List of lost expeditions

This is a list of lost expeditions.

List

Expeditions with all parties presumed lost

Name	Leader	Year lost	Region	Comments
Vivaldi expedition	Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi	1291	Morocco (North Africa)	Genoese exploration voyage to find a sea route to India. It was one of the first recorded voyages to sail from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean since the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, and predated attempts by Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama by two centuries.
Abubakari expedition	Abubakari II	1311	Atlantic Ocean	Mansa of the Mali Empire who abdicated his throne in order to explore "the limits of the ocean".
Ferrer Expedition	Jaume Ferrer	1346	Cape Bojador (Western Sahara)	Majorcan expedition to locate a fabled "river of gold" somewhere on the African continent.
Cabot's final expedition	John Cabot	1499	Atlantic Ocean	English expedition to explore Newfoundland and eastern Canada.
Corte-Real expedition	Gaspar Corte-Real	1501	Labrador (Canada)	Portuguese expedition to discover the Northwest Passage. Part of the expedition, captained by Gaspar's brother Miguel Corte-Real, were sent back to Portugal and are the only known survivors from this expedition.
Corte-Real rescue expedition	Miguel Corte-Real	1502	Atlantic Ocean	Portuguese rescue mission to search for lost explorer Gaspar Corte-Real.
Knight expedition	James Knight	1721	Marble Island (Canadian Arctic)	British expedition to discover the Northwest Passage.
Lapérouse expedition	Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse	1788	Victoria Strait (Oceana)	French expedition which vanished while attempting to sail around the world.
Houghton expedition	Daniel Houghton	1791	Sahara (North Africa)	British expedition to explore the Gambia River and the hinterland of Africa's west coast.
Bass expedition	George Bass	1803	Pacific Ocean	British expedition to Tahiti, and possibly to the Spanish colony of Chile, before returning to the Sydney colony.
Franklin's lost expedition	John Franklin	1845	Victoria Strait (Canadian Arctic)	British expedition to traverse the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage.
Leichhardt expedition	Ludwig Leichhardt	1848	McPherson's Station, Coogoon (Western Australia)	British expedition to explore northern and central Australia.
Vogel expedition	Eduard Vogel	1856	Wadai (Central Africa)	British expedition to find a trade route to Asia that bypassed the Middle East. He was initially a party member of the Barth expedition but eventually left to go exploring on his own and disappeared a year later. In a visit to Wadai in 1873, Gustav Nachtigal was told that the Sultan of Wadai had ordered Vogel's death.
Terra Nova Expedition	Robert Falcon Scott	1913	Antarctica	British expedition to become the first to reach the geographical South Pole.
Rusanov expedition	Vladimir Rusanov	1913	Kara Sea (Arctic)	Russian naval expedition to the Arctic to find the Northern Sea Route.
Fawcett expedition	Percy Fawcett	1925	Dead Horse Camp (Brazil)	British archaeological expedition to the Amazon to locate the "Lost City of Z".
Sea Dragon expedition	Richard Halliburton	1939	near Midway Island (Pacific Ocean)	American expedition attempting to sail a Chinese junk across the Pacific Ocean from Hong Kong to San Francisco for the Golden Gate International Exposition.

Expeditions with one or more surviving members

Name	Leader	Year lost	Region	Comments
Grindell expedition	Thomas F. Grindell	1905	Sonoran Desert (Tiburón Island)	American gold prospecting expedition that went missing while exploring Tiburón Island. They were widely believed to have been killed by Seri or Yaqui natives. However, the remains of Thomas Grindell were discovered by another group of explorers a year later. Of the five-man party, there were only two known survivors: Jack Hoffman and Papago guide Dolores Valenzuela.
Brusilov expedition	Georgy Brusilov	1913	Kara Sea (Arctic)	Russian naval expedition to the Arctic to find the Northern Sea Route. There were only two known survivors: Valerian Albanov and Alexander Konrad.

References

• Wright, Ed. Lost Explorers: Adventurers Who Disappeared Off The Face Of The Earth. Millers Point, Australia: Pier 9, 2008. ISBN 1-7419-6139-4

Further reading

• Balkan, Evan. Vanished!: Explorers Forever Lost. Birmingham, Alabama: Menasha Ridge Press, 2008. ISBN 0-89732-983-X

External links

• Famous Expeditions That Fell Off the Map at History.com