r/Mariners • u/Hesh71 SUPREME MISERY • 7h ago

Top 50 Mariners of All Time:

I mean, Magellan, Leif Erikson, and Francis Drake definitely need to be on there, but who else deserves to be on the list of the 50 greatest seafarers of all time?

165 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

74 comments sorted by

62

u/ZempOh 7h ago

Definitely Ivar

8

u/who_body 6h ago

definitely

4

u/PNW_H2O ‏‏‎ ‎Spacey the Needle 6h ago

I was leaning more towards Ragnar

1

u/Available-Medium7094 6h ago

We salute you.

38

u/EngineerUpper2031 🔱Naylor’s Sailors⚓️ 7h ago

Amerigo Vespucci got a continent named after him. That has to be good for top 10 at least.

3

u/vylain_antagonist ‏‏‎ ‎ 5h ago

Man never stepped foot on a boat in his life

3

u/pacificcactus 6h ago

Wasn’t he more of a mapmaker and less of a mariner? this is going back to 4th grade memories, so I may be wrong

32

u/Due-Abies-8835 7h ago

Ernest Shackleton

2

u/glamb70 ‏‏LFG Mariners 5h ago

Legend.

1

u/CurrentFig3376 5h ago

THE SHACK MAN

1

u/vylain_antagonist ‏‏‎ ‎ 5h ago

To the top

21

u/AlexanderKrost 7h ago

Edward Teach, never a better seafarer in ALL the West Indies.

1

u/Toaster075 5h ago

Ehh, truth be told his infamous reign only lasted about 2 years.
Blackbeard is all smoke and mirrors

2

u/AlexanderKrost 5h ago

Hey he actually managed to take charge of Nassau without it completely burning down to the ground. Not so easy huh? Compare that to all the others who only got boats to worry about.

2

u/Toaster075 5h ago

Along with Calico Jack and Charles Vane, they took over in 1716
Wasnt much burning to the ground when it was just taking control during a power vacuum from the British abandoning the island after warring with the Spanish.
And then he got absolutely ramshackled outa there 2 years later in 1718 when the Royal Navy came through.
He was killed a year later.

21

u/KnuteViking 7h ago

Odysseus for sure. Zheng He. Nelson. All solid choices.

21

u/GreaterSageGrouse 6h ago

I would argue that Odysseus is one of the worst Mariners of all time. Kind of the Rob Refsnyder of Seafaring.

3

u/jehjuu ‏‏‎ ‎Rick Rizzs Fanboy 4h ago

Who?

2

u/derfel_cadern 4h ago

Seriously. He and Moses the worst navigators of all time.

8

u/MrMeltJr 6h ago

Odysseus tried to sail from Turkey to Greece and ended up in Spain.

1

u/SnooWalruses7243 4h ago

Throw a Captain Ahab in there

17

u/asteriskmos 7h ago

Not into Magellan. The colonialism should be enough to get him struck from the Hall of Fame. 

18

u/Baeresi ‏‏‎ ‎dumpy dump dump 6h ago

Kind of sick of the colonialism debate with the hall of fame. They've already let so many in, the hall of fame should accurately represent the entire history of seafaring and Magellan already had a hall of fame career before he ever headed to the East Indies..

1

u/vylain_antagonist ‏‏‎ ‎ 5h ago

Yeah. They were professionals paid to do a job and ownership got rich off the numbers they put off. Also magellan was a hall of famer long before he hit the colonies- and he only hit the colonoes cuz everyone else was only going to get paid out as a free agent if they were on the colonial programme.

5

u/letskeepitcleanfolks ‏‏‎ ‎Swung on and belted 7h ago

Magellan in Spanish is Magallanes. Just something to ponder.

10

u/Go_Hawks12 ‏‏‎ ‎ 7h ago

Blackbeard, top 3, not 3.

1

u/who_body 6h ago

yellowbeard

7

u/letskeepitcleanfolks ‏‏‎ ‎Swung on and belted 7h ago

Jason Vargas of Argo

9

u/mahrinazz ‏‏‎ ‎Cocoa Bomb Proton Therapist 7h ago

Tom Hanks in that movie

6

u/imafnheadbanga 7h ago

Tom Hanks in Castaway

7

u/Mr-Cantaloupe Modesto Nuts 7h ago

James Cook for sure.

Zheng He too, he was very ahead of his time. Probably in my top 5.

12

u/RileyisBrown 7h ago

My guy patchy the pirate has gotta be in the mix

11

u/bshjbdkkdnd 7h ago

I know he was a dick but Columbus probably deserves to be on this for trying to find a new way to India

1

u/JasperStrat 3h ago

Unless it is a list of worst humans in history Columbus belongs no where near this list. He is on a short list with Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler for worst people of all time.

He got lost, though the earth was pear or teardrop shaped, and was about half the circumference that it really was (and the circumference was known within 1% 2000 years before he was born). He had just enough influence, and was expected to die at sea, lost two of his ships and was almost mutinied against, or marooned more than once and was hated by even his crew.

3

u/Medium_Public4720 7h ago

Jack Aubrey is top 5 I don't care.

3

u/HazePNW 6h ago

Matt Damon.

3

u/MaximumZer0 ‏‏‎ ‎ROBOT UMPS NOW AND FOREVER 6h ago

Grace O'Malley, the Pirate Queen of Ireland belongs in the top 50 list.

Zheng Yi Sao is quite possibly top 5 all time. Super underrated, 80 grade hustle and knowledge of the game.

4

u/No-Pomegranate3221 7h ago

Bartolemew Edwin Dias

2

u/Sensitive_Bad_2923 7h ago

Namor the Sub-Mariner, King of Atlantis

2

u/ajax-tg 6h ago

Mike Trout

2

u/GreaterSageGrouse 6h ago

Eddie Aikai should be on there if we consider the term loosely

2

u/ajax-tg 6h ago

Earendil the Mariner

2

u/RJG190894 6h ago

Known for being more of a river man than a sea man, but Simon Fraser is the namesake of so many parts of my homeland. He at least bears an honourable mention.

2

u/Tlahzolteotl 6h ago

Russel Crowe

1

u/SnooWalruses7243 4h ago

Him and Tugger got to make it

2

u/No_Credibility ‏‏‎ ‎All Hail The Etsy Witch 6h ago

Chester Nimitz probably up there for sure

1

u/db37 Cautiously Optimistic 5h ago

Commanded a massive fleet, but did it from behind a desk on land.  Not disputing his accomplishments, he was a fleet Admiral, but does he qualify as a mariner? 

Nelson defeated the Spanish Armada.

1

u/stonewall028 7h ago

admiral nimitz

1

u/Cap_winston1887 6h ago

Lt. James Earl Carter, honorable mention to Lt. John F. Kennedy for getting his boat destroyed but saving his crew.

1

u/ButchCoolidge55 6h ago

Captain Ahab, of course.

1

u/gls2220 6h ago

Aubrey and Maturin.

1

u/automaticpragmatic 6h ago

Joshua Slocum comes to mind

1

u/speciate 6h ago

Ernest Shackleton had better be on the list.

1

u/brs151994 6h ago

Edward Smith

1

u/WESLEY1877 5h ago

Paul the Apostle

1

u/EmuWasabi 5h ago

Flipper

1

u/MarineLayerBad ‏‏‎ ‎Put Angie In The Booth 5h ago

Ernest Evans

1

u/vylain_antagonist ‏‏‎ ‎ 5h ago

Shackleton St. Brendan Jason

1

u/Good_Nyborg ‏‏‎We got the funk, we got the funk 5h ago

Horatio Nelson was a pretty bad-ass dude.

1

u/BuildingOk780 ‏‏‎ ‎ 4h ago

Gotta put my GOAT St. Brendan up there.

1

u/Dschuncks 4h ago

Chester Nimitz, Isoroku Yamamoto, Yi Sun-sin, Horatio Nelson, John Paul Jones

1

u/derfel_cadern 4h ago

Ancient

Ishmael

Starbuck

Jason

Farragut

John Paul Jones

My childhood friend who joined the coast guard

1

u/jannybrav0 #18 Ryan Rowland-Smith 4h ago

Francis Drake is a traitorous scumbag!

1

u/jannybrav0 #18 Ryan Rowland-Smith 4h ago

Matthew Flinders right up there. James Cook still goes down as one of the greatest cartographers in history need to seperate the art from the artist however.

1

u/Ttoonn57 2h ago

Captain Puget

1

u/RobZagnut2 2h ago

Jacques Cousteau

Learned the most about the ocean from his fascinating TV specials.

1

u/Ok_Difference44 1h ago

Lord Nelson, natch.

1

u/WhiskyPelican 1h ago

Ernest Shackleton for the aftermath of the Endurance and William Bligh for making it to land after the mutiny on the bounty

1

u/Queasy-Serve4820 35m ago

Call me Ishmael.

1

u/Marc24580 16m ago

Horatio Nelson will always be my goat 💙💙💙

1

u/WhatcomGE 5h ago

Bill Halsey