Rory Nugent (born 1952) is an American explorer and writer. He was based out of New Bedford, Massachusetts^[1] from 1988 to 2004.^[2]

Nugent was born in New York. After he graduated from Williams College in 1975, he went to sea aboard freighters and canvas-fliers. He sailed solo across the Atlantic Ocean four times. His fifth crossing ended prematurely when the catamaran he was sailing capsized; he was rescued five days later.^[3]

In 1992, Nugent became a foreign correspondent, first for Men's Journal and then as a staff member of Spin. He left journalism in 2002 to work on his third book.

In the mid-1980s, Nugent mounted solo expeditions in search of the pink-headed duck on the Brahmaputra River^[4] and Mokele-mbembe in the Congo.^[5] It is alleged that he may have seen both, but his sightings remain unconfirmed. He wrote a non-fiction book about each expedition.^[6][7][8][9]

Nugent's alleged Mokele-mbembe photographs from 1985 have been criticized as unreliable. One was described as a distant snapshot of a log floating in a lake.^[10]