- Sailor Jerry
Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins (born 1911, died 1973) is considered the foremost American tattoo artist of his time. He expanded the array of colors available by developing his own safe pigments. He created needle formations that embedded pigment with much less trauma to the skin, and he was one of the first to utilize single-use needles and hospital-quality sterilization.
- Wendell Sailor
Wendell Jermaine Sailor (born 16 July, 1974 in Sarina, Queensland) is an Australian rugby football player who has represented his country in both rugby league and rugby union- a dual code international. He is an Australian Torres Strait Islander. Sailor's large frame and bullocking style changed the way wingers played rugby league in the late nineties. His big-money move from the Brisbane Broncos to the Queensland Reds in 2001 created many headlines, …
- Ellen MacArthur
Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur, DBE (born July 8, 1976) is an English sailor from Whatstandwell near Matlock in Derbyshire, now based in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. She is best known as a solo long-distance yachtswoman who, on February 7, 2005, broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe.
- John Edwards
John Edwards (1795, Arundel - 1893, Plymouth) was a sailor who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar and is believed to be the last survivor of that battle. Settling in Plymouth after leaving the navy, he became a city councillor and warden of the synagogue.
- Anna Tunnicliffe
Anna Tunnicliffe is a sailor, most notably of the women's olympic single-handed (the Laser Radial). Currently, she is vying for a spot on the 2008 US Olympic team.
- Russell Coutts
Russell Coutts, DCNZM, CBE, born March 1, 1962 in Wellington New Zealand is a competitive sailor who is considered by many to be the best match racer in the world. His achievements include a Gold medal in the Finn Class in the 1984 Olympic Games, winning the America's Cup three times and various sailing world championships. In 2004 he only competed twice on the Swedish Match Tour, but won both events convincingly.
- John Adams
John Adams (1768?-5 March 1829) was the last survivor of the "Bounty" mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island in January 1790, the year after the mutiny. His real name was Alexander Smith; John Adams was an alias used by him after the British found the island. His children continued to use the surname "Adams". The mutineers of HMS "Bounty" and their Tahitian companions settled on the island and set fire to the "Bounty".
- Herman Melville
Herman Melville (August 1 1819 - September 28 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His earliest novels were bestsellers, but his popularity declined precipitously only a few years later. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, "Moby-Dick" - largely considered a failure during his lifetime, …
- Jack London
Jack London, was an American author who wrote "The Call of the Wild" and other books. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first Americans to make a huge financial success from writing.
- John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747-July 18, 1792) was America's first well-known naval hero in the American Revolutionary War. John Paul Jones was born John Paul in 1747, on the estate of Arbigland in the Stewarty of Kirkcudbright on the southern coast of Scotland. John Paul's father was a gardener at Arbigland, and his mother was a member of Clan MacDuff.
- Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral, (c. 1540 - January 27 1596) was an English privateer, navigator, slave trader, politician and civil engineer of the Elizabethan era. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He died of dysentery after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1596. His exploits were semi-legendary and made him a hero to the English but to the Spaniards he was equated with the devil.
- James Cook
Captain James Cook FRS RN (27 October 1728 (O.S.) – 14 February 1779) was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer. Ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy, Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia, the European discovery of the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
- Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (July 14, 1912-October 3, 1967) was a prolific American folk musician. He described himself in one of his songs as "The Great Historical Bum", a first hand observer and survivor of the economic and environmental hardships of the dust bowl, which shook the great plains states during the great depression. Guthrie's body of music consists of hundreds of songs, ballads and improvised works.
- Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac (pronounced) (March 12 1922 - October 21 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, and artist. He is perhaps the best known of a group of writers and friends who came to be known as the Beat Generation, a term he himself created. Kerouac enjoyed some degree of popular appeal but little critical acclaim during his lifetime. Today, however, he is considered an important and influential author.
- Larry Ellison
Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is the co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, a major database software company.
- Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was an 18th century Scottish sea captain, privateer and merchant. Very little is known about his life - even the dates of his birth and death are unknown - and the only extant source of information on him is his own account of his travels, first published in 1727 under the title "A New Account of the East Indies: Being the Observations and Remarks of Capt. Alexander Hamilton, from the Year 1688 to 1723".
- Robin Knox-Johnston
Sir William Robert Pat "Robin" Knox-Johnston, CBE, RD and bar (born 17 March 1939) was the first man to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the Earth and was the second winner of the Jules Verne Trophy (together with Sir Peter Blake).
- John King
John King (7 February 1865 - 20 May 1938) was a sailor in the United States Navy who was twice awarded the Medal of Honor. Born in Ireland, King enlisted in the Navy as a coal passer in Vermont on 20 July 1893. He served on board "Massachusetts" in the Caribbean during the Spanish-American War, and, in 1900, was transferred to "Vicksburg" for service during the Philippine-American War.
- John Wilson
John Wilson was the Anglicized name of Captain Frederick Walgren, a Swedish sailor and o-yatoi gaikokujin (foreign professional) who was active in the development of British-Japanese ties in the late 1800s. Walgren was born in Genarp, Skåne, Sweden on July 8, 1851. He entered into British service, changing his name to Wilson. Wilson initially resided in Nagasaki, Kyūshū, living next-door to Thomas Blake Glover.
- Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 or 1554 – 29 October, 1618), was a famed English writer, poet, courtier and explorer. He was responsible for establishing the first English colony in the New World, on June 4, 1584, at Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. When the settlement failed, the ultimate fate of the colonists was never authoritatively ascertained, and it became known as "The Lost Colony".
- Mike Golding
Mike Golding (born 27 August 1960) is an English yachtsman. He is one of the few yachtsmen to have raced round the world non-stop in both directions. He held the solo record for sailing round the world westabout (the most challenging direction for circumnavigation) between 1994 and 2000. Golding, who is a member of Royal Southampton Yacht Club, is the eponymous co-founder of the commercial company Mike Golding Yacht Racing Ltd, …
- Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 - April 5 1997) was an American poet. Ginsberg is best known for "Howl" (1956), a long poem about the self-destruction of his friends of the Beat Generation and what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in United States at the time.
- Dee Caffari
Denise "Dee" Caffari MBE is a British sailor, and is the first woman to have sailed single-handedly non-stop around the world "the wrong way"; west against the prevailing winds and currents.
- Alex Thomson
Alex Thomson is a British yachter. Alex Thomson was helped early in his sailing career by Sir Keith Mills, the British businessman who ran London's victorious bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and is currently working with British America’s Cup campaign TEAMORIGIN. With Mills backing, Thomson broke into the professional solo sailing circuit at a young age. He is the youngest skipper ever to win a round-the-world yacht race (1998-1999 Clipper Race).
- William Brown
William Brown was reputed to be a Black woman who joined the Royal Navy disguised as a man. The story goes that she was born in Edinburgh, joined in 1804 and served until 1816, even after her birth-sex was discovered in 1815. The 1815 'Annual Register' reporting the story stated: :“Amongst the crew of the Queen Charlotte, 110 guns, recently paid off, is now discovered to be a female African who served as a seaman in the Royal Navy for upwards of eleven years, …
- Mark Anthony
Mark Anthony of Carrigcastle (b.1786 - d. 1st June 1867), commander R.N. As a 15 year old, he boarded the Milford packet in Checkpoint in 1801 and, a week later on 14th July, he had joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman on board "HMS Hunter" (18 guns) which was then in berth at Portsmouth. He was serving on her when she had 15 men killed in an unsuccessful action off the west coast of Cuba towards the close of 1803. He was then posted to "HMS Clorinde".
- Joshua Slocum
Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 - on or shortly after 14 November, 1909) was a Canadian-American seaman and adventurer, a noted writer, and the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. In 1900 he told the story of this in "Sailing Alone Around the World". He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his sloop-rigged fishing boat that he had named "Spray".
- Kenichi Horie
Kenichi Horie is a Japanese solo yachtsman. In 1962 he crossed the Pacific Ocean in 94 days aboard a 19 foot sailboat (called the Mermaid) from Nishinomiya, Japan to San Francisco. He arrived at San Francisco with no pasport or money and was promptly arrested. After learning of his voyage the mayor freed him and gave him a 30 day visa and was awarded the key to the city. He wrote a book about his voyage, titled "Kodoku" ("Alone on the Pacific"), …
- John Young
John Young (ca. 1740-1781) was a captain in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, commander of the "Saratoga" which was lost at sea. He began his seafaring career at an early age in the colonial merchant marine and, at the start of the American Revolution, was commissioned 23rd on the list of captains in the Continental Navy.
- Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas (" Agios Nikolaos", "victory of the people") is the common name for Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (in modern day Antalya province, Turkey), a Lycian saint who had a reputation for secret gift-giving, but is now commonly identified with Santa Claus. In 1087 his remains were abducted and removed to Bari in southern Italy, so that he is also Saint Nicholas of Bari.
- William Allen
William Allen (c. 1790 - 17 October 1856) was joint founder of St Peter's College, Adelaide, South Australia. William Allen was born in England, probably before 1790. Entering the navy of the British East India Company and serving on the "Sullimany", he afterwards transferred to the merchant service, and for about 25 years traded from India. About 1833 or 1834, when Allen was captain of a ship, the crew rose in mutiny and killed one of the mates.
- Thomas Smith
Captain Thomas Smith was an artist and mariner who lived somewhere between 1600 and 1700 and completed a self-portrait circa 1680. He lived in Boston and was a Puritan as evidenced by his dress and symbolism in the portrait. The painting also includes the following poem, signed T.S. (Hughes, …
- John Clark
John Clark is an actor, director, producer and writer, but is perhaps best known now as the ex-husband of actress Lynn Redgrave, who divorced him December 22, 2000, after thirty-two years of marriage. Not to be confused with Australian actor John Clarke.
- Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (September 8, 1897 -- May 26, 1933) known as The Singing Brakeman and America's Blue Yodeler was the first country music superstar, resulting in another commonly used nickname: The Father of Country Music.
- James Garner
James Garner (born April 7, 1928) is an American film and television actor. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades, including his roles as Bret Maverick in the popular 1950s western-comedy series, "Maverick", Jim Rockford in the popular 1970s detective drama, "The Rockford Files" and the father of Katey Sagal's character on "8 Simple Rules" following the death of John Ritter.
- Pete Goss
Yachtsman Pete Goss, MBE, has clocked up 250,000 nautical miles at sea. He is famous for his pioneering project Team Philips. He received a Legion d'Honneur for saving fellow sailor Raphael Dinelli in the 1996 Vendée Globe solo around the world yacht race during a severe storm in the Southern Ocean. He trained the original set of amateur crews for the British Steel Challenge, and competed in the race onboard Hoffbräu Lager, coming 3rd overall.
- Michel Desjoyeaux
Michel Desjoyeaux (born 16 July 1965 in Concarneau, is a French sailor, and one of the world's most successful solo sailors. He is seen as Ellen MacArthur's biggest rival in the world of long-distance solo yacht racing.
- Sarah Ayton
Sarah Ayton (born 9 April, 1980 in Ashford, Kent) is a British professional sailor. She won a gold medal in the Yngling sailling class in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, together with Shirley Robertson and Sarah Webb.
- Torben Grael
Torben Schmidt Grael (born July 22, 1960 in São Paulo of Danish heritage) is one of the most important Brazilian sailors, renowned in international competitions. A descendant of Danes, he was taken sailing by his grandfather at five years old on the sailboat "Ailen", of the extinct 6 meter class, which was the boat used by the silver medal winning 1912 Summer Olympics Danish sailing team. Once he moved to Niterói, he started sailing with his brother, Lars Grael, …
- Mike Sanderson
Mike Sanderson (born May 29 1971 in Auckland) is a New Zealand sailor. In 2006 Mike Sanderson married British round-the-world yachtswoman Emma Richards in Cowes, UK. Mike Sanderson, also known as 'Moose', won the 2006 Volvo Ocean Race being the captain of the ABN Amro I boat and was awarded the 2006 ISAF World Sailor of the Year Award for that achievement. In 2007 he was appointed Team Director of Team Origin, a potential future British America's Cup team.