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Martin Frobisher

Type Figure Region England Time c. 1535–1594 Also known as Martin Frobisher、Sir Martin Frobisher

Martin Frobisher (c. 1535–1594) was an English navigator and naval commander from Yorkshire, a key pioneer of English Arctic exploration and maritime…

Timeline

  1. c. 1535–1560Yorkshire · YorkshireBorn in Yorkshire, he went to sea in his youth and took part in privateering, attacking Portuguese and Spanish shipping along the Guinea coast of West Africa in the 1550s, accumulating ocean-going experience and capital.
  2. 1561–1570London · MiddlesexEmployed by Elizabeth I in the 1560s, he took part in royal fleet patrols and escort duties against France, while planning a search for the Northwest Passage to open a northern route to Asia, laying the organizational and personal groundwork for the Arctic expeditions beginning in 1576.
  3. 1570–1576London · MiddlesexIn the 1570s he lobbied merchant groups and the crown in London for an Arctic exploration plan, secured partial funding in 1574, and finally sailed in 1576 with a fleet of three ships, attempting to cross the waters of northern North America to reach the Pacific, opening an era of systematic English Arctic exploration.

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