Henry Hudson Facts
Henry Hudson, born in England circa 1565. Hudson spent many years at sea, beginning as a cabin boy and gradually working his way up to ship’s captain.
He married a woman named Katherine and they had three sons together.
Henry Hudson Voyage
In 1607, the Muscovy Company of England hired Hudson to find a northerly route to the Pacific coast of Asia.
On 1 May 1607, Hudson sailed with a crew of ten men and a boy on the 80-ton Hopewell. They reached the east coast of Greenland on 14 June, coasting it northward.
After turning east, they sighted “Newland” on the 27th, near the mouth of the great bay Hudson later simply named the “Great Indraught”
The following day they entered what Hudson later in the voyage named “Whales Bay”, naming its northwestern point “Collins Cape” after his boatswain, William Collins.
They sailed north the following two days. 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.
Henry Hudson Arctic Voyage
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. He made it to Novaya Zemlya well above the Arctic Circle in July. Later even in the summer they found the ice impenetrable and turned back, arriving at Gravesend on 26 August.
In 1607 and 1608, Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a rumored Northeast Passage to Cathay (China) via a route above the Arctic Circle.
In 1609 he landed in North America and explored the region around the modern New York metropolitan area. He started looking for a Northwest Passage to Asia on behalf of the Dutch East India Company.
He sailed up the Hudson River, which was later named after him, and thereby laid the foundation for Dutch colonization of the region.
Hudson discovered the Hudson Strait and the immense Hudson Bay on his final expedition. He was still searching for the Northwest Passage.
Henry Hudson Last Voyage
In 1611, after wintering on the shore of James Bay, Hudson wanted to press on to the west. However, most of the members of his crew ardently desired to return home.
Matters came to a head and much of the crew mutinied in June.
Mutineers set Hudson, his teenage son John, and seven crewmen—men who were either sick and infirm or loyal to Hudson—adrift from the Discovery in a small shallop, an open boat, effectively marooning them in Hudson Bay.
Hudson and the other seven aboard the shallop were never seen again. Despite subsequent searches/expeditions, including those conducted in 1612 by Thomas Button and in 1668-70 by Zachariah Gillam, their fate is unknown.
More European explorers and settlers followed Hudson’s lead, making their way to North America. The Dutch started a new colony, called New Amsterdam, at the mouth of the Hudson River in 1625. They also developed trade posts along the nearby coasts.