Penguins - Historic Glimpses

Penguins – Historic Glimpses

This part of the penguin website will include observations on penguins from such historic characters as Capt James Cook, Francis Drake, and pirate William Dampier. Undoubtedly the first Europeans to sight penguins would have been navigators such as Portuguese Bartolomeo Diaz who rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, Vasco da Gama also from Portugal, who rounded the Cape of Good Hope in his 1498 voyage then went on to India, Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci from Florence who explored the South African coast in 1501 and Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan who sailed for the Straits of Magellan in 1519.

The first documented description is that of Vasco da Gama who described the penguins along the southern coast of Africa. The South America Magellanic penguin was described by Magellan in 1520.

There will be sections which will include comments from explorers from the heroic period such as Apsley Cherry Garrard, a member of Scott's expedition.