33 People born at sea

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad is a Palestinian American scholar and the president of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, a libertarian 501(c)(3) tax-exempt Muslim think-tank. He also is president of the Islamic-American Zakat Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt religious and charitable organization that primarily serves poor and needy Muslims in the United States.

Louis Aldrich, né Salma Lyon, was a stage actor who later became president of the Actors' Fund of America.

Amal al-Atrash, better known by her stage name Asmahan, was a Egyptian singer from Syrian background who lived and rose to fame in Egypt. Having immigrated to Egypt at the age of three years old, her family knew the composer Dawood Hosni, and she sang the compositions of Mohamed El Qasabgi and Zakariyya Ahmad. She also sang the compositions of Mohammed Abdel Wahab and her brother Farid al-Atrash, a then rising star musician in his own right. Her voice was one of the few female voices in Arab music world to pose serious competition to that of Umm Kulthum, who is considered to be one of the Arab world's most distinguished singers of the 20th century. Her mysterious death in an automobile accident shocked the public. Journalists spread gossip about her turbulent personal life and an alleged espionage role in World War II.

Charles Adrien Casimir Barbier de Meynard, born at sea on a ship from Constantinople to Marseille, was a nineteenth-century French historian and orientalist.

Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie was a British lawyer, politician, and judge. In 1858, Begbie became the first Chief Justice of the Crown Colony of British Columbia in colonial times and in the first decades after British Columbia joined Confederation as a province of Canada.

Luigi Del Bianco was an Italian-American sculptor, and chief carver of Mount Rushmore.

Sir William Watson Cheyne, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish surgeon and bacteriologist, who pioneered the use of antiseptic surgical methods in the United Kingdom.

Joanna Carver Colcord was pioneering social worker, and author. Born at sea, she was also notable for publishing texts on the language, work songs, and sea shanties of American seamen during the early 20th century.

Westmoreland "Morley" Davis was an American lawyer, politician, and the 48th Governor of Virginia, serving from February 1, 1918 to February 1, 1922.

Boyle Travers Finniss was the first Premier of South Australia, serving from 24 October 1856 to 20 August 1857.

Itamar Augusto Cautiero Franco was a Brazilian politician who served as the 33rd President of Brazil from December 29, 1992 to December 31, 1994. Previously he was Vice President of Brazil from 1990 until the resignation of President Fernando Collor de Mello. During his long political career Franco also served as Senator, Mayor, Ambassador and Governor. At the time of his death he was a senator from Minas Gerais, having won the seat in the 2010 election.

Edward Timothy Hooley, usually known as E. T. Hooley or Tim Hooley, was an explorer in Western Australia, who in 1866 pioneered an overland stock route from Geraldton to the Ashburton River. He entered politics in later life, serving nearly three years as a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council, then nearly six years in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly.

Mary Jemison (Deh-he-wä-nis) was a Scots-Irish colonial frontierswoman in Pennsylvania and New York, who became known as the "White Woman of the Genesee." She had been taken as a youth and adopted into a Seneca family, assimilating to their culture, marrying two Native American men in succession, and having children with them. In 1824 she published a memoir of her life, a form of captivity narrative. In 1755 during the French and Indian War, Jemison at age 12 was captured with most of her family in a Shawnee mourning raid in what is now Adams County, Pennsylvania. The others of her family were killed. She and an unrelated young boy were adopted by Seneca families. She became fully assimilated, marrying a Delaware (Lenape), and, after his death, a Seneca man. She chose to remain a Seneca rather than return to American colonial culture.

Augustus D. Juilliard was an American businessman and philanthropist, born at sea as his parents were immigrating to the United States from France. Making a successful career in New York City, he bequeathed much of his estate to the advancement of music in the United States.

Francis Augustus Lathrop was an American artist.

Ronald Douglas Lawrence was a Canadian naturalist and wildlife author. He was an expert on the wildlife of Canada, on which he wrote more than thirty books, which have been published in 14 languages.

Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English writer, painter, and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited BLAST, the literary magazine of the Vorticists.

René Maran was a French poet and novelist, and the first black writer to win the French Prix Goncourt.

Rio Antonio Zoba Mavuba is a French footballer who plays for Football Club des Écureuils de Mérignac-Arlac as a midfielder.

James Sinclair Taylor McGowen was an Australian politician and the first Labor Premier of New South Wales from 21 October 1910 to 30 June 1913.

General Sir Charles Carmichael Monro, 1st Baronet, was a British Army General in First World War. He held the post of Commander-in-Chief, India in 1916-1920. From 1923 to 1929 he was the Governor of Gibraltar.

Roy William Neill was an Irish-born American film director best known for directing the last eleven of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, made between 1943 and 1946 and released by Universal Studios.

John Louis O'Sullivan was an American columnist and editor who used the term "manifest destiny" in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United States. O'Sullivan was an influential political writer and advocate for the Democratic Party at that time and served as US Minister to Portugal during the administration of President Franklin Pierce (1853–1857), but he largely faded from prominence soon thereafter. In the twentieth century the phrase "manifest destiny" was traced back to him.

Reino Paasilinna is a Finnish politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, which is part of the Party of European Socialdemocrats. He was in the European Parliament from 1996 to 2009, and has sat on the Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

Tao Porchon-Lynch was an American yoga master and award-winning author of French and Indian descent. She discovered yoga in 1926 when she was eight years old in India and studied with, among others, Sri Aurobindo, B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, Swami Prabhavananda, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. At age 101, she taught a weekly class in New York, and led programs across the globe. She was the author of two books, including her autobiography, Dancing Light: The Spiritual Side of Being Through the Eyes of a Modern Yoga Master, which won a 2016 IPPY Award and three 2016 International Book Awards. In the front matter endorsement, Deepak Chopra said: "One of the most acclaimed yoga teachers of our century, Tao Porchon-Lynch... is a mentor to me who embodies the spirit of yoga and is an example of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. Like yoga, she teaches us to let go and to have exquisite awareness in every moment."

Edmund Joseph Porray was a major league pitcher. A right-handed pitcher who had a brief Major League career in which he pitched in 3 games for the 1914 Buffalo Buffeds of the Federal League, compiling a 0–1 record with a 4.35 earned run average in 101⁄3 innings pitched.

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, FRS was a British statesman, Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies (1811–1816) and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen (1818–1824), best known for his founding of modern Singapore and the Straits Settlements.

Jack Soo was an American singer and actor. He was best known for his role as Detective Nick Yemana on the television sitcom Barney Miller.

Simon van der Stel was the last commander and first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony, the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope.

Jane Maria Strachey, Lady Strachey was an English suffragist and writer. Her father was a British colonial administrator and she later married her father's secretary, Sir Richard Strachey, and ten of their children survived into adulthood. She was an outspoken advocate for the right of women to vote and involved her daughters in her campaigning. She wrote two books for children.

Frederick Harry Tonkin was an American politician in the state of Washington. He served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1917 to 1933.

William Charles Wentworth was an Australian explorer, journalist, politician and author, and one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales. He was the first native-born Australian to achieve a reputation overseas, and a leading advocate for self-government for the Australian colonies.

Moses O. Williamson was a Swedish American politician, born at sea. Williamson apprenticed and then practiced as a harness maker from 1866 to 1890. During this time, he rose in local politics to county treasurer and clerk. In 1900, Williamson was elected Illinois Treasurer as a Republican, serving a two-year term.