This work is about the marines and recruits of the National Imperial Navy of Brazil, between 1822 and 1854. Just as marine-based Atlantic countries, its ships were manned by men of diverse ethnicities and nationalities: among foreigners, mainly Portuguese and Anglophone, and among nationals, men from almost all provinces of the Empire. Due to their multiple origins, all recruits and marines had a background of a deep plurality of paths, and therefore contributed to the enlargement and development of a cosmopolitan maritime culture created since the beginning of navigation in the Atlantic Ocean. The requirements of the recruits and their families, the Portuguese maritime literature and the memories of Anglophone sailors were core to the comprehension of their experiences, and cultural and socioeconomic routes in the ocean and its borders. Thus, it became possible to relate the formation of the Imperial State and the Brazilian nationality to the Atlantic and maritime history.