David Melgueiro

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David Melgueiro (Porto, ? – Porto, 1673?) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer. According to some sources, he would have discovered the Northeast Passage in 1660, travelling between Japan and Portugal through the Arctic Ocean.

According to the story of a diplomat and French spy in Portugal, the Seigneur de La Madelène (or Madelleine), captain David Melgueiro, at the command of the Dutch ship "Pai Eterno" (Perpetual Father), left Kagoshima in Japan on March 14th 1660, sailed north and entered the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait (known at the time as Strait of Aniam). The expedition reached 84º N and upon sighting the Svalbard islands headed South, towards Scotland and Ireland, and finally arrived to Porto, Portugal, about 1662. According to La Madelène, Melgueiro died in Oporto in 1673.

If true, the voyage of Melgueiro would have preceded the 1878 feat of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld by more than two centuries.

[edit] See also

• Willem Barents
• Vitus Bering
• Northeast Passage