Sir Robert Dudley

c. 1574-1649

English sailor, engineer and cartographer who wrote the model for sailing and navigation for his day. Dudley was the son of the elder Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester.

He would eventually go on to hold his own titles, as Duke of Northumberland and Earl of Warwick. In 1594, Dudley sailed to Trinidad on his way to explore Guiana and traveled a great distance up the Orinoco River. Two years later he was knighted for his service to England's navy. In 1605, he traveled to Italy, where he served the Grand Duke of Tuscany, assisting in the construction of the port of Leghorn. Late in life, he published his three-volume Dell'Arcano del mare (Concerning the Secret of the Sea), a treatise on modern shipbuilding, naval operations and cartography.