John Cabot (detail from Some Who Have Made Bristol Famous).

John Cabot (c1457-99) was a Genoese explorer, merchant, navigator and cartographer who set out from Bristol in 1497 in search of the Far East. Cabot's voyage was motivated by his desire to find an alternative route westward to the Orient that avoided the hostile Turkish-held land to the east.

Fortuitously for him, his search for backers coincided with Bristol's own desire to find alternative supplies of dried fish, having lost the once lucrative Icelandic trade to the Danes. Cabot's ships were fitted out by Bristol merchants, including Robert Thorne, founder of Bristol Grammar School, and were manned by Bristol seamen who already had experience of venturing across the Atlantic. Cabot could not go too far south in his journey west for fear of offending the Spanish. By keeping northwards he came, not to the Orient but to Newfoundland.

Others associated with maritime activity, and Bristol include:

Sebastian Cabot (c 1480-1557), Atlantic explorer, merchant and cartographer.

Sir Martin Frobisher (c 1535-1594), explorer, privateer and naval commander.

John Guy (c 1575-1628), merchant who attempted to become colonial governor of Newfoundland.

Martin Pring (1580-c1626), naval officer who established colonial base in New England.

Thomas James (c 1592-1635), explorer and writer who went in search of the north-west passage to Asia in 1631.

Sir William Penn (1621-1670), naval officer who commanded Caribbean expedition (father of William Penn, Quaker founder of Pennsyvlvania).

Sir Henry Morgan (c 1635-1688), buccaneer and governor of Jamaica.

Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721), castaway and possible inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.

Woodes Rogers (c 1679-1732), privateer and colonial governor of the Bahamas.

Mary Read (c 1695-1721), pirate.

Edward Teach (died 1718), better known as Blackbeard the pirate.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel by Robert Howlett, 1857 (Institution of Civil Engineers).

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), designer of transatlantic steamships.

Samuel Plimsoll (1824-1898), campaigner for safety at sea.

Dame Katherine Furse (1875-1952), director of the Women's Royal Naval Service.

Tony Bullimore, yachtsman.