Transpacific crossings are voyages of passengers and cargo across the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

between

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

, and the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. Transpacific voyages frequently cross the

International Date Line The International Date Line (IDL) is the line extending between the South and North Poles that is the boundary between one calendar day and the next. It passes through the Pacific Ocean, roughly following the 180.0° line of longitude and de ...

. The first recorded crossing of the Pacific was achieved by Spain's historic

Magellan expedition The Magellan expedition, sometimes termed the MagellanElcano expedition, was a 16th-century Spanish Empire, Spanish expedition planned and led by Portuguese Empire, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. One of the most important voyages in th ...

in March 1521. Commercial

transpacific flight A transpacific flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Pacific Ocean from Australasia, East and Southeast Asia to North America, South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, balloons and other t ...

s have been available since 1935.

History

The

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

expedition of the Portuguese explorer Magellan was the first to cross the Pacific in 1521 and the one to give the ocean its name. After discovering and crossing the

Strait of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago to the south. Considered the most important natura ...

in November 1520, the expedition sailed northwest across the Pacific for over three months and reached the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in March 1521.

Juan Sebastian Elcano ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philipp ...

would continue the expedition to complete the first world

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...

in 1522. The first navigator to cross the Pacific from west to east was

Andres de Urdaneta Andres or Andrés may refer to: *Andres, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Will County, Illinois, US *Andres, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in Pas-de-Calais, France *Andres (name) *Hurricane Andres * "Andres" (song), a 1994 song by L7 See also ...

, who discovered the easterly route across the Pacific from the Philippines to Mexico in 1565. The first transpacific

trade route A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over land or water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a singl ...

in history was the Spanish

Manila galleon The Manila galleon (; ) refers to the Spain, Spanish trading Sailing ship, ships that linked the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies to Mexico (New Spain), across the Pacific Ocean. The ships made one or two round-trip voyages per year betwe ...

route which lasted from 1565 to 1815 and followed navigator Andres de Urdaneta's discovery of the easterly route or ''tornaviaje'' in 1565. It ended two and a half centuries later, when most Pacific ports became open to world trade. Other early transpacific voyages include those of

navigators García Jofre de Loaísa in 1526,

Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón Álvaro de Saavedra (d. 1529), fully Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón, was one of the Spanish Empire, Spanish Spanish explorers, explorers of the Pacific Ocean. Life Early life The exact date and place of his birth are unknown, but he was born in the l ...

in 1527, Alvaro de Mendaña in 1567 and 1595, and

Pedro Fernandes de Queirós Pedro Fernandes de Queirós () (1563–1614) was a Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain. He is best known for leading several Spanish voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean, in particular the 1595–1596 voyage of Álvaro de Mendaña y ...

in 1606. Another early navigator to cross the Pacific from Asia to the Americas was Francisco Gali who completed this journey in 1584. In the 19th century, the first liners built specially for the transpacific ocean service were the "Empress" vessels of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

. After the railway reached the Pacific seaboard in 1885, the liners began operation in 1891. In 1928,

Charles Kingsford Smith Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (9 February 18978 November 1935), nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand. Kingsford Smith was ...

and his crew were the first to cross the Pacific by flight. Smith and Australian

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

, Charles Ulm, arrived in the United States and began to search for an aircraft. Famed Australian polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins sold them a Fokker F.VII/3m monoplane, which they named the ''

Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...

''. Ulm was the relief pilot. The other crewmen were

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...

, they were James Warner, the

radio operator A radio operator (also, formerly, a wireless operator in British and Commonwealth English) is a person who is responsible for the operations of a radio system and the technicalities in broadcasting. The profession of radio operator has become l ...

, and Captain Harry Lyon, the

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...

and engineer. In 1935, the beginning of commercial transpacific flights to and from California began operation. On November 22, 1935, "Pan American Airlines' '' China Clipper'' launched its first transpacific flight, covering a distance of 8,000 miles". The route was ready for passenger service by October 1936. Between March and April 2019, the blind sailor Matsuhiro Iwamoto of Japan and Doug Smith of the United States sailed from San Diego, United States to Fukushima, Japan, making Iwamoto the first blind sailor to cross the Pacific non-stop. Iwamoto's first attempt in 2013 failed when his boat hit a whale.

References

{{reflist International transport Crossing