List of sailors

Actors

Raymond Bailey, American actor, Milburn Drysdale, on The Beverly Hillbillies

Rupert Davies, British actor, title role on the BBC's Maigret

Peter Falk, American actor, Columbo

James Garner, American actor, Jim Rockford on The Rockford Files

Sterling Hayden, American actor and author, Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove

Jack Lord, American actor, Steve McGarret on Hawaii Five-O

Carroll O'Connor, American actor, Archie Bunker on All in the Family

Denver Pyle, American actor, Uncle Jesse Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard

George Sewell, English actor, Frank Cottam on The Detectives; steward

Frederick Treves, much loved English character actor with over a hundred credits in theatre, television, and film

Clint Walker, American actor, Cheyenne Bodie on Cheyenne

Jack Warden, American actor, Emmy Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated

Comedians

Dave Broadfoot, Canadian comedian

George Roper, English stand-up comedian best known for work on television series The Comedians

Explorers

Erik the Red

Leif Erikson

Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi

James Cook, sub-Antarctic, Pacific, North America, apprenticed on a Whitby collier

Ernest Shackleton. Antarctic, was third mate in the Union-Castle Line

Labor leaders

Joseph Curran, American labor leader

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815–1882), wrote Two Years Before the Mast

Andrew Furuseth (1854–1938), merchant seaman and labour leader

Shannon J. Wall, American merchant seaman and labor leader

Maritime industry

Captain John Bury, Canadian mariner involved in standardising international buoyage

Harry McNish, Scottish carpenter on Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Jeremiah O'Brien, captain of the privateer Unity in the first battle of the Revolutionary War

Herbert Pitman, third officer of the Titanic

John Wallace Thomas, Newfoundland captain made Commander of the Order of the British Empire for actions during a Luftwaffe attack

Military

Kingsmill Bates, British Distinguished Service Cross recipient

Philip Bent, Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross

David Broadfoot, Scottish recipient of the George Cross

Lionel Crabb, British Royal Navy frogman who vanished during a reconnaissance mission in 1956

Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, French Baron and rear admiral of the Navy; was a helmsman early in his career

Peter Horsley, British Air Marshal

Lawrence Joel, Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient

John Paul Jones, American naval officer

"Yank" Levy, Canadian soldier, military instructor and author of a manual on guerrilla warfare

Charles Andrew MacGillivary, Canadian Medal of Honor recipient

Kim Malthe-Bruun, member of the Danish resistance movement

Thomas McClelland, American naval officer

George H. O'Brien, Jr., Medal of Honor recipient in Korean War

Arthur Phillip, British naval officer, colonial administrator, Governor of New South Wales, and founder of the city of Sydney

William Sanders, New Zealander recipient of the Victoria Cross

Miguel Grau Seminario, Peruvian naval officer and hero of the Naval Battle of Angamos

John Young, naval officer in American Revolutionary War

Musicians and composers

Ken Colyer, British jazz trumpeter

Suezenne Fordham, American jazz pianist

Eric Griffiths, Welsh guitarist in the original lineup of The Quarry Men

Woody Guthrie, musician and songwriter, wrote "This Land Is Your Land"

Chick Henderson, English singer in the 1930s and 1940s, "Begin the Beguine"

Cisco Houston, American folk singer

Ferlin Husky, American country-pop singer, hit number one with "Wings of a Dove"

Nelson Riddle, American bandleader, arranger and orchestrator, "C'mon... Get Happy"

Francisco Gabilondo Soler, Mexican composer of children's songs, "Cri-Cri, El Grillito Cantor"

Dave Van Ronk, American folk singer nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street"

Ted Weems, American bandleader and musician, directed the Merchant Marine Band

Notorious

William Colepaugh, Nazi spy in World War II

George Hennard, American mass murderer who claimed twenty-four victims at Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas

Fritz Sauckel, Nazi war criminal

Duncan Scott-Ford, British merchant seaman hanged for treachery in World War II

Perry Smith, made famous in Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood

Politics and activism

Alvin Baldus, former Democratic member of Congress

Traian Băsescu, President of Romania, inaugurated in 2004

Gordon Canfield, Republican congressman from New Jersey

Alfonso J. Cervantes, forty-third Mayor of Saint Louis, Missouri

Frederick Arthur Cobb, Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom

Mark Croucher, Director of Communications for the UK Independence Party, pub landlord, journalist, former radio officer

Arthur Davidson, British Labour Party Member of Parliament

Jim Folsom, Democratic Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama

Ian Doric Glachan, Australian politician, member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

Brian Haw, British peace activist

Harry Haywood, a leading African American member of both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)

John Horner, British firefighter, trade unionist and politician

Emmanuel Iheanach, Minister of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Master Mariner, sea captain

Piet de Jong, Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Wayne Mapp, New Zealand politician

Alfred von Niezychowski, Polish noble, German Count, author and lecturer, and American politician

Jack O'Dell, prominent African-American member of the U.S. civil rights movement

Albert Owen, Welsh politician, Labour Party MP for Ynys Môn

John Prescott, British Labour Party politician, Deputy Prime Minister, First Secretary of State and Member of Parliament, a steward and waiter

Joseph Resnick, Democratic congressman from New York

Montfort Stokes, Democratic Senator

John S. Watson, New Jersey politician

Terry Wynn, retired Labour Party Member of the European Parliament for North West England

Producers

Alex Bonner, American Emmy Award-winning radio and television producer

John Clark, English actor, director, producer, and ex-husband of Lynn Redgrave

John Kenley, former American theatrical producer

Oliver Stone, three-time Academy Award-winning American film director and screenwriter

Radio industry

Dave Cash, British disk jockey

James Redmond, pioneer of modern public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom

Tommy Vance, British pop radio broadcaster

Real estate

John Q. Hammons, American businessman and resort developer

Science, engineering, and architecture

Patrick Young Alexander, British aeronautical pioneer

Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, Scottish physician, geographer zoologist and botanist

Allan V. Cox, American chemist and geologist

Norman Jaffe, American architect

D. Holmes Morton, American physician specializing in genetic disorders

Social scientists

Douglass Cecil North, American economist and Nobel Prize winner

Sports

Samuel Albrecht, Brazilian swimmer

Bobby Atherton, Welsh international footballer

Jim Bagby, Jr., major-league baseball pitcher

Fred Blackburn, English footballer and coach

Drew Bundini Brown, Muhammad Ali's assistant trainer and cornerman

Dan Devine, American football coach

Joe Gold, bodybuilding and fitness guru of Gold's Gym

Cornelius Johnson, American Olympic medal-winning high jumper

Charlie Keller, left fielder in Major League Baseball

Frank Sinkwich, American footballer, won 1942 Heisman Trophy, 1944 NFL MVP

Agostino Straulino (1914–2004) Olympic champion and Italian admiral

Jim Thorpe, American Olympic athlete

Henk de Velde, Dutch seafarer known for his long solo voyages around the world

Matthew Webb, first person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aid

Visual arts

Rockwell Kent, American painter

Richard Avedon, American photographer

Johnny Craig, American comic book artist

Paul Gauguin, French Post-Impressionist artist

Joseph Stanley Kozlowski, American AB, portrait and watercolor artist

James Nachtwey, American photojournalist and war photographer

George Rodger, British photojournalist noted for work in Africa and death camps at Bergen-Belsen

Ken Russell, iconoclastic English film director

Ernie Schroeder, American comic book artist

Haskell Wexler, American Academy Award-winning cinematographer

Wally Wood, American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher

Writers and publishers

Michael Page, British Australian novelist and author of the Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were

John Arthur Barry, Australian journalist and author

Peter Baynham, Welsh screenwriter; Academy Award-nominated; co-writer of Borat

John Blackburn, British novelist

Nathaniel Bowditch, author, The American Practical Navigator

E. S. Campbell, American author, broadcaster and radio officer

A. Bertram Chandler, Australian science fiction author of over 40 novels and 200 works of short fiction

Brian Cleeve, English writer and popular TV broadcaster

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., American author, Two Years Before the Mast

Clare Francis, British novelist

Allen Ginsberg, poet, "Howl", "Kaddish"

David Hackworth, retired United States Army colonel and military journalist

John L. Hess, American journalist

Herbert Huncke, American beat generation figure

Bob Kaufman, American Beat poet and surrealist

Nikos Kavvadias, Greek poet

Jack Kerouac, American author, On The Road

James Lennox Kerr, Scottish socialist author noted for his children's stories

Jack London, American author, Call of the Wild

Veeresh Malik, Indian businessman and writer

John Masefield, O.M., LL.D., Poet Laureate, sailing ship apprentice

Kevin McClory, Irish screenwriter, producer, and director, Never Say Never Again

Herman Melville, American author, Moby Dick

Charles Muñoz, American poet, novelist, publisher, and radio officer

Alun Owen, British screenwriter, wrote The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night

Donn Pearce, author of Cool Hand Luke

Dudley Pope, British writer of both nautical fiction and history

Richard Scott Prather, American mystery novelist

Otto Scott, American journalist and author

Hubert Selby, Jr., American author

Altaf Shaikh, Pakistani travelogue writer and novelist, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz

James Sites, American novelist

Joshua Slocum (1848–1909?), first single-handed circumnavigation of the world, 1895-1898

Gary Snyder, American poet

Lyle Stuart, controversial American publisher

Derek Turner, Irish magazine editor and freelance journalist

Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens), author

Nedd Willard (born 1928), writer and journalist

Charles Williams, writer of hardboiled crime fiction

Robin Wilson, American science fiction author and university president

Bernard Wolfe, American fiction writer

Other

Crispus Attucks (1723–1770), victim of the Boston Massacre

Peter Blake (1944–2001), winner of the Whitbread Round the World Race, the America's Cup and the Jules Verne Trophy

Chay Blyth (born 1940), completed the first westward single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world, 1971

Jean-Charles de Borda (1733–1799), scientist and engineer working at sea

William Harvey Carney (1842–1908), Civil War soldier, previously a sailor

Russ Chauvenet (1920–2003), one of the founders of science fiction fandom; amateur sailor

Sir Francis Chichester, completed the first single-handed circumnavigation of the world with just one port of call, 1966-1967

Granville Conway, public servant, Presidential Medal for Merit recipient

Harvey Cox, preeminent theologian and professor at Harvard Divinity School

Donald Crowhurst, lost at sea during the Golden Globe race

James Dougherty, first husband of Marilyn Monroe

Michael Eavis, founder of the Glastonbury Festival

David Fasold, salvage expert, self-proclaimed "arkologist"

Charles Henry George Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk, 13th Earl of Berkshire, apprentice on windjammer Mount Stewart

Robin Knox-Johnston (born 1939), completed the first single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world, 1968-1969

Samuel Leech (1798–1848), wrote of experiences in both the Royal Navy and US Navy

Freddie Lennon, father of English musician John Lennon

Ellen McArthur, British sailor and round-the-world record holder

Doris Miller (1919–1943), cook who fought back at Pearl Harbor

Abdul Awal Mintoo, Bengali businessman and former President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry

Bernard Motissier (1925–1994), French yachtsman and author of books about his voyages and sailing

Jacob Nagle (1762–1841), well-traveled seaman who wrote a journal

Jure Šterk (1937–2009), Slovenian round-the-world sailor and author of books about his voyages and sailing

Joseph D. Stewart, Vice Admiral, Superintendent of the United States Merchant Marine Academy

Paul Teutul, Sr., American television personality

Jordan Weisman, American game designer