Henry Hudson
c. 1565–1611 · English navigator who explored the Hudson River and Hudson Bay looking for a passage to Asia.
Henry Hudson was an English sea captain about whose early life almost nothing is known. In 1607 and 1608 he sailed for the English Muscovy Company, trying to find a route to Asia across the Arctic Ocean north of Europe, but ice turned him back. In 1609, sailing for the Dutch East India Company in the ship Half Moon, he crossed to North America and sailed up the river that now bears his name, past the island of Manhattan, as far as present-day Albany, before deciding it was not a passage to the Pacific. His reports led the Dutch to found the colony of New Netherland, with its town of New Amsterdam, later New York. In 1610 he set out again for England in the ship Discovery and entered the huge bay in northern Canada now called Hudson Bay. In June 1611, with food running out, part of the crew mutinied and set Hudson, his teenage son John and seven others adrift in a small open boat. They were never seen again.
Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia
Key dates
- 1607 First Arctic voyage
- 1609 Sails up the Hudson River for the Dutch
- 1610 Enters Hudson Bay
- 1611 Set adrift by mutineers
Fun facts
- The Hudson River, Hudson Bay and the city of Hudson, New York, are all named after him. (Source: Henry Hudson (Wikipedia))
Record-breaker
Firsts and records, worded as the sources give them ("first known", "at the time").
- On his last voyage he became the first European to see Hudson Strait and the huge Hudson Bay. (Source: Henry Hudson (Wikipedia))
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