Gone but Not Forgotten

Exploration has always walked hand-in-hand with danger. Some adventurers pushed beyond the edges of the known world, only to disappear into the blank spaces themselves. Perhaps even on account of their mysterious disappearance, their stories linger, stirring the imagination decades after the fact. People can’t help but wonder what happened to the lost ship or the plane that was never seen again. Here are twenty explorers who went missing that we’re still talking about.

Luciaroblego on Wikimedia

1. Percy Fawcett

The Amazon was his obsession, and in 1925 he marched in with his son Jack and a friend, hunting for what he called the “Lost City of Z.” They all vanished, leaving no bones, no journals—nothing. Years later, a compass was found in the area where they were exploring. Some say they were killed, others that they found the city and decided to stay.

Ginomad wiki on Wikimedia

2. Amelia Earhart

She wasn’t just an aviator; she was a symbol of pushing the boundaries of exploration. In 1937, during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe, her plane disappeared over the Pacific near Howland Island. Decades later, scraps of metal and bones on remote islands sparked theories, but nothing definitive.

Underwood & Underwood (active 1880 – c. 1950)[1] on Wikimedia

3. George Mallory

In 1924, Mallory set off to climb Mount Everest and disappeared above the clouds. When Mallory’s frozen body was found in 1999, people searched his pockets for a photograph of his wife that he swore he’d leave on the summit. It wasn’t there. Did he make it to the top? We’ll never know.

Original uploader was Zp at cs.wikipedia on Wikimedia

4. Ludwig Leichhardt

In the 1840s, the interior of Australia was a blank map for Europeans, and Leichhardt wanted to cross it. He led a party north from Queensland in 1848, vanishing into that sun-scorched vastness. Years later, charred saddlebags and a rifle with his initials were discovered in the desert.

Unknown authorUnknown author on Wikimedia

5. Jean-François de La Pérouse

Louis XVI sent him to chart the world’s oceans, and he miraculously succeeded. In 1788, after leaving Australia, his ships disappeared. For nearly 40 years, nothing was known about his disappearance. Finally, wreckage surfaced on Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands.

Geneviève Brossard de Beaulieu on Wikimedia

6. Everett Ruess

This 20-year-old wanderer was a poet and a painter. He loved the deserts of Utah, with their slot canyons and red walls. In 1934, he walked out of Escalante in southern Utah and was never seen again. Some think he fell into a canyon, others that he chose to vanish and start a new life elsewhere.

Kylie Czajkowski on Unsplash

7. Henry Hudson

The explorer who gave his name to the famed river and the bay endured a brutal mutiny in 1611 after his ship got trapped in ice. His crew set him, his son, and a few loyal men adrift in a small boat. They drifted off into the freezing bay, never to be seen again.

Unknown authorUnknown author on Wikimedia

8. Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real

These brothers were Portuguese explorers who both went missing in separate adventures. In 1501, Gaspar sailed for Newfoundland and disappeared. The next year Miguel went looking for him and vanished into the Atlantic.

Real Academia Española, various authors on Wikimedia

9. Andrew Irvine

Although his story is always paired with that of George Mallory, Irvine was a tremendous explorer in his own right. On June 8, 1924, he followed Mallory toward the summit of Everest and never returned. A century later, a boot containing his foot was discovered on the slopes of the mountain.

Christina Broom on Wikimedia

10. John Cabot

In 1498, Cabot left Bristol with five ships, aiming for Asia by way of the north Atlantic. Among his fleet, only four limped home, and Cabot’s ship wasn’t among them. Some say he made it to North America and died there. Others claim storms overturned him.

Giustino Menescardi on Wikimedia

11. Richard Halliburton

Although he was not a traditional explorer but a travel writer, he became famous for his outrageous stunts like swimming across the Panama Canal and riding an elephant across the Alps. In 1939, he set out to sail a traditional Chinese ship across the Pacific. Somewhere near Guam, a typhoon struck.

Unknown authorUnknown author on Wikimedia

12. Sir John Franklin

This famed Arctic explorer set out in 1845 to chart the Northwest Passage with two ships: the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Both became icebound. As the crew starved and sickened, they eventually resorted to cannibalism. For over a century, searchers only found bits of evidence—bones, tins, notes scrawled in pencil—until the ruined ship was eventually discovered.

John Franklin on Wikimedia

13. Ambrose Bierce

In 1913, this eccentric writer wandered into Mexico during the revolution, following Pancho Villa’s army. After sending one final letter, nothing was ever heard from him again. Did he die in battle? Shot by bandits? The war swallowed him whole and left no trace.

Unknown authorUnknown author on Wikimedia

14. Raoul Wallenberg

Although not an explorer per se, this Swedish diplomat braved Nazi-occupied Hungary to save thousands of Jews. In 1945, after the Soviets rolled in, they arrested him and he was never seen again.

David Levy on Wikimedia

15. Solomon August Andrée

In 1897, he attempted to fly to the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon. It lifted off from Svalbard and was never seen again—until 30 years later, when remains and journals were discovered on White Island. It seemed their balloon had failed quickly in the frozen air, forcing them onto the ice, where they eventually succumbed to the elements.

stux on Pixabay

16. René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

This Frenchman claimed the Mississippi River basin. In 1687, after enduring endless hardship under his leadership, his men turned on him in Texas. He was shot dead, but where his body ended up remains uncertain.

Charles André Waltner (1846-1925) on Wikimedia

17. Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen

In 1919, these two Norwegian explorers tried to deliver mail and records from an Arctic expedition back to civilization. They never arrived. Years later, their sled and supplies washed up on Siberian shores. Their letters, although waterlogged, were still legible.

The original uploader was Mohonu at English Wikipedia. on Wikimedia

18. Benjamin Leigh Smith

An English Arctic explorer of the 19th century, Smith made several successful voyages before fading into obscurity. Although his end doesn’t contain the drama of mutiny or shipwreck, the ultimate conclusion to his story remains just as mysterious.

Reginald Grenville Eves on Wikimedia

19. Pancho Villa’s Treasure Scouts

Although not explorers in the conventional sense, these men were sent by Villa to hide gold in northern Mexico. Some never came back. Rumors still abound of caves, deserts, and shallow graves where these men were dispatched to keep the gold’s whereabouts hidden.

Unlnown on Wikimedia

20. Eudoxus of Cyzicus

A Greek navigator in the 2nd century BC, Eudoxus attempted to sail around Africa and never returned to tell the tale. The ancients speculated he’d either settled in strange lands or died at sea. His fate was sealed in the silence of the ancient world.

Michael Mustafin on Wikimedia