In 1607, the Muscovy Company of England hired Hudson to find a northerly route to the Pacific coast of Asia. At the time, the English were engaged in an economic battle with the Dutch for control of northwest routes. It was thought that, because the sun shone for three months in the northern latitudes in the summer, the ice would melt and a ship could make it across the “top of the world”, which is really an amazing point! Can you imagine the poles melting? Does that sound familiar in these days? Maybe Henry would have loved the idea of global warming so his northern adventures could have succeeded and the world would have finally had his imaginary routes for commerce and trading.
On 1 May 1607, Hudson sailed with a crew of ten men and a boy on the 80-ton Hopewell, a beauty of a ship also used by John Winthrop. They reached the east coast of Greenland on 14 June, coasting it northward until the 22nd. Here the party named a headland “Young’s Cape”, a “very high mount, like a round castle” near it “Mount of God’s Mercy” and land at 73° north latitude “Hold with Hope”. After turning east, they sighted “Newland” (Spitsbergen) on the 27th, near the mouth of the great bay Hudson later simply named the “Great Indraught”. As you can see the guys went really far! Can you imagine such a trip back then with such a small crew?! These people were incredible; how much the enthusiasm and the passion for knowing the planet influenced their lives and so many others!…We may not even be here….who knows what the western world would have been like. What we do know is that the “discovery” of North America was quite less violent than the one of South America.
On 13 July, Hudson and his crew estimated that they had sailed as far north as 80° 23′ N, but more likely only reached 79° 23′ N. The following day they entered what Hudson later in the voyage named “Whales Bay”, naming its northwestern point “Collins Cape” (Kapp Mitra) after his boatswain, William Collins. They sailed north the following two days. On the 16th they reached as far north as Hakluyt’s Headland – please check Maps! – (which Thomas Edge claims Hudson named on this voyage) at 79° 49′ N, thinking they saw the land continue to 82° N (Svalbard’s northernmost point is 80° 49′ N) when really it trended to the east. Encountering ice packed along the north coast, they were forced to turn back south. Hudson wanted to make his return “by the north of Greenland to Davis Strait, and so for Kingdom of England,” but ice conditions would have made this impossible. The expedition returned to Tilbury Hope on the Thames on 15 September.
Many authors have wrongly stated that it was the discovery of large numbers of whales in Spitsbergen waters by Hudson during this voyage that led to several nations sending whaling expeditions to the islands. While he did indeed report seeing many whales, it was not Hudson’s reports but rather those by Jonas Poole in 1610 which led to the establishment of English whaling and the voyages of Nicholas Woodcock and Willem Cornelisz van Muyden in 1612 that led to the establishment of Dutch, French and Spanish whaling.
In 1608, English merchants of the East India and Muscovy Companies again sent Hudson in the Hopewell to attempt to locate a passage to the Indies, this time to the east around northern Russia. Leaving London on 22 April, the ship traveled almost 2,500 miles, making it to Novaya Zemlya well above the Arctic Circle in July, but even in the summer they found the ice impenetrable and turned back, arriving at Gravesand on 26 August.
It is said that he used to break all the rules and directions given by the company and that on his last big voyage, when he actually got to the island of Manhattan, he was threatened to death in case he did it again; and thanks to him doing it again….hey…this is the story of New York, right? It was born out of a rebel move and a disobedience! Isn’t that fantastic?!
Cheers!
Painting by Abraham Storck (1960)