Invented the Davis quadrant. 1583 - met with Adrian Gilbert, Dr John Dee, Sir Francis Walsingham and Robert Beale, then acting secretary of state, where a proposal was floated to search for the north-west passage. 1585 - his first attempt to find the north-west passage, in the Moonshine, reached only as far as Cumberland Gulf. 1586 - his second voyage, was less successful and reached only as far as the inlets and islands of the east coast of Canada. 1587 - the third attempt convinced him he'd discovered the passage but a fourth voyage was not attempted. 1590 - was part of a squadron that took a Spanish vessel supposedly called the Urcha Salvagina. 1591 - joined Thomas Cavendish on an expedition to Japan and China. 1593 - on his return he was arrested for his conduct during the expedition but, after the intercession of his friend Sir Walter Ralegh, he was released. 1605 - Japanese pirates, on board a captured junk, treacherously attacked the Tiger off the coast of Borneo and were repulsed only after a desperate struggle, in which Davis was slain in hand-to-hand combat.