Who Was Henry Hudson? Meet the Explorer Who Disappeared Under Mysterious Circumstances

Estimates as to Hudson’s date of birth range from 1560 to 1570 and no definitive record of his birthplace has ever been discovered. Edgar Mayhew Bacon’s 1907 biography cites evidence of a slightly earlier Henry Hudson, a London alderman who was commemorated in an inscription, dating from 1555, on a tomb in the city’s St. Dunstan’s Church. Bacon suggested that this may have been the explorer’s father or, more likely, grandfather. Sadly, this tomb no longer exists, as St. Dunstan’s fell victim to bombing during World War II.

The first concrete historical evidence of the man who navigated the east coast of North America stems from early 1607. In this year, the Muscovy Company of England hired Henry Hudson to find a viable alternative to the long and dangerous sea voyage around Africa then taken by European trade ships en route to the Far East. Hudson would, instead, sail north to the Arctic Circle in search of a navigable Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans which would potentially transform the journey time between Europe and Asia. 

Edgar Mayhew Bacon suggests that the earlier Henry Hudson may well have played a role in the establishment of the Muscovy Company over half a decade earlier. It is certainly entirely possible that the younger Hudson had been involved with the influential trading company in some capacity prior to this voyage, as otherwise it is unlikely that he would have been entrusted with such an important mission.

Several invaluable eyewitness accounts of Hudson’s expeditions have survived to this day, including those published by G.M. Asher under the title of Henry Hudson the Navigator during the mid-19th century. This collection includes logbooks from Hudson’s first recorded mission for the Muscovy Company, which sheds some fascinating light on events.

Aware of the difficulties encountered by previous expeditions in successfully navigating the ice-packed waters close to the Arctic Circle, Hudson delayed his departure until the spring of 1607. In April of that year, he set sail on board the Hopewell from the Kent port of Gravesend, accompanied by a crew of 10 men including his own son, John. After being initially hampered by unexpectedly windy conditions, the expedition eventually made it as far as the coast of Greenland before travelling further north to Spitsbergen. However, any hope that the ice would have melted sufficiently to enable the Hopewell to proceed further with its journey proved unfounded and, in the end, Hudson and his crew were compelled to head home to England.

Unperturbed by the failure of this mission, the Muscovy Company tasked Hudson once again the following year with finding a navigable northern sea route from Europe to the Far East. Sailing on the same ship, Hudson aimed further east this time in hope of discovering a Northeast Passage. He travelled well above the Arctic Circle to the Russian archipelago of Novaya Zemlya in the Barents Sea, only to again suffer the frustration of being unable to navigate a passage through the impenetrable ice and having to return home.

By the time of his third expedition, in 1609, Hudson was no longer working for the Muscovy Company, but, instead, sailed from Holland on board the Halve Maen, or Half Moon, under the flag of the Dutch East India Company. Hudson was originally commissioned to make a further attempt to traverse the Northeast Passage through the Arctic Circle, north of Russia. However, as with the previous voyage, he found his way frustratingly blocked by ice. Instead of returning homewards, however, he then decided to ignore the instructions from his Dutch employers and instead sail westwards to the New World.

Hudson was intent on investigating a discovery made by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano nearly a century earlier. Whilst navigating the east coast of what is now the United States, the Italian claimed to have discovered a body of water that marked the beginning of a navigable sea passage across the continent to the west coast. 

Having crossed the Atlantic Ocean, Hudson made his way down the east coast of North America and, in early September 1609, reached the estuary of the river that now bears his name. He sailed up the Hudson River as far as modern-day Albany, only to find that the route was no longer navigable for seafaring ships beyond this point. 

Although Hudson was disappointed in his quest to discover a navigable passage to the Pacific Ocean, this journey proved highly significant in other ways. Having encountered several groups of Native Americans who were willing to trade with them, the Halve Maen returned home to Europe laden with valuable commodities like furs. Keen to cash in on the economic opportunities offered by these new resources, the Dutch went on to establish a trading outpost on the Hudson River and subsequently colonized the area. New York City’s origins lie in a strategic fort built by the Dutch at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, originally known as New Amsterdam.

Unperturbed by this latest setback, Hudson sought financial backing for another expedition once he was back home in England. Funded jointly by the British East India Company and the Virginia Company, he set sail on board the Discovery, in the spring of 1610, for his fourth voyage in four years. It proved to be his final journey across the Atlantic.

Upon reaching northern Canada, Hudson set out to explore the strait between Baffin Island and the northernmost part of mainland Quebec that now bears his name, believing that this might offer access to the fabled Northwest Passage. In late summer, he believed that he had achieved a significant breakthrough with the discovery of what was described as “a sea to the westward”. 

He began an extensive search of this huge saltwater expanse, familiar today to us as the Hudson Bay, only reaching its most southerly point in early November. Unfortunately, by this stage it proved too late to turn the ship around and escape the rapidly advancing ice, meaning that Hudson and his crew were trapped in James Bay for the winter.

Having endured the freezing conditions of an Arctic winter, most crew members were understandably keen to return home once the ice finally thawed sufficiently to allow the Discovery to sail clear of James Bay. The indefatigable Hudson was, however, determined to carry on searching for the Northwest Passage. Like many naval commanders of his era, Hudson’s leadership style was most probably autocratic and unyielding, illustrated by the fact that eyewitness accounts of his three previous voyages include various references to issues with unhappy crew members. 

In late June 1611, matters came to a head when many of the crew decided to join a mutiny against their captain. Hudson was overpowered and set adrift in a small boat, or shallop, along with his son, John, and a handful of other crew members who were considered too weak to survive the journey home. The Discovery then began its long journey back to England, losing several more crewmen to disease and starvation along the way. 

Naturally the only surviving eyewitness accounts of events surrounding the mutiny, notably that of the ship’s navigator, Abacuk Pricket, come from those crew members who eventually made it home to England and so inevitably tell only one side of the story. Four crewmen, including Pricket, were subsequently tried for murder, not mutiny, and were acquitted, not least because nobody knew Hudson’s ultimate fate.

Many different theories have been offered as to what happened to Hudson and the other unfortunate occupants of that shallop once the Discovery sailed out of James Bay. However, no definitive evidence as to their eventual whereabouts has ever been discovered. They may, of course, have simply perished on the boat soon afterwards from extreme cold or hunger.

Alternatively, some of the boat’s occupants may have made it to shore. Some three decades after their disappearance, a Welsh explorer named Captain Thomas James was reported to have found the remains of a shelter on nearby Danby Island. If true, this could well have been constructed by survivors from the shallop.  

A variety of stories from the indigenous Cree community of James Bay have also long been associated with the fate of Henry Hudson and the other castaways. One legend states that a boatload of white men ran aground and were captured, then subsequently taken south. Intriguingly, a large boulder was discovered close to the town of Chalk River in the Upper Ottawa Valley during the late 1950s, on which was etched the mysterious inscription, “HH 1612 CAPTIVE”. Sadly, the authenticity, or otherwise, of the so-called “Hudson Stone” has never been verified.

We may well never know exactly what happened to Henry Hudson other than to assume that he never did achieve his overriding ambition of finding the Northwest Passage. Nevertheless, the groundbreaking voyages of this indomitable explorer undoubtedly changed the course of North American history forever.

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons ; The New York Public Library / Unsplash