Poll Results

Total votes: 1721

Neil Armstrong: 717 (41.7%)
Jacques Cousteau: 283 (16.4%)
Leif Ericson: 224 (13.0%)
Marco Polo: 151 (8.8%)
James Cook: 101 (5.9%)
David Livingstone: 63 (3.7%)
ibn Battuta: 53 (3.1%)
Ferdinand Magellan: 43 (2.5%)
Roald Amundsen: 31 (1.8%)
Christopher Columbus: 28 (1.6%)
Roy Chapman Andrews: 27 (1.6%)

I'm a little surprised at how low Columbus rated. I thought he was something of a folk hero in the USA. I'm aware that in recent times there has been a trend to describing him as a conqueror who brought misery to the native populations of the Americas, but I didn't think that was a majority opinion. Of course it may simply be that everyone thinks most of the other options were just plain more interesting.