HENRY HUDSON’S FIRST JOURNEY TO THE NORTH POLE By Peter C. Mancall In Fatal Journey: The Final Ex- ike the needle of a compass, Henry Hudson was always attracted to the north. In 1607, he led a mission that he hoped would take him from pedition of Henry Hudson—A Tale England over the top of the world and past the pole toward East Asia. It of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic L would be the first of four voyages that would make him one of the most (Basic Books, 2009), historian intrepid and important explorers of his age. His name would eventually attach to the sites he explored: the Hudson River, Hudson Strait, and Hudson Bay. Peter C. Mancall chronicles the Like all European explorers of the 16th and 17th centuries, Hudson knew that demise of the famed 17th-century fame and immense riches would accrue to the one who found a new and quick route British explorer. In this excerpt to East Asia and the southwest Pacific. For almost a century, the English had sought from the new book, Mancall de- a shortcut. The English East India Company, organized only a few years earlier, had already begun sailing vessels home from the Spice Islands laden with pepper, cinna - scribes Hudson’s first attempt to mon, cloves, and nutmeg. But they had to follow the long course from India around chart a new path to the East Indies. Africa before arriving in London—a journey through thousands of miles of open HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 7 seas that put them at risk of assault by Barbary pirates who had the unfortunate habit of taking English sailors captive and selling them as slaves. Hudson realized that a northern passage—despite the risks every sailor confronted in the Arctic—could cut the time substantially, and thereby increase profits by reducing the costs of any venture. Little is known about Hudson before his first attempt to navigate northward to Asia. The date and place of his birth remain uncertain, as does his family background.Yet while few documents reveal much about Hudson’s private life, he left detailed narratives of his early journeys of 1607 (written with the assistance of a crewman named John Playse) and 1608. Robert Juet, his mate, wrote an account of their 1609 voyage to the mid-Atlantic coast of North America. Those narratives fell into the hands of the younger Richard Hakluyt, editor of the widely influential Principal Navigations,Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation (published in three volumes in London from 1598 to 1600). Hakluyt was always eager to promote overseas exploration and commerce but did not publish Hudson’s reports, preferring instead to pass them to Samuel Purchas, the Anglican priest who acquired many of Hakluyt’s manuscripts and published them in 1625 in an enormous four-volume work titled Purchas his Pilgrimes . (The original editions of the books by Hakluyt and Purchas are in The Huntington’s extraordinary collection of early modern English books.) Hudson was not a particularly ele - gant writer, and Juet possessed minimal talents. But 400 years later, their reports and a small number of other surviving doc - uments still transport the reader to the often brutal seascape of the North Atlantic in the opening years of the 17th century. n April 19, 1607, Hudson led a party of 11 men to St. Ethelburga’s Church on Bishopsgate Street in London, where they O joined the congregation for communion, probably seeking divine protection from the unknown menaces they might encounter. Hudson’s son John, who was then 14, joined the party for communion. Within days, he would become the crew’s youngest member. His father predated the printing of Columbus’ first narrative in 1493. was grooming him for a life of sailing long distances, braving These observers recognized that Europeans craved direct nature at some of its fiercest points. Four days later, Hudson observations. This desire for eyewitness testimony fueled a guided the Hopewell down theThames.The captain’s plan was continent-wide publishing trend to label new accounts as simple: he would lead the ship due north, across the pole, and “true” reports, to differentiate them from the fables spun by would soon arrive in East Asia.The scheme was audacious but earlier writers such as the 14th-century English fabulist Sir appealing—or at least it was to the 10 men who attended the John Mandeville, who filled the account of his purported service and joined Hudson for the mission, and presumably travel with reports of monsters he claimed he saw. it was to those who provided financing for the expedition. For Hudson, the desire to describe places had a special Hudson’s report fits into the longstanding tradition among urgency: he wanted to let others know if it was possible to European explorers of providing firsthand accounts of travels survive in northern territories rife with ice-strewn bays and and of places they discovered—a literary practice that even beset by fierce storms.The nature of Hudson’s report changed 8 Spring /Summer 2009 Earlier explorers had tried and failed to sail through the frozen north, among them Martin Frobisher, who made three attempts between 1576 and 1578 under commission from Queen Elizabeth I. This map by Gerardus Mercator, one of the most famous mapmakers in 16th-century Europe, illustrates car - tographers’ belief that there existed an ice-free sea surrounding the North Pole, which meant it should be possible for explorers to find a sea route from the Atlantic into the Pacific. From Gerardus Mercator, Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura (1595). Previous page : From Sir John Ross, A Voyage of Discovery (1819). his report on a daily basis. Certain themes appeared time and again. He always noted remarkable events on board, like the time on July 13 when the ship reached a latitude of 80º 23’ N and happened upon a pod of whales. One of the men thought it was an ideal opportunity to fish. But a whale grabbed the line instead and might have sunk the ship had not the cord apparently broken.The crew found the vessel in waters more than 100 fathoms deep, which led them to believe they were in a sound, not a bay. As they looked inland they saw valleys and swamps filled with snow, even though, Hudson wrote, “we found it hot.”They were in the midst of the Arctic sum - mer, yet they could never get far from the ice or the fear of being driven onto a rocky, icy coastline. The captain’s plan was simple: he would lead the ship due north, across the pole, and would soon arrive in East Asia. As the Hopewell lay at anchor, four of the men went on shore.They returned with a pair of walrus tusks still embed - ded in a jaw, and reported that they had seen deer (perhaps caribou), whale bones, the tracks of bear and other creatures, “Rote-geese,” and driftwood. They also found a freshwater stream, which quenched their thirsts after hiking in the sum - mer heat. The ship remained in the area, and the next day Hudson estimated that the land stretched north to 81º. He was fairly certain of his location since he explained that he about four months into the journey. The early section had had confirmed the ship’s whereabouts with his cross-staff, a reflected Playse’s voice, though it is impossible to separate common navigation device used to identify a ship’s location Hudson’s observations from his assistant’s. But the latter part in relation to the heavens. His crew saw more seals than at any came from Hudson himself, and the phrasing changed, at least other point on their journey. As it turned out, this moment in some places, to include the first-person voice. “I steered marked one of Hudson’s first notable achievements on this away North ten leagues,” Hudson wrote on July 11, a sign that voyage. No European would reach this latitude again for he was both in command of the journey and of its account. By another two centuries. then he would have been more and more concerned about the But that accomplishment meant little to a man who had pace of his voyage, with its outcome increasingly in doubt. sailed north hoping to find the quickest way to the spice Every hour brought new opportunities to observe a region markets. Hudson’s notes would show the English the pos - never before described by an English traveler. Aware of the sibilities for venturing into the Arctic during the summer. importance of keeping a record of his journey, Hudson filled His observations would have real value to others who might HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS 9 Abraham Ortelius’ depiction of Iceland in 1595 prominently displayed the volcano at Hecla—which became a landmark for Europeans sailing in the region— as well as various kinds of sea monsters roaming the island’s seas. From Ortelius, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1595). want to fish or hunt seals or walrus.Yet this was little con - had led the small crew of the Hopewell farther north than any solation to him. He had fitted out the Hopewell for a journey English sailor had ventured before. Hudson did not reach the across the pole, not a scientific expedition. But he learned pole, turning back well before his trajectory could prove itself to be a route leading to the East Indies. But he had lost no men, he had charted territory rich in seals, whales, and Hudson’s notes would show birds, and he had described remote and potentially resource- rich lands in greater depth than any European had before him.