6 Explorers Who Disappeared

For every Christopher Columbus or Vasco da Gama, there were other

adventurers who were seemingly swallowed by the vastness of the
oceans, jungles and deserts they tried to explore. Many of these
vanished travelers have become sources of enduring speculation,
sometimes even inspiring doomed rescue missions. Get the facts on six
famous explorers who journeyed to the far reaches of the earth, only to
never be seen again.

Percy Fawcett

The unforgiving Amazon jungle has claimed the lives of more than one
adventurer, but perhaps none so famous as Colonel Percy Fawcett, who
disappeared in 1925 while on the trail of a mythical lost city. One of the most
colorful figures of his era, Fawcett had made his name during a series of
harrowing mapmaking expeditions to the wilds of Brazil and Bolivia. During
these travels, he formulated a theory about a lost city called Z, which he
believed existed somewhere in the unexplored Mato Grosso region of Brazil.

In 1925 Fawcett, his son oldest son Jack and a young man named Raleigh
Rimmell set off in search of the fabled lost city. But following a final letter in
which Fawcett announced he was venturing into unmapped territory, the group
vanished without a trace. Their fate remains a mystery. While conventional
wisdom suggests the explorers were killed by hostile Indians, other theories
blame everything from malaria to starvation to jaguar attacks for their demise.
Some have even speculated that the men simply went native and lived out the
rest of their lives in the jungle. Whatever its cause, the groups disappearance
captured the imaginations of people around the world. In the years after
Fawcett vanished, thousands of would-be adventurers mounted rescue
missions, and as many as 100 people eventually died while searching for
some sign of him in the darkness of the Amazon.

George Bass

The British mariner George Bass is remembered for discovering the strait
between Australia and Tasmania, but he is even more famous for vanishing
during an 1803 voyage to South America. Bass began his career as a ships
surgeon in the Royal Navy and gained a reputation as a bold explorer after he
surveyed the eastern coast of Australia in a tiny ship called the Tom Thumb.

Hoping to strike it rich as a private trader, Bass returned to Australia in the

early 1800s on a merchant ship called the Venus. When his cargo failed to
fetch a respectable price, Bass hatched an audacious plan to travel to South
Americathen a Spanish territoryon a rogue trading mission. He set sail in
February 1803 but soon disappeared with his crew in the Pacific Ocean, never
to be seen again. While the Venus was most likely lost at sea, another theory
argues that Bass and his men made it to the coast of Chile, only to be arrested
as smugglers and forced to spend the rest of their lives toiling in a Spanish
silver mine.

Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real

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In a chilling coincidence, the Portuguese brothers Gaspar and Miguel Corte-
Real both vanished during separate voyages to the coastline of modern-day
Canada. In 1501 Gaspar led a three-ship fleet on an expedition to the shores
of Newfoundland. After claiming some 60 natives as slaves, he tasked his
brother Miguel with ferrying them back to Portugal. Gaspar was expected to
follow shortly thereafter, but both he and his ship were never seen again.

Miguel Corte-Real returned to the New World in 1502 on a quest to rescue his
beloved brother. After arriving in Newfoundland, his three caravels split up and
began a frantic search of the coastline. But while the other two vessels later
returned to their rendezvous point, Miguels ship vanished without a trace. The
fate of the two Corte-Reals remains a mystery, but there is some evidence that
Miguel may not have perished immediately after his disappearance. In 1918 a
Brown University professor discovered an inscription on a boulder in Dighton,
Massachusetts. Dated 1511, the message read: Miguel Corte-Real, by the
will of God, here leader of the Indians. If genuine, these markings would
suggest that Miguel managed to survive in the New World for at least nine
years. Even more amazing, they imply that he eventually joined and perhaps
even led a tribe of natives.
Jean-Francois de Galaup Laprouse

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In 1785 Frances King Louis XVI dispatched the explorer Jean-Francois de

Galaup Laprouse on a grand around-the-world mapmaking expedition. After
setting sail from Brest, the navigator rounded Cape Horn and spent the next
few years surveying the coastlines of California, Alaska, Russia, Japan, Korea
and the Philippines. Laprouse reached Australia in 1788, but after leaving
Botany Bay his fleet disappeared. A rescue expedition arrived in 1791, but it
found no trace of Laprouse, his two ships or his 225 crewmembers.

It was nearly 40 years before any evidence of the explorers fate emerged. In
1826 an Irish sea captain named Peter Dillon learned from natives that a pair
of ships had once sunk near the island of Vanikoro. After sailing to the site,
Dillon recovered anchors and other wreckage later confirmed to belong to
Laprouses two ships. In a bizarre twist, the locals also claimed that some of
the menincluding the groups chiefhad survived on Vanikoro for some
time before building a ramshackle boat and heading out to sea. If this
mysterious chief was indeed Laprouse, it would mean the doomed
navigator survived for several years longer than was originally believed.

Sir John Franklin and Francis Crozier

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Sir John Franklin and Francis Crozier were among the most renowned polar
explorers of the 19th century, and their disappearance triggered a decades-
long series of rescue missions. In 1845 the duo led two ships on an expedition
to discover the elusive Northwest Passagethe sea route linking the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans. But after passing Baffin Island that July, the expedition
vanished without a trace.

It was two years before a search party arrived from England, and only then did
some of the terrifying details of the explorers fate finally come to light. The
investigations revealed that Franklin and Croziers vessels had become
trapped in pack ice during the winter of 1846-1847. While the expedition had
three years worth of supplies, all the provisions had been sealed with lead,
which almost certainly contaminated the sailors food. The crew soon became
weakened and delirious from lead poisoning, and at least 20 menincluding
Franklinperished by mid-1848. Natives who came in contact with the
expedition later claimed that Crozier tried to lead the survivors south in search
of help. Most if not all of the men are believed to have died during the journey,
and recent evidence shows some even resorted to cannibalism. Spurred on by
Franklins widow, as many as 50 ships would later travel to Canada in an
attempt to locate the lost expedition, but the bodies of Franklin and Crozier
along with the wrecks of their two shipshave never been recovered.

Peng Jiamu

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Perhaps the most famous example of a modern lost explorer is Peng Jiamu, a
Chinese biologist who vanished during a desert expedition in 1980. One of
Chinas most beloved adventurers, Peng began his travels in the late 1950s.
He participated in multiple scientific expeditions to northwestern Chinas Lop
Nor desert, often described as one of the driest places in the world. In 1980
Peng led a team of biologists, geologists and archeologists to Lop Nor to
conduct new research. But several days into the journey, he abruptly
disappeared from his camp after leaving a note saying he was going out to
find water.

The Chinese government launched a massive search of the desert, but no

sign of Peng was ever found. According to those familiar with the dangers of
Lop Nor, the famed biologist was most likely buried alive by a freak sandstorm
or crushed by an avalanche of loose soil. But while as many as six skeletons
have been recovered from Lop Nor since his disappearance, none has been
proven to be Peng.