Overview

In 1764, John Byron (1723-1786) left England in command of a two-ship expedition to circle the globe. He returned slightly less than two years later, having set a record for the fastest circumnavigation to date, and the first commander to circle the globe without losing a ship. While Byron did not accomplish some of his goals of locating new territories for Britain (with the exception of laying claim to the Falkland Islands), he did help to set a standard for both speed and safety on such an epic voyage.

Background

Contrary to popular legend, the world had been known to be spherical since the time of the ancient Greeks. Christopher Columbus's (1451- 1506) achievement lay not in "proving" the world to be round, but in being the first to try to exploit this...