Henry Hudson
The date and place of Hudson’s birth is unknown.
It is known that he was an explorer from England.
He made four ocean voyages.
He began his first voyage in 1607. On this voyage he took his son and eleven crew members. He sailed closer to the North Pole than any other captain had done to this point in history. He was looking for the Northwest Passage but determined that this was not the way he needed to go because of the amount of icy water he encountered. He soon returned back to England.
In 1608 he took the same ship and again took a north route across the Atlantic. He had no success on this voyage.
In 1609 he went to Holland and began sailing for the Dutch East India Company. Hudson and his crew of eighteen were the first to explore up the Hudson River to its fall line and then to leave detailed logs about their adventures.
He was still looking for the elusive water route to the Pacific Ocean. The Dutch had a monopoly on the trade with the Orient and they provided Hudson with his ship the
Half Moon to make this voyage.
In 1609 Hudson headed through the north Atlantic to Norway but had to change to a westward course when he encountered frozen seas. They sailed across the Atlantic and landed in what is now Maine to cut timber to replace a broken mast for the ship.
They then sailed down the eastern coast of the United States probably to the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. He saw no opening where he thought would give him an access to the Pacific, so he returned the way he had come.
In September of 1609 he began is exploration of the Hudson River area. This is the area now known as New york. Of Course, there was no passage found but eventually this area became one of the richest areas for fur trading. Hudson also successfully traded to get shells, beads and furs from the Native Americans. He claimed these lands for Holland. He kept a detailed log of this voyage.
In 1610, Hudson began sailing again for England. He sailed his new ship the Discovery on a north course again. He mapped along the Hudson Bay and had to stay for the winter because of the frozen waters. It was very cold and his crew wanted to return home. In the spring his crew members again wanted to return home but Hudson wanted to continue mapping the area. Some of the crew members decided to mutinyand they set Hudson and a few sick crewmembers adrift in a small boat and in a few days they were never seen again.
A handful of the sailors returned back to England but they were never charged with the mutiny. Speculation has been made that these returning crewmen were more valued alive with the information that they possessed than they would have been dead.
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