Location: National Maritime Museum, ground floor - see floor plans

Open daily, 10.00–17.00 (last admission 16.30). Admission free. See times and admission

The Explorers gallery Exploration of the sea began in prehistory. Over the centuries, trade, land-hunger and curiosity have all encouraged humans to sail beyond their known world. Early exploration was carried out in small craft. Sailors navigated along coastlines by known landmarks and on the open sea by the Sun, the stars and the currents. The knowledge accumulated was passed on in myth and lore.

World map from a Ptolemy's Cosmographica of 1482 From the late-15th century, the pace and scope of maritime exploration accelerated spectacularly. The maritime states of Europe, seeking to expand their empires, sent their ships into the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific and eventually into the polar seas, mapping the world as we know it today.

Chinese geomancer's compass by Chou Hua-Chi, circa 1650 Europeans utilised local knowledge when they came to unknown seas, employing local pilots to guide them. But they developed advantages over other cultures which enabled them to voyage further and for longer periods of time across open water.

Their ships were more suitable, and their seamen learned new and improved methods of navigation which made use of the magnetic compass, marine charts, and increasingly sophisticated observational instruments and celestial tables. Those in command – Drake, Cook, Bougainville and Franklin being among the most famous – were also highly motivated. Some drove themselves and their companions to extremes and even to their deaths. Their achievement was to link known sea passages to newly discovered routes, thus making the oceans of the world into a 'continuous sea'.

Franklin's last message, found by the McClintock Expedition near Point Victory, North-West Coast of King William Island The effects of exploration were usually beneficial to states which backed such projects, but could be disastrous for countries newly 'discovered'. Early patterns of mutually advantageous trade, and of limited settlement, were replaced by attempts to exert political and economic dominance using monopolies, military might and organised religion. The human and ecological costs have been high.

These factors influence our attitudes today. Human exploration continues in the depths of the sea, in the polar regions and in space. Economic considerations are still important. But the trend is towards international co-operation both as a means of avoiding conflict and of regulating activity which may harm the environment.

The galleries

The Explorers: the Americas and the North-West Passage galleris aim to give visitors a brief but informative overview of the history of exploration and how it has shaped our world. The galleries start with the Vikings and Polynesians, continue with Columbus and the European explorers of the 16th century, and include the often tragic stories of 19th century British exploration into the icy waters of the poles.

Interesting facts

Although most Europeans knew that the Earth was a sphere, they thought that it was smaller than it is, and no one before Christopher Columbus had properly explored west across the Atlantic.

McClintock, the leader of one of the John Franklin search parties, was told to look for a clue in a place identified by a young English girl, who claimed to have been visited by the ghost of Franklin which wrote the location of the famous 'last message' in blood on the walls of her house.

In 1997, scientists found a 'lake' thousands of metres below the ice in Antarctica. Robots are currently searching it for ancient forms of microscopic life that have not seen daylight for billions of years. If life is found, there is a chance that it may also exist on Europa, an icy moon that orbits Jupiter. NASA is at present trying to design a search vessel that can explore Europa without coming back contaminated with alien bacteria.

Timeline

• c.600 BC - A Phoencian expedition sails around Africa, travelling from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean
• 1492 - Columbus sails across the Atlantic to the West Indies. He believed that it was possible to reach the fabled riches of Cathay (China) by sailing west cross the Atlantic. Instead, he made his landfall in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, after a voyage of over 30 days without sight of land. It is understood now that Columbus was not the first European to reach America. Vikings had sailed there about 500 years earlier and fishermen from Britain also appear to have visited America before Columbus.
• 1498 - Vasco da Gama sails around the Cape of Good Hope and reaches India. Vasco da Gama has gone down in history as the first European sailor to enter the Indian Ocean in 1498.
• It is possible that other Portuguese ships had rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost point of South Africa previously, but returned before sailing much further north. For instance, Arab voyaging literature records the loss of what is likely to have been a Portuguese caravel in the Indian Ocean a few years before da Gama.
• 1519 - Magellan sets out on the first circumnavigation of the world. The map shows Magellan's route through the southern tip of South America and into the Pacific. The passage he sailed through is still known as the Magellan Straits.
• After crossing the Pacific Ocean, Magellan was killed in the Philippines after becoming involved in a power struggle between different islands.
• 1558 - Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England. Elizabeth I presided over a 'golden age' of English exploration. During her reign there were spectacularly successful round-the-world voyages by Drake and Cavendish, attempts to find the North-West Passage, the first ventures around the Cape of Good Hope to India and the Spice Islands, and much activity in the Atlantic.
• Elizabeth's support was always given on the understanding that exploration would be commercially viable. Trade, privateering and exploration were closely linked in this period.
• 1577–80 - Drake completes the second circumnavigation of the Earth. Drake's voyage around the world between 1577 and 1580 was a considerable feat of seamanship. It was also financially rewarding, as Drake brought home an estimated £500,000 (in Elizabethan currency) in Spanish treasure.
• Apart from treasure, Drake brought back a cargo of cloves from the Moluccas, and a considerable amount of Chinese porcelain taken from a Spanish prize. Drake's voyage gained important geographical knowledge which would be used by the first ships of the East India Company in their voyages to the East in 1601.
• 1740 - George Anson begins his round-the-world voyage. A famous incident from George Anson's round-the-world voyage (1740–44), in which the Spanish treasure ship was captured off the Philippines after a short fight. The treasure was paraded through the streets of London on Anson's return, and the results of some of his share can be seen in the elegant house and gardens of Shugborough House, his family estate in Staffordshire.
• 1766–69 - French Commander, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, explores the Pacific
• 1768–80 - Captain James Cook undertakes three voyages into the Pacific and Southern Oceans
• 1769 - Captain James Cook charts the coast of New Zealand.
• 1790 - Exploration of the north-west coast of America by Captain George Vancouver
• 1829 - Sir John Ross and his nephew James Clark Ross make a second attempt to find the North-West Passage. The younger Ross locates the North Magnetic Pole in 1831.
• 1839–43 - British exploration of the Antarctic in the ships Erebus and Terror, commanded by Captain James Clark Ross
• 1847 - Sir John Franklin expedition disappears in its search for the North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific
• 1872–76 - Expedition of HMS Challenger in the Atlantic for the scientific study of oceanography, meteorology and marine biology
• 1905 - Amundsen makes the first successful voyage through the North-West Passage, from the Atlantic to the Pacific
• 1940s - Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) developed in Occupied France by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan.
• 1948 - Auguste Piccard constructs 'bathyscaphe' for deep-sea exploration
• 1960s - USA establishes 'Transit' polar orbiting satellite navigation system
• 1966–67 - Francis Chichester circumnavigates the world single-handed in Gipsy Moth IV, taking 226 days, excluding a 48-day stop in Sydney.
• 1968–69 - Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Golden Globe race, becoming the first man to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world. His voyage, in his boat Suhaili, took eight months.

Gallery details

Curator: Amy Glees
Consultant: Pieter van der Merwe
Designer: Martyn Bainbridge, Martyn Bainbridge Design
Graphic Designer: Lol Sandford
A/V Producer: Simon Rice-Oxley at The Visual Connection
Sponsors: Trinity House
Lenders: Royal Museums of Scotland, Glasgow University Library and Museum of London.