Looking,just like everyone else, for
an alternate route to China,
the English Muscovy Company hired
Hudson in 1607 to find a northeast passage that would lead to fancy silks
and popular spices of the Orient
(Far East).
He sailed all the way up to Greenland
and tried
to work his way around the polar ice barrier that guarded the Norwegian
islands of Spitsbergen,
but the ice-clogged seas, with their hidden under crusts, blocked his way and
he turned back to England.
The next year he managed to reach Novaya Zemlya, a cluster of islands north of
Russia,
but once more he was kept at bay by ice.
With no further
British
sponsorship
(money to support
his trip),
Hudson approached the
Dutch East India
Company
and
in 1609 was given command of the Half Moon. Again he sailed eastward
- but again high ice and extreme cold won. Determined not to return a loser
this time, he ignored his orders to find a northeast passage and turned around
to sail due west - all the way to the New World. He reached the coast of
Canada
in July and then, heading south toward
Virginia, made
it through both the Chesapeake
Bay
and the
Delaware Bay, always looking for a passage that would send him sailing clear
through the continent. Before returning to
Europe
in October,
he headed back up the coast to the mouth of the river that now has his name,
then followed its course almost to where the city of Albany, New York, stands
today. It was this voyage that gave the
Dutch
their claim to those regions.
By
now, English merchants were eager to finance another Henry Hudson expedition.
He was given a ship, optimistically, called the Discovery and a crew
of 25 men, and sent back to
America
in the high summer of 1610. On August 2, he reached what is now known as
Hudson Strait,
which led him to the great Canadian bay that would also take his name. He
explored its eastern coast to the southern most point, spent the winter
trapped in the ice, then sailed northward. The Discovery was soon
locked in ice again. In June 1611 the crew mutinied
(when
the crew rebels against the captain),
and Hudson, together with his son and seven loyal sailors, was forced into a
small boat and sent to freeze, or starve to death.
The crew returned to
England
and, according to
some, were imprisoned for their crime; according to others, the survivors were
tried for mutiny and found not guilty. Henry Hudson could meanwhile be said to
have outwitted death and time, his discoveries gave
England its
claim to the entire
Hudson Bay Region.
Click to enlarge routes
Henry Hudson's two final voyages in search of a Northwest Passage.
Below are links and sites for more information on Henry Hudson.
