Fred Noonan of Amelia Earhart" on Plainsong's album "In Search of Amelia Earhart." Noonan is a main character in Jane Mendelsohn's acclaimed novel, "I Was Amelia Earhart" (1996), and in Neal Bowers' poem "The Noonan Variations" ("The Sewanee Review", Volume CXVIII, 1990). Fred Noonan Frederick Joseph "Fred" Noonan (born April 4, 1893; declared missing July 2, 1937 and dead June 20, 1938), was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s. He was last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land
New Guinea European contact with New Guinea was by Portuguese and Spanish sailors in the 16th century. In 1526–27, the Portuguese explorer Jorge de Meneses saw the western tip of New Guinea and named it "ilhas dos Papuas". In 1528, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra also recorded its sighting when trying to return from Tidore to New Spain. In 1545, the Spaniard Íñigo Ortíz de Retes sailed along the north coast of New Guinea as far as the Mamberamo River, near which he landed on 20 June, naming the island 'Nueva Guinea'. The first map showing the whole island (as an