or FORBISHER, SIR MARTIN, a celebrated navigator and naval officer, was born near Doncaster in Yorkshire, about the middle of the sixteenth century, and was from his youth brought up to navigation. He was the first Englishman who attempted to find a north-west passage to China; and to put this design into execution, in 1576 he sailed with two barks and a pinnace. In this voyage he discovered a cape, to which he gave the name of Queen Elizabeth's Foreland; and the next day he discovered a strait, on which he conferred his own name. This voyage proving unsuccessful, he attempted the same passage in 1577; but discovering some ore on an island, and his commission directing him in this voyage only to search for ore, and to leave the further discovery of the north-west to another time, he returned to England. He sailed again with fifteen ships and a great number of adventurers, to form a settlement; but being obstructed by the ice, and driven out to sea by a violent storm, his fleet, after encountering many difficulties, returned home without effecting a settlement. He afterwards commanded the Aid in Sir Francis Drake's expedition to the West Indies, in which St Domingo, Carthagena, and Santa Justina in Florida, were taken and sacked. In 1588 he rendered himself conspicuous in the defence of his country against the Spanish armada. He commanded the Triumph, one of the largest ships in the English service; and, as a reward for his distinguishing bravery, received at sea the honour of knighthood from Frobisher's the lord high admiral. He afterwards commanded a Straits squadron which was ordered to cruise on the Spanish coast; and, in 1592, took two valuable ships and a rich carrack. In 1594 he was sent to the assistance of Henry IV. king of France, against a body of the Leaguers and Spaniards, who had strongly entrenched themselves at Croyzon near Brest; but in an assault upon that fort, on the 7th of November, Sir Martin was unfortunately wounded with a ball, of which he died soon after he had brought back the fleet to Plymouth, in which town he was buried.