Edmund Fanning

Edmund Fanning (* July 16, 1769 in Stonington, Connecticut, † April 23, 1841 in New York City ) was a German-born American explorer, commercial traveler and researcher in the Pacific.

At the age of 14 he went to sea for the first time. On behalf of a trading company he led from 1797 to 1798 a very lucrative and profitable expedition. During the trip, he acted on the coast of Chile with a cargo of jewels and seal skins and traded them a valuable against Chinese goods at Guangzhou. He then returned via the Cape of Good Hope.

During his expeditions Fanning discovered some islands, Fanning Iceland (now Tabuaeran ) or from him about after the then U.S. President Washington Iceland (now Teraina ), are named after him. Also, Palmyra Atoll was discovered by Fanning.

Convinced of the gains that can be achieved with trading in the South Seas waters, Fanning was representative for a group of New York merchants, monitored over 70 expeditions and took part in some of them myself. He traveled around the world in 1833, where he put the focus on some lesser known parts of the world.

So he took about 1800 to 1801 in an expedition to South Georgia and took some 57,000 skins of fur seals on board there.

• Discoverer (18th century)
• Seafarer
• Entrepreneurs ( trade )
• Americans
• Born in 1769
• Died in 1841
• Man