Scotia & Newfoundland. [22]
In 1998,
Benoît Lecomte was the first man to swim across the northern Atlantic Ocean without a kick board, stopping for only one week in the
Azores.[23] The accomplishment was questioned due to the time spent drifting on a support vehicle.
In 1999, after rowing for 81 days and 4,767 kilometres (2,962 miles),
Tori Murden became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by
rowboat alone when she reached
Guadeloupe from the
Canary Islands.[24]
1939–1945, during
World War II, when transatlantic shipping became vital to UK wartime success, the
Battle of the Atlantic resulted in nearly 3,700 ships sunk and 783
U-boats destroyed.[32]
In 2003,
Alan Priddy and three crew members made a record crossing of the North Atlantic in a
rigid inflatable boat (RIB) from Newfoundland to Scotland, via Greenland and Iceland, in 103 hours.[citation needed]
Aircraft
In 1919, the American
NC-4 became the first
seaplane to cross the Atlantic (though it made a couple of landings on islands and the sea along the way, and taxied several hundred kilometers).
^William H. Longyard (2003). A speck on the sea: epic voyages in the most improbable vessels. International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press. p. 57.
ISBN978-0-07-141306-0.
^Shaw, David W. (1998) Daring the Sea : The True Story of the First Men to Row Across the Atlantic Ocean (New York City: Citadel Press)
ISBN978-0806525273
^Beaudout, Henri. Voyage of L’Égaré II, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1957.
^Tinkerbelle (1967; Harper & Row, New York City, N.Y.)