10 interesting facts about henry hudson
Henry Hudson c. In and , Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a rumoured Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle. Looking for a Northwest Passage to Asia [ 3 ] on his ship Halve Maen "Half Moon" , [ 4 ] he sailed up the Hudson River , which was later named after him, and thereby laid the foundation for Dutch colonization of the region.
His contributions to the exploration of the New World were significant and lasting.
How did henry hudson die
His voyages helped to establish European contact with the native peoples of North America and contributed to the development of trade and commerce. On his final expedition, while still searching for the Northwest Passage, Hudson became the first European to see Hudson Strait and the immense Hudson Bay. The mutineers cast Hudson, his son, and six others adrift; what then happened to the Hudsons and their companions is unknown.
Virtually nothing of Hudson's early life is known for certain. At the time, the English were engaged in an economic battle with the Dutch for control of northwest routes. It was thought that, because the sun shone for three months in the northern latitudes in the summer, the ice would melt, and a ship could make it across the "top of the world".
Why is henry hudson important
On 1 May , Hudson sailed with a crew of ten men and a boy on the ton Hopewell. After turning east, they sighted "Newland" Spitsbergen on 27 May near the mouth of the great bay Hudson later simply named the "Great Indraught" Isfjorden. The following day they entered what Hudson later in the voyage named "Whales Bay" Krossfjorden and Kongsfjorden , naming its northwestern point "Collins Cape" Kapp Mitra 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 his Streights Davis Strait , and so for Kingdom of England", but ice conditions would have made this impossible.