Davis, John

1543 – He was born this year in at Sand ridge near Dartmouth. From a boy he was a sailor, and early went on voyages with Adrian Gilbert.

1583 – He appears to have broached his design of a Northwest Passage to Francis Walsingham and John Dee.

1585 – He started on his first northwestern expedition. On this he began by encountering the ice-bound east shore of Greenland, which he followed south to Cape Farewell.

1586 – He tried again this year and in 1587.

1588 – He seems to have commanded the Black Dog against the Spanish Armada.

1589 – He joined the earl of Cumberland off the Azores.

1591 – He accompanied Thomas Cavendish on his last voyage, with the special purpose, as he tells us, of searching that north-west discovery upon the back parts of America.

1592 – He discovered the Falkland Islands in August of this year aboard the vessel Desire.

1593 – After his return in this year, he published a valuable treatise on practical navigation in The Seaman’s Secrets.

1595 – There is work that is more theoretical in The Worlds Hydrographical Description.

1601 – He accompanied Sir James Lancaster as first pilot on his voyage in the service of the British East India Company until 1603.

1605 – He sailed again for the same destination as pilot to Sir Edward Michel borne. On this journey, Japanese pirates off Bintang near Sumatra killed him.