Henry Hudson was an English navigator and explorer. North America
has a bay, a strait, and a river named for him. In his short life, he sailed
at least three times for English companies and at least once for a Dutch
company. His goal, which eluded him, was to find a navigable passage
from Europe to Asia through the Arctic region. Instead, he made discoveries that eventually opened European trading with the natives in North
America.
Very little is known about Hudson’s birth and early life. The earliest
record from his life concerns a voyage he took in 1607. The Muscovy
Company of England hired him to search for a navigable passage around
the north coast of Siberia to China. He was unable to find the so-called
Northeast Passage, either on that voyage or on another he took in 1608.
Dutch East India Company
In 1609, the Dutch East India Company hired Hudson to search for
the Northeast Passage aboard the ship called Half Moon. The Dutch East
India Company was a company from Netherlands and one of the first
modern corporations. It financed voyages to the East Indies (present day
Indonesia) to make money trading European goods for Asian spices and
other goods.
The Half Moon hit heavy ice off the northern coast of Norway.
Hudson’s crew refused to go further, but Hudson did not want to return
to the Netherlands. A fellow explorer, John Smith (c. 1580–1631), who
colonized Virginia, had corresponded with Hudson, passing along maps concerning the New World. Hudson turned the ship around and headed
west to look for a Northwest Passage to Asia.
Sailed through New York’s harbor
The voyagers reached the coast of Nova Scotia in July 1609, then sailed
down to the Chesapeake Bay and up to Delaware Bay. In September,
they reached the entrance to what would be called New York Harbor.
Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano (c. 1485–c. 1528) had been there
in 1524, but Hudson was the first European to sail through the harbor
up the river that would eventually bear his name. By coincidence, French
explorer Samuel de Champlain (c. 1567–1635) was in the region of
Lake Champlain around this time.
The Half Moon made it as far as present-day Albany, New York.
Hudson’s crew had occasional problems with Native Americans and also
learned that the area was rich with natural resources, including animals
with valuable furs. Heading back down the river, Hudson and company
stayed in New York Harbor for a few days at a place that Hudson wrote
was called “Manna-hata” by the natives. It would eventually be called
Manhattan in New York City.
Caught between British and Dutch interests
Hudson’s discovery of valuable resources in the New World encouraged
investors in the Netherlands to form the Dutch West India Company.
English authorities, however, told Hudson not to sail anymore for Dutch
companies. Hudson found English investors to finance another search
for the Northwest Passage.
Hudson left for North America in April 1610 aboard the ship
Discovery. He planned to sail north of where his last voyage had gone. By
June, he sighted Resolution Island, which separates Davis Strait from
Hudson Strait in northeastern Canada. The Discovery took six weeks to
navigate the Hudson Strait before reaching the large Canadian bay that
would be called Hudson Bay. Hudson thought he had reached the Pacific
Ocean.
The Discovery turned south, eventually entering James Bay, where
Hudson and his crew learned that they were landlocked. They had not
found the Northwest Passage. Unprepared for this October setback and with the bay freezing in November, they had to spend the winter in the
region with few supplies.
Left to die
In June 1611, the ice had melted enough for the Discovery to sail for
home. When the ship reached Charlton Island in the southern part of
James Bay, the crew mutinied. A leader of the mutiny, Robert Juet, had
sailed with Hudson on his previous voyage. The mutineers stranded
Hudson, his nineteen-year-old son John, and some weaker crewmembers
in a small vessel on the bay. Historians presume that Hudson and his
stranded companions died in the region that year. History has no record of Hudson afterward.