historic sea voyages

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Thursday, March 24, 2022

11 of history’s most famous sea voyages.

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Sea Voyages of Discovery Throughout History

Sea discoveries and voyages have played a significant role in shaping human history. From the earliest seafaring civilisations of the Mediterranean to the Age of Exploration and beyond, humans have been driven to explore the vast and unknown expanses of the oceans.

These voyages of discovery and adventure have brought us new lands, cultures, and knowledge, transforming our understanding of the world and ourselves. Here we will explore some of the most important sea discoveries and voyages throughout history.

Ancient Seafaring and the Mediterranean

The age of exploration, scientific expeditions and polar exploration, modern voyages of discovery.

The Mediterranean Sea was the birthplace of some of the earliest seafaring civilisations in human history, such as the Phoenicians and Greeks. These ancient mariners travelled extensively throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, establishing trade networks and colonies as they went.

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Phoenician Voyages (c. 1200-800 BCE) The Phoenicians, who inhabited modern-day Lebanon, were among the earliest and most skilled seafarers of the ancient world.

They built large trading ships known as biremes, which had two banks of oars and were capable of traveling long distances. The Phoenicians established trading colonies throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, including in modern-day Spain, North Africa, and the British Isles.

Greek Exploration (c. 750-500 BCE) The Greeks were also skilled seafarers, and their voyages of exploration helped to establish their dominance in the Mediterranean world.

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The Greek explorer Pytheas of Massilia, for example, sailed to Britain and the Arctic Circle in the 4th century BCE, becoming the first known European to do so. The Greeks also established colonies in the Black Sea and along the coasts of modern-day Turkey and Italy.

The Age of Exploration, which lasted from the 15th to the 17th centuries, was a period of intense seafaring activity as European powers sought new trade routes, resources, and territories.

The voyages of discovery during this time had a profound impact on world history, as they led to the colonisation of the Americas, the establishment of global trade networks, and the spread of European influence around the world.

Spanish Voyages of Discover (1492-1602)

The Spanish were the dominant sea power during much of the Age of Exploration, and their voyages of discovery had a profound impact on world history. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic in search of a new trade route to Asia, but instead, he landed in the Caribbean, beginning the colonisation of the Americas.

Spanish explorers also charted new trade routes in the Pacific, including the Philippines, and established colonies throughout South and Central America. The Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano completed Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world in 1522, becoming the first person to sail around the globe.

Portuguese Exploration (c. 1415-1522 )

The Portuguese were among the first European powers to embark on voyages of exploration during the Age of Exploration. Under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator, Portuguese sailors charted new trade routes along the coasts of Africa and eventually reached India and the East Indies.

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The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan also led the first circumnavigation of the world, although he died before the journey was completed.

Dutch Voyages of Exploration (c. 1595-1648 )

The Dutch, like the Portuguese and Spanish, were eager to establish their own trade routes and colonies during the Age of Exploration. They sailed to the East Indies in search of valuable spices and established a trading post in modern-day Indonesia.

Dutch explorers also charted new trade routes to the Americas, Africa, and Australia, and established colonies in these regions as well.

British Exploration (c. 1600-1770)

The British also played a significant role in the Age of Exploration, although their voyages were primarily focused on trade and commerce rather than colonisation. British traders sailed to India and China in search of valuable goods such as silk and tea, establishing trading posts in these regions.

British explorers also charted new trade routes to Africa and the Americas, and established colonies in North America, including the 13 colonies that would eventually become the United States.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, a new wave of sea voyages focused on scientific discovery and exploration of the polar regions. These voyages were driven by a desire to understand the natural world and to push the limits of human knowledge and endurance.

Captain Cook’s Voyages (c. 1768-1780)

Captain James Cook , a British explorer, led three voyages of discovery to the Pacific in the late 18th century. He charted the coasts of Australia and New Zealand and explored the islands of the Pacific, including Hawaii.

Cook’s voyages were primarily focused on scientific exploration, and his crews made important discoveries about the natural world, including the transit of Venus across the Sun and the discovery of new plant and animal species.

Polar Exploration (c. 1800-1920 )

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, explorers focused their attention on the polar regions, driven by a desire to be the first to reach the North and South Poles. British explorers, such as Sir John Franklin and Sir Ernest Shackleton, led expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic, enduring extreme conditions and facing significant challenges.

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These voyages led to important discoveries about the geography and geology of the polar regions, as well as the natural world that resided there.

In the modern era, sea voyages have continued to play an important role in shaping human history, from oceanic exploration to space travel.

Oceanic Exploration (c. 1950-present)

In the latter half of the 20th century, advances in technology and oceanography led to new voyages of discovery in the oceans. Submarines and underwater vehicles were developed, allowing scientists to explore the depths of the ocean and discover new species and geological formations.

Oceanographic research vessels also began to explore the ocean in greater detail, contributing to our understanding of the world’s oceans and their role in the global climate. The explorations continue but what will be discovered next?

The answer… probably plenty.

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10 Remarkable Sea Voyagers

Today, most governments and geographers acknowledge five named oceans . You’ve got the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Arctic, and the Southern. Like five fingers on the same hand, they’re all part of the unified World Ocean , covering 71 percent of the Earth’s surface. And since ancient times, people have made a name for themselves by exploring it . These are the chronicles of 10 memorable sea voyagers, from globetrotting travel writers to a modern-day wayfinder.

1. Pytheas // 4th Century BCE

A Greek adventurer born in what’s now Marseille, France, Pytheas is a much-debated figure. He claimed to have sailed around the British Isles in the year 325 BCE or so. He may have also visited Iceland and traveled above the Arctic Circle, which, if true, might have made him the first European adventurer to write about witnessing the sun shine at midnight during the polar summer.

Pytheas recorded his experiences in a book called On the Ocean that, as far as we know, doesn’t exist anymore . No copies have survived; all we have to go on are the writings of ancient authors who referenced the original text. Some of them had their doubts about Pytheas’s claims, and the actual route he took is a mystery. 

2. Leif Erikson // 10th Century

There’s a good chance the Norse explorer Leif Erikson was the first European who ever set foot in North America. His exploits are retold in two of the Icelandic Sagas, a set of historical volumes written a couple centuries later and thought to be based on oral tradition. Erikson was the son of Greenland’s original settler, Erik the Red, and he either landed in eastern Canada by mistake or went there on purpose after hearing the testimony of a sailor who’d seen it in passing.

Erikson didn’t stay in North America for long, but he likely left his mark. Archaeologists in Newfoundland, Canada, found the remains of a Nordic settlement , dated between 930 and 1030 CE, that match descriptions in the sagas. 

3. Ibn Battuta // 14th Century

Beginning in 1325, Muslim scholar Ibn Battuta began his epic wanderings across Dar al-Islam (the Muslim world). Over several expeditions by land and sea, he traveled in modern-day Mali in west Africa, Egypt, Asia Minor, the Arabian Peninsula, present-day Russia, India, Southeast Asia, and China. He once sailed down the coast of East Africa on a type of ship called a dhow and traversed the Indian Ocean from Arabia to present-day Myanmar to Indonesia. He also had a nauseating jaunt across the Red Sea. 

In 1354, the sultan of Morocco ordered Ibn Battuta to dictate a book about his experiences. Popularly called the Rihla (which means “voyage” in Arabic), it retells his lifetime of adventure through 44 modern-day countries.

4. Zheng He // 15th Century

Leading a fleet of 300 ships, packed with a combined 28,000 people, would be an amazing feat in any era. The Muslim mariner Zheng He did it more than 50 years before Christopher Columbus made it across the Atlantic. Zheng He (born Ma He circa 1371) was captured at age 10 by Ming Dynasty soldiers and rose through the ranks as a member of the emperor Yongle’s court. After securing the ruler’s trust, Zheng He was asked to preside over seven great diplomatic voyages to assert China’s maritime power.

The first of those trips, each lasting about three years, began in 1405 and the last wrapped up in 1433. During his expeditions, Zheng He established key trade routes across the Indian Ocean, from east Africa to India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and collected many tributes for China. All the while, he commanded tens of thousands of people. Exotic animals like elephants and giraffes were sometimes brought along for the ride.   

5. Ferdinand Magellan // 16th Century

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan orchestrated the first successful circumnavigation of the globe . Yet he personally didn’t live to see it through.

The voyage launched from Spain in 1519, tasked with scouting a western route (across the Atlantic) to the Spice Islands in modern-day eastern Indonesia. Under Magellan’s leadership, the crew sailed below the southernmost tip of the Americas, through a turbulent , ice-choked waterway now called the Strait of Magellan.

Upon exiting the strait, the group entered another ocean where the waters seemed nice and calm. So Magellan named it the Pacific, a synonym for “ peaceful .” Partway through the journey, Magellan lost his life during a skirmish in what’s now the Philippines. But the surviving crew successfully completed its long, hard voyage around the world.

6. Jeanne Baret // 18th Century

Jeanne Baret succeeded where Magellan failed, becoming the first known woman to sail all the way around the world. Her circumnavigation of the planet started in 1766, when she boarded the French naval ship Étoile disguised as a man . Her plan was to accompany naturalist Philibert Commerson (who was also her boyfriend) and serve as a botanist on Louis Antoine de Bougainville’s voyage to Asia.

A royal ordinance at the time barred women from French naval vessels, but Commerson sidestepped the rule by passing her off as a young male assistant. The two scientists used this once-in-a-lifetime chance to gather exotic plant samples. At some point, Baret’s secret was revealed; she and Commerson later left the expedition early to begin a new life on the island of Mauritius. After his death in 1773, Baret married and returned to France within the next two years. By doing so, Baret completed her journey across the full length of the earth. 

7. James Cook // 18th Century

A farmhand’s son turned British naval captain, James Cook is best remembered for leading three lengthy voyages of discovery through the Pacific Ocean. The last one claimed his life. Following his service in the Seven Years’ War, Cook charted New Zealand, logged the first recorded crossing of the Antarctic Circle, visited the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and braved Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. (Cook is often credited as the first European to visit Australia, but that’s not true .)

It was during the third of these signature voyages that Cook met his demise. A series of tense meetings with Hawaiians on the western coast of the Big Island turned deadly. We’ll probably never know the full context of that incident, but we do know a group of Hawaiians killed Cook on February 14, 1779 near Kealakekua Bay.

8. Ida Pfeiffer // 19th Century

Widowed in 1838 , this Austrian mother of two was 41 years old when she embarked on the first of many international adventures. By the time she died in 1858, her traveler’s resume included a voyage around Africa’s Cape Horn and a transpacific visit to Tahiti, where Pfeiffer was introduced to its queen.

Pfeiffer watched the geysers of Iceland, joined an Indian tiger hunt, tried to cross the Andes before a Peruvian revolution changed her plans, and discovered an insect new to science. Oh, and lest we forget, she circumnavigated the globe—twice. Somehow, she also found the time to write multiple books about her travels.

9. Michael Healy // 19th Century

Michael “Hell Roaring Mike” Healy , the son of an Irish plantation owner and an enslaved Black or biracial woman, is recognized as the first person of African descent to command a U.S. federal ship.

Born in Georgia in 1839, Healy grew up in Massachusetts and served as a merchant mariner. He was admitted to the U.S. Treasury’s Revenue Cutter Service, which enforced customs laws at sea, by President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The commission brought him from the east coast around Cape Horn to San Francisco. Between 1868 and 1896, Healy patrolled the coastal waters of Alaska, often in cold, foggy, windy conditions; he also commanded the annual Bering Sea Patrol , covering 15,000 to 20,000 miles at sea each time. The trusty Coast Guard cutter Healy , a state-of-the-art polar icebreaker, is named after the famous mariner.

10. Nainoa Thompson // 21st Century

About 1500 years ago, Hawaii’s original settlers navigated the Pacific by using the stars, winds, waves, and other natural phenomena. The long-distance wayfinding methods that took them from the South Pacific to the Hawaiian islands fell into disuse over time, which makes the career of the Native Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson all the more remarkable.

Thompson used these ancient navigation techniques—and nothing else—to lead a double-hulled voyaging canoe named Hōkūle’a all the way from Hawaii to Tahiti and back in 1980, under the mentorship of traditional navigator Mau Piailug. The expedition was part of an effort to rescue this cultural heritage and pass on the traditions to the next generation.

Before the decade’s end, he directed the Hōkūle’a on an even more ambitious, two-way journey between his Hawaii and New Zealand, a round-trip distance of over 16,000 nautical miles . Thompson continues to lead Hōkūle’a ’s worldwide voyages.

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Ferdinand Magellan

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 4, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

In search of fame and fortune, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521) set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. En route he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean. The voyage was long and dangerous, and only one ship returned home three years later. Although it was laden with valuable spices from the East, only 18 of the fleet’s original crew of 270 returned with the ship. Magellan himself was killed in battle on the voyage, but his ambitious expedition proved that the globe could be circled by sea and that the world was much larger than had previously been imagined.

Ferdinand Magellan’s Early Years

Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480–1521) was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, to a family of minor Portuguese nobility. At age 12 Ferdinand Magellan ( Fernão de Magalhães in Portuguese and Fernando de Magallanes in Spanish) and his brother Diogo traveled to Lisbon to serve as pages at Queen Leonora’s court. While at the court Magellan was exposed to stories of the great Portuguese and Spanish rivalry for sea exploration and dominance over the spice trade in the East Indies, especially the Spice Islands, or Moluccas, in modern Indonesia. Intrigued by the promise of fame and riches, Magellan developed an interest in maritime discovery in those early years.

Did you know? Clove was the most valuable spice in Europe during Magellan's day. It was used to flavor food, but Europeans also believed that its essence could improve vision, its powder could relieve fevers and that it could enhance intercourse when mixed with milk.

In 1505, Magellan and his brother were assigned to a Portuguese fleet headed for India. Over the next seven years, Magellan participated in several expeditions in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa and was wounded in several battles. In 1513 he joined the enormous 500-ship, 15,000-soldier force sent by King Manuel to Morocco to challenge the Moroccan governor who refused to pay its yearly tribute to the Portuguese empire. The Portuguese easily overwhelmed the Moroccan forces, and Magellan stayed on in Morocco. While there he was seriously wounded in a skirmish, which left him with a limp for the rest of his life.

Magellan: From Portugal to Spain

In the 15th century, spices were at the epicenter of the world economy, much like oil is today. Highly valued for flavoring and preserving food as well as masking the taste of meat gone bad, spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and especially black pepper were extremely valuable. Since spices could not be cultivated in cold and arid Europe, no effort was spared to discover the quickest sea route to the Spice Islands. Portugal and Spain led the competition for early control over this critical commodity. Europeans had reached the Spice Islands by sailing east, but none had yet to sail west from Europe to reach the other side of the globe. Magellan was determined to be the first to do so.

By now an experienced seaman, Magellan approached King Manuel of Portugal to seek his support for a westward voyage to the Spice Islands. The king refused his petition repeatedly. In 1517, a frustrated Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and relocated to Spain to seek royal support for his venture.

When Magellan arrived in Seville in October 1517, he had no connections and spoke little Spanish. He soon met another transplanted Portuguese named Diogo Barbosa, and within a year he had married Barbosa’s daughter Beatriz, who gave birth to their son Rodrigo a year later. The well-connected Barbosa family introduced Magellan to officers responsible for Spain’s maritime exploration, and soon Magellan secured an appointment to meet the king of Spain.

The grandson of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who had funded Christopher Columbus ’s expedition to the New World in 1492, received Magellan’s petition with the same favor shown by his grandparents. Just 18 years old at the time, King Charles I granted his support to Magellan, who in turn promised the young king that his westward sea voyage would bring immeasurable riches to Spain.

Strait of Magellan

On August 10, 1519 Magellan bade farewell to his wife and young son, neither of whom he would ever see again, and the Armada De Moluccas set sail. Magellan commanded the lead ship Trinidad and was accompanied by four other ships: the San Antonio , the Conception , the Victoria and the Santiago . The expedition would prove long and arduous, and only one ship, the Victoria , would return three years later across the Pacific, carrying a mere 18 of the fleet’s original crew of 270.

In September 1519 Magellan’s fleet sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, which was then known simply as the Ocean Sea. The fleet reached South America a little more than one month later. There the ships sailed southward, hugging the coast in search of the fabled strait that would allow passage through South America. The fleet stopped at Port San Julian where the crew mutinied on Easter Day in 1520. Magellan quickly quelled the uprising, executing one of the captains and leaving another mutinous captain behind. Meanwhile Magellan had sent the Santiago to explore the route ahead, where it was shipwrecked during a terrible storm. The ship’s crew members were rescued and assigned out among the remaining ships. With those disastrous events behind them, the fleet left Port San Julian five months later when fierce seasonal storms abated.

On October 21, 1520 Magellan finally entered the strait that he had been seeking and that came to bear his name. The voyage through the Strait of Magellan was treacherous and cold, and many sailors continued to mistrust their leader and grumble about the dangers of the journey ahead. In the early days of the navigation of the strait, the crew of the San Antonio forced its captain to desert, and the ship turned and fled across the Atlantic Ocean back to Spain. At this point, only three of the original five ships remained in Magellan’s fleet.

The Magellan Expedition: Circumnavigation the Glob e

After more than a month spent traversing the strait, Magellan’s remaining armada emerged in November 1520 to behold a vast ocean before them. They were the first known Europeans to see the great ocean, which Magellan named Mar Pacifico, the Pacific Ocean, for its apparent peacefulness, a stark contrast to the dangerous waters of the strait from which he had just emerged. In fact, extremely rough waters are not uncommon in the Pacific Ocean, where tsunamis, typhoons and hurricanes have done serious damage to the Pacific Islands and Pacific Rim nations throughout history.

Little was known about the geography beyond South America at that time, and Magellan optimistically estimated that the trip across the Pacific would be rapid. In fact, it took three months for the fleet to make its way slowly across the vast Mar Pacifico. The days dragged on as Magellan’s crew anxiously waited to utter the magic words “Land, ho!” At last, the fleet reached the Pacific island of Guam in March 1521, where they finally replenished their food stores.

Magellan’s fleet then sailed on to the Philippine archipelago landing on the island of Cebu, where Magellan befriended the locals and, struck with a sudden religious zeal, sought to convert them to Christianity . Magellan was now closer than ever to reaching the Spice Islands, but when the Cebu asked for his help in fighting their neighbors on the island of Mactan, Magellan agreed. He assumed he would command a swift victory with his superior European weapons, and against the advice of his men, Magellan himself led the attack. The Mactanese fought fiercely, and Magellan fell when he was shot with a poison arrow. Ferdinand Magellan died on April 27, 1521.

Magellan would never make it to the Spice Islands, but after the loss of yet another of his fleet’s vessels, the two remaining ships finally reached the Moluccas on November 5, 1521. In the end, only the Victoria completed the voyage around the world and arrived back in Seville, Spain, in September 1522 with a heavy cargo of spices but with only 18 men from the original crew, including Italian scholar and explorer Antonio Pigafetta. The journal Pigafaetta kept on the voyage is a key record of what the crew encountered on their journey home.

Impact of Ferdinand Magellan

Seeking riches and personal glory, Magellan’s daring and ambitious voyage around the world provided the Europeans with far more than just spices. Although the trip westward from Europe to the east via the Strait of Magellan had been discovered and mapped, the journey was too long and dangerous to become a practical route to the Spice Islands. Nevertheless, European geographic knowledge was expanded immeasurably by Magellan’s expedition. He found not only a massive ocean, hitherto unknown to Europeans, but he also discovered that the earth was much larger than previously thought. Finally, although it was no longer believed that the earth was flat at this stage in history, Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe empirically discredited the medieval theory conclusively.

Though Magellan is often credited with the first circumnavigation of the globe, he did so on a technicality: He first made a trip from Europe to present-day Malaysia, eastward via the Indian Ocean, and may have continued further east to the Spice Islands. He then later made his famous westward voyage that brought him to the Philippines. So he did cover the entire terrain, but it was not a strict point A to point A, round-the-world trip, and it was made in two different directions. His enslaved servant Enrique was born in the region, possibly near Malacca or Cebu, and had come to Europe with Magellan by ship. Enrique reached Cebu (and possibly Mallaca) on the expedition’s westward voyage, meaning he may have been the first person to circumnavigate the world in one direction to return to the same starting point.

HISTORY Vault: Columbus the Lost Voyage

Ten years after his 1492 voyage, Columbus, awaiting the gallows on criminal charges in a Caribbean prison, plotted a treacherous final voyage to restore his reputation.

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• Explore the Sea
• Explore the Sky

1 AD - 1600

Viking Expeditions Begin

The ancient Vikings begin to explore and colonize Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. Vikings are the Norse people from southern Scandinavia, which is present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They are among the first explorers to use the North Star to determine their latitude while sailing.

Voyage of Leif Erikson

Norse explorer Leif Erikson becomes the first European to land in North America. His voyage takes place nearly 500 years before that of Christopher Columbus. He calls the new land Vinland and establishes a Norse settlement in what is now the northern tip of Newfoundland in Canada.

Chinese Exploration

The Chinese send out seven voyages consisting of over 300 ships and a combined crew of nearly 37,000. These voyages are designed to extend Chinese influence and impress their neighboring states. Economic pressures back home put an end to these expensive voyages after only a short time.

Ptolemy's Map Rediscovered

Ptolemy's famous map of the world is rediscovered and published once again after the European crusades capture ancient Roman libraries from the Arab peoples.

Voyage of Christopher Columbus

The Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus sets out on his historic voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a passage to China and India. Instead, he discovers North and South America which eventually leads to European colonization of these newly discovered continents. His expeditions were the were the first European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

Voyage of Vasco da Gama

The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sails his ships around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa and becomes the first European to reach India by boat. The expedition later returns to Portugal with a valuable cargo of rare spices. This is considered to be a milestone in world history, since it marks the beginning of a sea-based phase of global multiculturalism.

September 20, 1519

First Circumnavigation of the World

Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet of ships depart Portugal to begin a daring voyage of discovery. The fleet will become the first to sail around the world. Magellan, however, does not live to see their accomplishment. He dies on the Island of Mactan in the Philippines in 1521 from the poison arrows of the local native people.

First True Diving Bell

Guglielmo de Lorena invents the first true diving bell. The apparatus rests on diver’s shoulders and has much of its weight supported by slings. The bell is tested in a lake near Rome and provides enough air for the diver to breathe for about a one-hour dive. It is hoped that this device can be used to help recover treasure from sunken Roman ships.

First Plans for a Submarine

An English mathematician named William Bourne draws up the first known plans for an underwater boat. These plans call for a leather-covered wooden frame craft that would be rowed from the inside. There is no evidence to suggest that this craft was ever built.

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He Made the Longest Ocean Voyage in History, and Turned It Into Art

Reid Stowe once hung out with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. But the sea was his true passion.

By Alex Vadukul

Along a Hudson River pier in 2010, a sailor docked his battered schooner as a crowd watched in quiet anticipation. When he wearily stepped onto land, he had finished a remarkable human journey: Reid Stowe had been at sea for 1,152 days, the longest nonstop ocean voyage in recorded history.

A decade later, Mr. Stowe is raising a family in suburban North Carolina and driving a 2005 Chevy Malibu. But he has also obsessively been making giant abstract paintings, most of them using the weather-beaten sails that carried his schooner across the globe. He was recently back in New York to visit the Chelsea gallery that is showing his art.

“All this time later, I’m still trying to tell the world the story of what I went through,” said Mr. Stowe, 67, during his recent stay in Manhattan. “I’ve departed the touch of earth longer than anyone else. All my paintings carry the vibrations and significance of that journey.”

Tall and blue-eyed, Mr. Stowe has chased adventure his whole life. He crossed the Atlantic twice on a tiny catamaran when he was 21; he sailed through icebergs in Antarctica; he was kidnapped by pirates on the Amazon River.

But in the 1980s, Mr. Stowe was a striving artist in the downtown New York art scene, hanging out in the same circles as Keith Haring and Julian Schnabel. Jean-Michel Basquiat painted a portrait of him, but Mr. Stowe later sold it to fund his expedition. (He accepted $20,000 in 1993; the painting sold for $94,000 at Christie’s seven years later.)

Mr. Stowe was in a couple of small group shows in the East Village, but he was always returning to the sea. He hopes this show, at the Paul Calendrillo Gallery , might be his second chance at the art world.

“I was painting on giant canvases before Schnabel was,” he said. “Warhol’s dealer told me I could be big, but he’d say, ‘Well, Reid’s going off on another trip again.’”

Mr. Stowe became obsessed with embarking on a thousand-day journey at sea in the 1970s. His intention was to simulate a round-trip to Mars, and he spent years preparing for it.

His father was an Air Force lieutenant colonel, and he grew up on military bases around the world, but he seemed to show little interest in regimentation after that.

As a young man, he visited the South Pacific and he later carved the figureheads of Polynesian spirits into his 70-foot schooner for protection. (His ship, which he built himself, is named Anne, for his mother.) He studied Taoist philosophy, and he claims that energy harnessed from tantric sex has powered his long distance voyages.

In St. Barts, he was a pot smuggler (he spent nine months in jail), and in the 1990s he lived rent-free on a boat moored to a dock in Chelsea. His three marriages to young women — two artists and a model — all ended in divorce because they wouldn’t commit, he said, to the 1,000-day trip.

Soanya Ahmad was different. She was a 23-year-old photography student when she met Mr. Stowe, who was then 55, and one of the first things he asked her was: “How’s your health? Can you spend a long time at sea? It’s important I know.”

In 2007, they departed from Hoboken on a boat stocked with six tons of nonperishable provisions and a sprout garden. On Day 15, a freighter hit their schooner. Around Day 300, Ms. Ahmad started feeling sick, and a boat picked her up near the coast of Australia. Communicating by a satellite phone, Mr. Stowe soon learned that she was pregnant. On Day 457, Soanya gave birth to Darshen in New York. Mr. Stowe met his son for the first time when he arrived on the Hudson two years later.

Since returning to land, Mr. Stowe has embraced something close to domesticity. He now lives in the suburbs of Greensboro, N.C., at his father’s house with Darshen, who is now 11, and Soanya.

He mows the lawn, and he likes watching thrillers on television. He takes care of his father, who has Alzheimer’s. Mr. Stowe said they all get by modestly on his father’s retirement funds and from his painting sales. Soanya home-schools Darshen, and Mr. Stowe hopes to take his son sailing this winter to Haiti. “He was braver when he was younger,” Mr. Stowe said. “He used to laugh at storms. Now he doesn’t like mud. He likes playing a computer game called Fortnite.” Mr. Stowe’s schooner is moored on the North Carolina coast, and requires serious repairs.

Mr. Stowe still thinks about his trip constantly, but he doesn’t miss the spotlight.

As his voyage gained international coverage, he became the subject of derision in a corner of the sailing community. The users of a website called Sailing Anarchy , which caters to regatta racers and yacht owners, started mocking Mr. Stowe as a narcissistic hippie with a knack for self-promotion. Still, they followed Mr. Stowe’s trip obsessively, and one message board reached over 30,000 comments.

“I guess Stowe is still bobbing around, people continue to give him enough stuff to get by and he manages to lure in another young thing,” read a typically caustic comment. After Ms. Ahmad became pregnant, their scorn intensified. One commenter tracked down Mr. Stowe’s federal conviction for pot smuggling, and he also posted a report that Mr. Stowe once owed more than $11,000 in child support to the mother of his daughter from his first marriage. (Mr. Stowe insists he wasn’t behind on payments).

When the trip ended, the trolls faded away, but Mr. Stowe said he lost valuable sponsorship opportunities as a result. Since then, he’s also been trying to publish a memoir.

“They wanted to paint me as this guy who took a young woman to sea, got her pregnant, and abandoned her,” said Mr. Stowe. “The truth is I did something no one else had ever done, and I got to go do it with a beautiful girl, and they didn’t like that. They all wanted to be me, but they were stuck behind their computers.”

While Mr. Stowe made the trip to New York for the gallery opening, Ms. Ahmad, who is now 36, remained in North Carolina to take care of Mr. Stowe’s father. “People judged Reid for not being with me, but I supported him being out there,” she said over the phone. “He needed to get that trip out of his system so he could come back. All this judgment came down on us, but we’re all still together, and there’s nothing anyone can say about that.”

She said that suburban life has been an adjustment for him. “He’s had to get used to living in a house,” she said. “It’s difficult sometimes for us to relate to neighbors. They Google us and conversations can be awkward.”

But soon after settling down, Mr. Stowe felt compelled to start painting seriously. Every day, he works in a studio in his backyard and the giant sail canvases he paints on hang from trees with pulley systems. “When a storm comes through, I hear the sails flap and it makes me feel alive,” said Mr. Stowe. “When people see my art, I want them to feel the trip. I want them to walk into the unknown.”

At his gallery show in Chelsea the other day, Mr. Stowe reminisced about his days in the downtown New York scene. He was living in a loft on Broome Street, he partied with Keith Haring at Danceteria, and he got written up in a Japanese art magazine. And then there was the Jean-Michel Basquiat portrait session in 1985.

Mr. Stowe was in St. Barts on his boat, he recalled, and Basquiat joined him while he was there on vacation.

“He visited me and I showed him my studio. He asked, ‘Can I paint, too?’ I gave him some prime white plywood and he painted me standing there. You know how he leaves eyes blank? He told me we were looking at each other through those eyes.”

Mr. Stowe doesn’t regret selling his Basquiat. “I needed to cut my ties to the earth,” he said. “I had to sell my Basquiat because I wanted to merge my spirit with something as high as God.”

“Art Transformations From the Longest Sea Voyage in History,” is on display at the Paul Calendrillo Gallery , at 548 West 28th Street, until Oct. 31.

Alex Vadukul is a city correspondent for The New York Times. He writes for Metropolitan and is a two-time winner of the New York Press Club award for city writing. More about Alex Vadukul

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Robin Lee Graham, pictured sailing in 1968 in Durban, South Africa, circumnavigated the world solo and wrote about it for National Geographic. His memoir Dove details his epic journey.

Set sail with these 10 books about epic ocean voyages

From solo trips around the world to family sojourns in the Pacific Northwest, these tales of high-seas adventures will inspire you.

Fifty years ago, Robin Lee Graham cruised into the Los Angeles harbor and made history, becoming at the time the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

The mariner was only 16 years old when he set forth nearly five years earlier, on July 27, 1965. His vessel: a 24-foot sloop called Dove. During his 1,739 days at sea traversing 30,600 nautical miles, Graham faced hurricanes, broken masts, crushing loneliness, a near collision with a freighter, and tedious weeks wallowing in the doldrums. But there were also moments of unparalleled beauty and long sojourns exploring fascinating destinations. He attended a memorial for a queen in Tonga, dived for shells in Fiji , safaried in South Africa’s Kruger National Park , hiked on lunar-like Ascension Island, ate piranhas in Suriname, and roamed the islands of the Galápagos .

Graham detailed his adventures in three National Geographic articles published between 1968 and 1970. “We sleigh-ride down into the deep trough of a trade-wind sea. Then Dove labors up the following crest, and down we plunge again, day after day, my boat and I,” he wrote in his first article. The teen’s quest captured hearts and imaginations, and readers avidly followed his journey and the challenges he experienced.

( Related: Discover stunning sailing adventures around the world . )

The most dramatic event was his second dismasting in the Indian Ocean. Only 18 hours out of the Cocos Islands , a roaring storm caused Dove’ s mast to buckle. Graham almost fell overboard—without his safety harness on—in the attempt to haul the trailing mast and sails back aboard. He sailed under a makeshift rig an astonishing 2,300 miles to Mauritius , off the coast of Africa . “Could I do it? I had no choice,” he wrote. “I had to; turning back against the trade winds was impossible.”

Published in 1972, Graham’s best-selling memoir, Dove (co-written with Derek L.T. Gill), expands on his articles and chronicles his love story with his wife, Patti, whom he met and married along the way. The book not only inspired countless mariners’ dreams but, as Graham also wrote, created “memories [at] landfalls where foreigners seldom set foot.”

“Dynamic, chaotic, brilliant. Both infinite and finite at once.” The seafarer pictured here might relate to how author Liz Clark describes the power of nature in Swell, her sailing memoir.

Graham is not the only seafarer with an extraordinary story. Here are 10 additional books—the latest installment in our ongoing Around the World in Books series—about adventurous sailors who test their mettle on the high seas.

Sailing Alone Around the World , by Joshua Slocum, 1900. Slocum’s iconic account of his solo trip around the globe—the first person to accomplish such a feat—can be found on almost every sailor’s bookshelf and was a prime inspiration to Graham. Setting off from Boston in 1895 in his 36-foot wooden sloop, Spray, Slocum sailed some 46,000 miles over three years. His wonderfully entertaining tale features close calls with pirates off Gibraltar, breakfasting on flying fish in the Pacific, and visiting with explorer Henry Stanley in South Africa .

Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail , by W. Jeffrey Bolster, 1997. Black seafaring wasn’t limited to the horrific Middle Passage . During the 18th and 19th centuries, thousands of Black sailors went to sea aboard whalers, warships, and clippers in pursuit of liberty and economic opportunity. They played a pivotal role in creating a new African-American identity, carrying news and information to Black communities ashore and even helping smuggle enslaved people to freedom—such as Frederick Douglass , who escaped from slavery disguised as a sailor.

The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float , by Farley Mowat, 1969. “The five hundred and fifty mile voyage across the center of Newfoundland was a prolonged exercise in masochism,” the Canadian author and naturalist writes in his hilarious account of his travails aboard the Happy Adventure . Beset by constant leaks, a cantankerous engine, and repeated sinkings, Mowat and his ornery wooden sailboat had a riotous time roaming the foggy shores of Newfoundland and the Maritimes in the 1960s.

( Related: 10 books that will take you on real-life adventures .)

The Curve of Time , by M. Wylie Blanchet, 1961. After being widowed, Blanchet turned to the sea, cruising with her five children on long summer sojourns in the 1920s and ’30s along the coast of British Columbia . A pioneer of family travel , Blanchet recalls in lyrical writing the beauty of the unspoiled Pacific Northwest and teaching her children the wonders of the natural world.

Maiden Voyage , by Tania Aebi, 1989. In 1985, Aebi’s father offered the 18-year-old a choice: go to college or sail a 26-foot boat around the world. She chose the boat. From surviving a terrifying collision with a tanker in the Mediterranean to braving a lightning storm off the coast of Gibraltar, her compelling memoir charts her two-and-half-year journey on Varuna as a young woman braving the sea alone with only her cat as companion.

The Last Grain Race , by Eric Newby, 1956. Windjammers once raced to carry grain from Australia to Europe the fastest, and Newby apprenticed aboard Moshulu during the final contest in 1939. Recounting his circumnavigation between Ireland and Australia, Newby captures the last era of big sailing ships.

Swell: Sailing the Pacific in Search of Surf and Self , by Liz Clark, 2018. Reading Aebi’s Maiden Voyage sparked Clark’s own dream to sail the world. Nominated for National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2015, Clark has captained her 40-foot sailboat throughout the Pacific for more than a decade. Her memoir weaves together life at sea, her love of the Earth, and her eternal quest for great surf.

Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea , by Steven Callahan, 1986. In 1982, several months after starting his voyage off the coast of Rhode Island, Callahan faced every sailor’s worst nightmare: His boat abruptly took on water and sank, leaving him stranded on a five-foot inflatable raft in the middle of the Atlantic. For the next 76 days, Callahan survived terrifying storms, shark attacks, and lack of food and fresh water while drifting 1,800 miles to the Caribbean .

The Cruise of the Snark , by Jack London, 1911. After reading Slocum’s book, The Call of the Wild author was determined to make his own grand voyage. London designed his dream boat, a 55-foot wooden ketch, and departed San Francisco in 1907 with his wife, Charmian, and a woefully inexperienced crew. On their travels through the South Pacific, London taught himself celestial navigation and learned how to surf in Hawaii before ending his trip in the Solomon Islands.

Taking on the World , by Ellen MacArthur, 2002. British sailor MacArthur holds the record for the fastest solo sail by a woman across the Atlantic and has circled the planet in record-breaking time. Her autobiography describes her extraordinary second-place finish (at the age of 24) in the world’s hardest single-handed yacht race, the Vendée Globe, where she faced frigid wind conditions, mountainous waves, and leaden skies in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans.

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