Henry Hudson
1570(?) -1611(?)

The aftermath of Hudson's Voyages
and Related Notes, 1611-on

Last updated:
January 19, 2007

Written & researched by Ian Chadwick, Text & design copyright Ian Chadwick © 1992-2007
	Web design, Net training, writing, editing, freelance columns, editorial commentary, research & data analysis.

The Admiralty was in no apparent hurry to try the mutineers. Only one had a deposition taken in the same year they returned. The rest would wait another five or six years - after some had died and memories had lost their freshness

No one knows what happened to Henry Hudson and his shipmates after the mutinous crew aboard Discovery lost sight of them on that cold morning in June, 1611. They were never found by subsequent rescue missions, nor was any trace found to identify them as having survived in that harsh land. Even the exact route taken by Hudson into the the bay that now bears his name is still unknown. Douglas McNaughton (see sources) recently suggested Hudson may have actually sailed to the west side of the bay, instead of along the northeast. At the time of year, the west would have been clear of ice, while the northeast would be clogged with ice flowing into the strait.

Another theory about Hudson's voyage was proposed by Carl Shuster, in the Beaver Magazine, Sept. 1999. Shuster believes Hudson was not searching for a northwest passage, since he was not prepared to meet with expected Oriental potentates - he carried no letters of introduction, gifts or trade goods as other explorers did. Instead, Shuster suggests, Hudson was looking for a harbour where his backers could build a port to take advantage of the area's rich mineral and other resources. Thus his wanderings in James Bay were not random, but a methodical survey. An experienced mariner like Hudson would have known the shallow bay was fed by rivers and hid no exit to the west. But Hudson may have been bound by an oath of secrecy to his backers, and could not tell his crew.

Hudson may also have had a copy of a map that showed the bay - European cartographers had made maps since 1540 showing the bay - many highly detailled. Petrus Plancius had published maps in the last decade of the 16th century that showed Hudson Bay. But many of these maps were based on ancient originals, some made as early as 150 CE. Geography has changed considerably in the area, and many landmarks have changed or disappeared since early mapmakers, the result of the slow rebound (isostatic) of the land since the ice ages. That movement continues even today. Hudson - says Shuster - may have been looking for landmarks on ancient maps that had long since disappeared as a result of the changes.

Intriguing as the idea is, we will never know for sure. Hudson never confided in his crew. He never gave them any reason for his determination to continue the search, even after the hardships of the winter had left them dangerously short of food, weakened and demoralized. With no better cause than their master's personal vision, and having lost their faith in his abilities and leadership, the crew mutinied.

Possibly Hudson and his abandoned crew died in that boat on the water, of cold and hunger. Several were already sick when they were set adrift. Possibly they made their way to the shore, to set up camp and await the rescuers they knew would be sent from England to find them. In 1631, Capt. Thomas James found the remains of what may have been a shelter erected on Danby Island - the ship's carpenter was among the abandoned men. During the expedition of 1668-70, Capt. Zachariah Gillian found similar remains supposedly left from an English crew 60 years earlier. But the evidence however tantalizing is inconclusive. Hudson and his abandoned crew vanished from history and no positive proof of their fate was ever found.

The main record of this voyage is Abacuck Prickett's self-serving journal, written after the mutiny. Robert Juet and Henry Greene were made the villains of the mutiny: they were cast as the ringleaders who organized the others. This may in part be dissimulation by the survivors to protect themselves from being hung.

Greene emerges from Prickett's narrative as the mastermind behind the events, but Juet's evident dissatisfaction with his treatment at Hudson's hands, and his early attempt at mutiny make him equally culpable. Prickett says Hudson brought Greene along because "he could write so well." But although the majority of seafarers might not have been literate, this claim seems illogical. Hudson himself could read and write, as could Juet, Prickett and Woodhouse - and perhaps others.

Juet's role in Hudson's voyages is complex and mysterious. Despite apparent dissention between the two, Hudson hired him three times. Juet was literate - uncommon but not rare in his day (Queen Elizabeth actively promoted education and literacy throughout England). His record of the 1609 voyage is clear, concise and well-written, so it appears he was himself an experienced mariner who knew his instruments and measurements. He apparently also wrote a journal of the 1608 voyage, which Purchas chose not to reprint "for brevity." He served as Hudson's mate twice, but not in 1609 (the Dutch masters likely wanted a more compliant Dutch mate to oversee Hudson). But why he was taken aboard again in 1610, and why he agreed to go remains unclear. Possibly, he was put aboard by the company to keep and eye on Hudson and ensure he kept to his goals. Possibly he was simply valuable as a seaman who had survived three previous journeys to the unknown waters of the Arctic. Four hundred years of history have buried the answers.

Juet has a parallel in an earlier history: Thomas Doughty, who sailed with Francis Drake in 1577 and caused such dissension in the crew. Doughty often seems an amalgam of Juet and Henry Greene: a combination of mutiny and high birth.

The Admiralty was in no apparent hurry to try the mutineers. Only one had a deposition taken in the same year they returned. The rest would wait another five or six years - after some had died and memories had lost their freshness. Perhaps it was their claim to have discovered the Northwest Passage that saved them. At least two of them were sent back to the Bay; ostensibly to search for Hudson but possibly to also verify that claim. In the end, when they came to trial in 1618, none were charged or punished for the crime. And no survivors were ever found in the years to follow.

Legends and oral histories

The abandoned men were in sad shape after their long winter. They had few tools and were ill-equipped to survive another winter in that harsh land without help. They might have built a shelter and waited for rescue. They may have met with natives and traded their meagre tools and belongings for necessary supplies and food. They might have even been allowed to join a band and, if legend is true, could survive today in the genes of modern natives. But Hudson had not shown any qualities that would have endeared him to the natives in the past, and there is little to suggest the natives would have felt any sympathy for any of them. Prickett's journal suggests the natives fled from attempts at contact.

However, legends still survive that may cast some light on their fate. One story tells of an Inuit band which found a small boat on the water, filled with dead white men, and a single survivor, a white boy - John Hudson? The Inuit didn't know what to do with the boy, so they tied him outside their huts, with their dogs. No more is known about his fate.

There's another local legend in the Ottawa Valley (Ontario, Canada) that Henry Hudson, and possibly his son and some of his abandoned crew, were captured by natives and enslaved for a time, which led to a trip down the Ottawa River before they were eventually killed. Markings that read "HH CAPTIVE 1612" were found on a stone along the banks of the Ottawa River which supposedly corroborate this story, but archeological studies to authenticate it have been lacking. The stone sat in Tenna-Brise Park in the village of Chalk River. These pictures are from the town of Laurentian Hills web site.

According to a story in the North Renfrew Times, this historic rock was damaged by vandals in 2005: "When the Hudson Stone was pushed off its moorings, it landed on the slab, and broke into four pieces. When the Hudson Stone was mounted in the park, at the intersection of Church and Wilson Streets, it signalled the end of along road that had been travelled by the stone, ever since it was discovered 38 years ago by a road crew repaving Highway 17 at the eastern end of Deep River... although the stone is broken into four pieces, the writing on its surface remains intact in one piece. " The full story of the rock's discovery is online at the Schoolhouse Museum (Deep River) site and a picture of the stone's discoverer is also on that site.

Although the plaque notes the stone as discovered in 1959, Douglas McNaughton informed me that accounts of the letters "HH" carved in stones along the Ottawa River, upstream of Chaudier Falls date from the 1860s and were reported, with engravings, in several old journals. Apparently the carvings were later covered by a dam in the area. McNaughton says he recalls anthropologists identifying the symbols as those of the Ottawa Indians that only looked like HH.

From Robert Prontack, 2004:

Hello from Canada. I was recently in Inukjuak on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay, on vacation. On one of the Hopewell Islands (Harrison Island] I was told that there were stone houses of Dorset culture people there (they were early Inuit people]. These same people also told me that there were graves of some of the Hudson crew. This might be a myth. I don t know, but the stone houses of the Dorset people are there. For me, I always liked the story of Capt James. It is sad that he is so neglected today. I have visited James Bay in the past .I hope  that you find this interesting. Robert

From Lee Ann Gilpin, 2004:

There is a local legend here, I live in James Bay on the Quebec side, in a little Cree community called Wemindji. The story goes that a it is quite possible that Henry Hudson is buried near here. There is a trapline nearby that is call "Wamstuksheesh" which means little white man in Cree. Apparently it was named after him because it is believed that he had lived peacefully among the Cree People until he was an old man. If this is true I would assume that he would have taken a Cree woman has his wife and they most likely had some offspring.
Our history has been passed down from generation to generation orally and I'm sure some history has been forgotten. Had it just been written!! I found that story so interested that my main goal when I attended post-secondary school in Montreal was I was going to be an archaeologist and solve this mystery (I'm an early childhood education professional). But an archaeologist (can't recall his name) was here maybe about eight years ago or so and a few friends of mine and myself asked him if he believed that Henry Hudson was buried here.... he told us that the soil around this area was very acidic and that remains usually are non-existent when buried for a long time. The only evidence would be if he wore buttons, rings, etc....and even if they found such things it would be hard to prove it was Henry Hudson!
So that's my little story on our local legend of Henry Hudson....

Tommy McGee, 2004:

I used to live in the James Bay area, where Hudson, was reportedly last seen, and actually, there's this place near a reserve called Wemindji, where some of the locals told my father that there was a certain mound of large rocks assembled just 8 km south of Wemindji. The mound, apparently, was not made by any of the locals. What I find somewhat odd is that no team of archeologists has bothered looking in this area for any evidence. I never been there but my father has, since he wasn't any pro on archeology, he could not verify anything. We even had a non-fiction writer, Lawrence Millman (Evening among Headhunters) come to the place, and other suspected areas where Hudson could've been. Many of the locals also told my father and the writer, that "many" years, that their ancestors had seen several men, in one particular, was called "red beard." They could've been referring to the carpenter who was with Hudson. They were spotted at a cove, next to a small rocky island. I've been there. I couldn't find anything. There was another island just 7 km south of Wemindji, which was called "monkey island". The reason being, that the locals spotted 2 "ape men" on a boat going to that island. I know for a fact, back then, the Crees, who inhabited the area, were known for never having facial which strongly concludes, based off probability that those so-called "ape-men" were bearded Europeans, possibly Hudson's crew but so far, no one in the local area, has been able to verify if that is true.

If you ever heard anything about these or other legends, or had any photographs to share, I would appreciate you emailing me at ichadwick@rogers.com or posting a notice in my Henry Hudson discussion forum with whatever information or sources you have.

Another theory emerged, this time from Dr. David Duff, former chemistry lecturer at Paisley University. He claims to have found evidence that Hudson navigated his remaining crew 3,000 miles across the Arctic Ocean to land on Spitzbergen Island, where they finally died. His theory is based on a discovery of graves by Douglas Clavering, in 1823, noted in a diary of an expedition to Greenland. This story, published Jan. 4, 1998, is available on the Electronic Telegraph at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/. While a significant challenge, it would not be impossible - witness the extensive voyage of Captain Bligh in a similarly small ship, the 18th century. More likely the graves were those of early whalers who perished in the pursuit of their trade.

Hudson's tale sparked the imagination of England in 1611, and wild rumours spread rapidly. The main one was that Hudson had found the Northwest Passage before the mutiny. Hudson became a hero, posthumously. Sir Thomas Smythe - one of the men who had sponsored Hudson's fateful voyage - decided it was true. He formed a new company under the approval of King James I, and soon had 270 wealthy investors eager to exploit the passageway to the Orient. But Smythe and his supporters were soon to be disappointed again. No trace of the fabled Northwest Passage would be found in their lifetimes - although England did make a commercial success from trading outlets later established in the north. The Hudson Bay Company became the largest trading firm in Canada's north, and continues to this day.

Crew of the Discovery:

Crew sleeping arrangements on the Discovery

Bow at this end, port (larboard) to left

Gunroom: Juet Thomas Williams

Hold - sleeping in pairs: W. Wilson Ludlow Clements Prickett King Bylot     Capstan     E. Wilson J. Hudson Simms Greene Pearse Motter     Pumps     Fanner Woodhouse Butt Moore

Deck Steps Galley: Matthews Bond     Shallop       Foremast     Shallop       Hatchway       Main mast     Steps       Steps

Navigation deck   Tool room: Staffe     Mast

Cabin:   Henry Hudson and sometimes Greene

1611

• Only the surgeon, Edward Wilson's, deposition is taken by the Admiralty. The rest wait until 1616 or 1617 before their statements are taken. Smythe refused to bring charges of mutiny against any of the survivors.
• Hudson's chart aroused excitement in London. It showed only the eastern shore of the Bay, with an 'unterminated' peninsula to the west. Merchants were convinced the Northwest Passage had been found. Smythe played on their interest and got investors to support another company to search for the passage.
• Nicolas de Vignau, an adventurer with Samuel de Champlain in New France, volunteered to join the Indians (Algonquin) on their homeward journey north, and winter among them. He left in the Algonquin canoes, passed up the Ottawa River, and was not seen again for another year.
• First British envoy to the Great Moghul.
• The first King James Bible is published. Shakespeare's The Tempest was performed at Whitehall for King James I.

1612

• James Hall and William Baffin, in the Patience and Heart's Ease, explored the west coast of Greenland in search of the Northwest Passage.
• July 26: King James I provided a charter to some merchants to establish a trade route by the northwest passage.
• England colonized Bermuda.
• Nicolas de Vignau returned to Paris, bringing a tale of wonders. Champlain said, "he was the most impudent liar that has been seen for many a day." Vignau swore that at the sources of the Ottawa River, he had found a great lake; that he had crossed it, and discovered a river flowing northward. He said he had descended this river, and reached the shores of the sea; that here he had seen the wreck of an English ship, whose crew, escaping to land, had been killed by the Indians; and that this sea was distant from Montreal only seventeen days by canoe. The clearness, consistency, and apparent simplicity of his story deceived Champlain, who had heard of a voyage of the English to the northern seas, coupled with rumors of wreck and disaster (Hudson's voyage). He believed Vignau's story, as did many prominent French nobles and merchants. The Maréchal de Brissac, the President Jeannin, and other persons of eminence about the court urged Champlain to follow up without delay. Champlain, with the Pacific, Japan, China, the Spice Islands, and India stretching in flattering vista before his fancy, entered with eagerness on the chase of this illusion. (Reported in Compare Jérmie, Relation, in Recueil de Voyages au Nord, VI)
  
• Dutch historian Hessel Gerritz (Gerritsz) wrote the first history of Hudson's 1610 voyage, and included in his recounting a map (above). He wrote that many in Holland believed Hudson "purposely missed the correct route to the western passage" in 1609 because he was "unwilling to benefit Holland and the directors... by such a discovery." This report suggested Hudson was secretly working for his English backers while in Dutch employ. Gerritsz first published his map in 1612, later reproduced (as above) by Johann Theodore de Bry in 1613. It was the first map to depict Hudson Bay and the Canadian Arctic. Abacuck Prickett seems to have had possession of the chart, which somehow made its way to Amsterdam and Gerritsz very soon after Prickett's return to England.
• A journal was published, supposedly written by Henry Hudson, chronicling his voyage in 1587 as mate with John Davis. Many contemporaries thought his son, Oliver, actually wrote it. Hakluyt's reprint of the log was written by John Jones, and notes John Churchyard as pilot and a Master Bruton on that journey.
• May: Discovery and Resolution, with a crew of 160 men, were sent out by Prince Henry (the Prince of Wales) and the directors of the Muscovy Company, under command of Capt. Thomas Button (a gentleman of Prince Henry's Household). They set out to search for the Northwest Passage, and search for any survivors. Three former members of Hudson's crew, Abacuck Prickett, the Welshman Robert Bylot (as pilot) and Edward Wilson, were aboard. Prince Henry gave specific instructions to Button on how to govern his crew to avoid another mutiny. Five of his men died on Digges Island attempting to commandeer some canoes from the Inuit. The Resolution was crushed by ice and sank.
• Expecting to find a passage to Cathay, Button carried a letter from King James addressed to the emperor of Japan. Button crossed Hudson Bay to the west side around 61° N, then sailed south exploring the bay. The ships stopped and and wintered at the mouth of the Nelson River. Port Nelson, where they wintered-over, was named after one of the mates who was buried there.
• Next spring, the ships headed back north along the coast, until shallow water convinced him he had found a sound (now Roe's Welcome Sound), not a passage west. The Resolution was crushed by the ice and sank. Discovery sailed north to what was called Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome, between Southampton Island and the east coast of America, before turning for England. A considerable length of coastline was charted on this expedition. It was also determined that no westward passage from Hudson Bay existed. Button headed east and returned home to England, 16 months after his departure.
• The Bay was first named "Button's Bay" after Capt. Button, but later officially named Hudson (not Hudson's) Bay. Nothing in the log of that voyage shows the ship ever searched for Hudson or the abandoned crew at the bottom of the bay where they knew he had disappeared.
• Prince Henry died at age 18.
• In July, The Company of Merchants of London, Discoverers of the Northwest Passage was granted a royal charter to explore the waters west of Hudson Strait.

1613

• Button and Bylot continued their journey through Hudson Bay, heading north in the spring, reaching a latitude of 65° before returning to England.
• Benjamin Joseph and William Baffin, with seven ships, searched for the Northeast Passage.
• Early in the spring, Champlain crossed the Atlantic, and sailed up the St. Lawrence. On May 27, he left Montreal with four Frenchmen, one of whom was Nicolas de Vignau, and one Indian, in two small canoes, searching for Vignau's "sea." They passed the swift current at St. Ann's, crossed the Lake of Two Mountains, and advanced up the Ottawa till the rapids of Carillon and the Long Saut (Sault?) checked their course. Champlain reached Allumette Island, only to find that the youth had taken no such journey as he previously reported, and that the Indians didn't know of any passage through to Hudson Bay. On this, his first trip up the Ottawa, Champlain lost the astrolabe which, in 1807, was turned up by the plough near Muskrat Lake in Renfrew County.
• British settlement permitted at Surat, India.
• Hessel Gerritz's report of Hudson's voyages is published. He wrote a scathing commentary on Hudson's third voyage, calling it a failure, and saying, "All that he did in the west in 1609 was to exchange his merchandise for the furs of New France."
• Dutch explorer Adrien Block spent the winter on an island which he named "Manhatte." He built a small fort he named New Amsterdam. The territory comprised between the Hudson river and Delaware was known as New Belgium and New Holland. The city of New
  York was built on Manhatte island.

1614

• Benjamin Joseph and William Baffin, with a fleet of thirteen ships this time, searched for the Northeast Passage in the direction of Hudson's second voyage. They, too, were unsuccessful.
• March: William Gibbons, who had sailed with Button the previous year, set sail for the Northwest Company in the Discovery, intending to search for the Northwest Passage through Hudson Bay, but was blocked by ice. He spent 10 weeks trapped in an inlet on the Labrador coast, then returned home.
• Dutch historian Emmanuel Van Meteren's book, Historie der Nederlanden wrote that a mutiny took place on Hudson's 1609 voyage, originating in quarrels between Dutch and English sailors. Van Meteren (van Meteran) was the Dutch counsel in London when Hudson returned, and had access to Hudson's journals, charts and logbooks at the time.
• Katherine Hudson, Henry's widow, applied to the East India Company for employment for Richard, one of her remaining sons.
• According to Asher, on April 19, 1614, the EIC, "Being informed that Mrs. Hudson, the wife or widow of Mr. Hudson who was left in the North West discovery, desired their favour for employing a youth, a Son of his, she being left very poor, and conceiving that they were partly obliged in charity to give assistance in regard that his Father perished in the service of the Commonwealth, resolved to recommend him to the care of some one who is to go the voyage [to the East. Indies]."
• Again on that same date, April 19, 1614, "Mrs. Hudson's son recommended to the care of Hunt, master's mate in the 'Samaritan,' 5pd. to be laid out upon him for apparel and necessaries."

1615

• William Baffin set out to explore a Northwest passage on Discovery. This time Robert Bylot served as captain. Baffin (his pilot) explored the entrance to Hudson Strait. The voyage proved Hudson Strait was definitely not the northwest route to Asia. He arrived at Resolution Island by the end of May. Ice and bad weather in the strait slowed the voyage and Baffin didn't reach the southwest corner of the island that would be named after him until July. Baffin explored the northern coast of Southampton Island and the southern waters of Foxe Basin before returning home. He did not believe there was a passage in that direction.
• The Dutch settled on Manhattan Island.
• Four of the nine mutineers were tried for murder, but none was convicted. It has been suggested they were not hung because they might have knowledge of the area where the English traders still hoped to find mineral wealth and a safe harbour.
• March 6: the Half Moon, in the company of other Dutch vessels under the command of Laurens Real, heading to the East Indies, was wrecked and lost near the island of Mauritius. There are no further records of the Half Moon.
• The first known reference to tea by an Englishman was made by Richard Wickham, who wrote to Macao asking for 'a pot of the best sort of chaw' (the Chinese name for tea).
• 1615 Samuel de Champlain journeyed to Lake Huron.

1616

• Bylot, now captain of the Discovery, found and explored Baffin Bay, sailing north along the west coast of Greenland to Smith Sound (between Ellesmere Island and Greenland), then south to what is now Baffin Island and south along its eastern coast. Bylot, still in disgrace from the mutiny, named the bay after his first mate and pilot, William Baffin, because his disgrace would not allow him the honour of having his name used in a discovery. Bylot and the Discovery explored Smith Sound, Jones Sound and Lancaster Sound. Baffin's highest latitude reached was just above 78° N. Baffin believed the bay was another dead end, which would not be disproved for another two centuries when Elisha Kent Kane crossed its ice into what is now Kane Sound, in 1853. However, beyond the Kane basin lie the increasingly narrow Kennedy then Robeson Channels (between Greenland and Ellesemere Island) before the Arctic Ocean is reached.
• Bylot made four voyages to the Arctic, and Discovery was used in a total of six. During his 1616 voyage, Bylot made several notable achievements, thanks to a combination of his talents in ice navigation, and the brilliant navigational and mapping skills of Baffin. They reached and reached a farthest north point of 77°45N, which would not be exceeded until 1876 when Capt. George Nare led the Alert and another ship named Discovery into the waters. They were the first Europeans to see Jones, Lancaster and Smith Straits, important waterways which were named after patrons of the voyage (Alderman Jones, Sir James Lancaster and Sir Thomas Smith). They mapped the entire bay that was named to honour Baffin. They were able to reach 70° 45' North latitude, a record which held for 236 years. Bylot successfully sailed back to England, but nothing is known about his life after that point. William Baffin usually receives full credit for the successes of the 1616 voyage.
• The Admiralty took statements from Prickett and Bylot. The court records note,
  "...the trial of Robert Bileth alias Blythe, late of the precinct of St. Katherine next the Tower of London, co. Middlesex, mariner, Abacucke Prickett, late of the city of London, haberdasher, Edward Wilson of the same, barber-surgeon, Adrian Matter, late of Ratcliffe, Middlesex, mariner; Silvanus Bonde, of London, cooper, and Nicholas Sims, late of Wapping, sailor, to be indicted for having, on 22 June 9 James I, in a certain ship called The Discovery of the port of London, then being on the high sea near Hudson’s Straits in the parts of America, pinioned the arms of Henry Hudson, late of the said precinct of St. Katherine, mariner, then master of the said ship The Discovery, and putting him thus bound, together with John Hudson, his son, Arnold Ladley, John Kinge, Michael Butt, Thomas Woodhouse, Philip Staffe, Adam Moore and Sidrach Fanner, mariners of the said ship, into a shallop, without food, drink, fire, clothing or any necessaries, and then maliciously abandoning them, so that they came thereby to their death and miserably perished." (I have reprinted documents from the mutineers' trial at hudson_court.htm)
• The Half Moon was last heard of from off the Island of Sumatra, in the South Seas. She was wrecked this year on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean while on a voyage to the Dutch East Indies, although other sources say she was burned with other Dutch ships off Jakarta in 1618.
• Richard Hakluyt died.
• By 1616, the Dutch controlled all the Spice Islands (the Bandas) except the smallest one, two miles long and one mile wide, called Run.

1617

• The Admiralty took a statement from Clements.
• Baffin ended the speculation about a possible northwest passage, writing "There is no hope of a passage to the east from Hudson Bay."
• 1617 Samuel de Champlain returned to Québec with Louis Hébert, who was accompanied by his wife, his son, his two daughters and his brother-in-law. With the arrival of this family, the French colony in New France was born.

1618

• July 23,24: Abacuck Prickett, Edward Wilson, Bennet Matheus (Matthews) and Francis Clements appeared in Southwark to stand trial for their piracy. Nicolas Simms was excused because he was a minor at the time of the mutiny. Three other survivors had died in the interim.
• According to Admiralty documents, the mutineers claimed Wilson and Greene first only wanted at first to take the shallop and flee, taking care of themselves. But later they resolved to take the entire ship.
• Edward Wilson said the mutineers first put the others in the shallop only while they found and divided the 'hidden' food, but later "would not suffer them to come back again into the ship."
• Clements charged Hudson was hoarding food and giving it to his favourites in his cabin, including Edward Wilson.
• The jury gave the conspirators "not guilty" on charges of "the ejection of Henry Hudson and John Hudson and others from the ship Discovery in a boat without food or drink and other necessities and the murder of the same" and "fleeing from justice" or for putting Henry Hudson, Master of the Discovery "out of the same ship with eight more of his company into a shallop in the Isle of America without meat, drink, or other provision; whereby they died."
• Greene got most of the blame, along with Juet and William Wilson - all conveniently dead and beyond the reach of justice (or the inquiry).
• The Thirty Years' War begins, one of several wars that divided Europe over national and religious issues.

1619

• Two Danish ships, the Unicorn and Lamprey, manned with a crew of 68 (65?) under the leadership of pathfimder Jens Munk attempted to find a Northwest passage. They over-wintered at the mouth of the Churchill River (near the site of the later Hudson's Bay Company post, Fort Prince of Wales), where they were stuck for nine months. All but three of the two crews died of cold and scurvy (although trichinosis from poorly-cooked pork has also been blamed). Munk survived, and helped return the Lamprey home, a voyage of 3,500 miles. His journal was published in 1624.
• In the East Indies, Dutch-English confrontations over the spice trade had been growing worse and more violent for the past decade. In 1619 the English East India Company and the Dutch East India company signed the Treaty of Defence. They agreed to cease all fighting, return all captured ships, release all prisoners, and to create a joint fleet (one-third English, two-thirds Dutch) to expel Spain and Portugal from the Spice Islands and to destroy their bases in Indonesia, China, the Philippines, and the Malay Peninsula. Although the Dutch had the upper hand, the English were granted one-third of all trade in the Spice Islands. These terms were unacceptable to the Dutch governor-general in the East Indies, so he ignored them and continued to wage war.

1621

• War between Holland and Spain resumes after a 12-year truce.

1624

• England declares war on Spain.

1625

• William Hawkridge, with two ships, entered Hudson Strait to search for the Northwest Passage.
• Juet's journal of the 1609 voyage was published in Purchas His Pilgrims. Portions of Hudson's journal of the same voyage were published in John De Laet's history, Nieuwe Werelt. Prickett's journals of the fateful 1610 voyage were published only after the death of his employer, Sir Thomas Smythe.
• James I dies, succeeded by Charles I.

1629

• William Connor, an English merchant on the ship the Swallow, reached the southeast corner of Hudson Bay. There, he said, he and his men found a cabin constructed of planks cut with carpenter's tools. Inside were several beds and an iron cooking pot. There was no sign of clothing or muskets, nor any graves outside. Connor's tale was not believed by many at the time.

1631

• Two independent, rival captains, Luke 'Northwest' Foxe (in the Charles) and Thomas James (in the ship Henrietta Marie, and backed by Bristol merchants), set out from England to make another effort to find the passage. They met by coincidence in Hudson Bay. Foxe was returning home, disillusioned, having explored the southwest shore of Hudson Bay not mapped by Button. James was just starting to explore. He was carrying a letter from King Charles I to the emperor of Japan. Foxe went north, deep into the sound that now bears his name (Foxe's Channel), then headed back to England. The bay was named after James.
• James over-wintered on Charlton Island in James Bay and also returned home without finding a route. Because he had faced the hardships of winter when Foxe had returned, James got the hero's welcome, even though Foxe produced the better reports and charts. This would be the first confirmed exploration of the southern end of Hudson Bay by English mariners after Hudson. Foxe was convinced there was no passage north through the sound and he was proven right: the narrow strait between Baffin Island and the Meville Peninsula on the mainland (now called the Fury and Hecla Strait) is usually blocked by ice. Despite numerous attempts in the following centuries to find it, proof of the existence of a Northwest Passage would remain elusive until the early 20th century.
• During the winter, James found a row of stout, sharpened stakes - possibly sharpened by a European axe - on nearby Danby Island,. These were thought to be possibly remnants from Staffe's house or from the efforts of the abandoned crew who later may have reached the island. The stakes, James wrote, "had beene cut sharpe at the ends with a hatchet, or some other good Iron toole, and driven in, as it were with the head of it.” These stakes were possibly relics of Henry Hudson and his men, who had been abandoned thereabouts some 20 years earlier. Upon his return to England, James wrote his story under the title, Strange and Dangerous Voyage (1633). In it, he rightly concluded that no northwest passage existed south of 66°N.

1638-1645

• This author uncovered several references made to people named Hudson in the House of Lords, including Thomas Hudson, Mrs. Hudson, Capt. William Hudson. It is unsure if these are members of the explorer's family. Search the records at www.british-history.ac.uk.
• 1638: A Mrs. Hudson, widow, is listed as a resident of St. Faith's in London, at an annual rent of 16 pds.
• July 13, 1642: "An Ordinance for securing Thomas Hudson touching the Personal Estates of Henry Hudson and Robert Holiday, Delinquents, late in Partnership with him..."
• December 16, 1642: "Mr. Winch claimeth an Interest in certain Goods and Chattels, which Mr. Jordan, by Order of this House, hath seized as the Goods of Captain Wm. Hudson..." and "the Four Horses belonging to Mrs. Hudson, and seized by Serjeant Major Pretty, shall be valued by the Commissaries appointed for that Purpose; and delivered unto Serjeant Major Pretty, to be employed by him in the Army, for Recruiting of his Troop, according to the Warrant of my Lord General...
  Ordered, That Mrs. Hudson be restrained in her House in London; giving good Security, that she will not depart thence, without first acquainting the House therewith.
  Ordered, That Mr. Ashe do consider of the Bills and Bonds taken with Mrs. Hudson; and take the best Course for Recovery of the Sums due upon those Bonds, to the Service of the Commonwealth."
• February 15, 1643: "...Colonel John Birch; relating, That he hath lent, for the Service of the State, Fifteen hundred Pounds; and desiring that he may have, upon Account, towards the Satisfaction of the said Fifteen hundred Pounds, such Estate of Henry Hudson, a Delinquent..."
• October 16, 1644: "...Mr. Clement Spelman, of Grayes Inne, now in the Serjeant's Custody, be forthwith bailed, upon the Security of William Gerratt and Henry Hudson Esquires; the Principal in Two thousand Pounds; and the Security in a Thousand Pounds apiece..."
• April 8, 1645: "An Ordinance for securing Thomas Hudson touching the Personal Estates of Henry Hudson and Robert Holiday, Delinquents..."
• April 14, 1645: "...the Ordinance for the securing of Thomas Hudson the Personal Estates of Henry Hudson and Rob't Hollyday, Delinquents, remaining of or in late Partnership with the said Thomas Hudson..." and "Whereas, by virtue of an Ordinance and several Orders of Parliament, Thomas Hudson, Citizen and Haberdasher of London, hath paid Two Thousand Pounds; videlicet, One Thousand Five Hundred Pounds unto Colonel John Birch..."

1650-52

• The first coffee house in England opened was in Oxford. The coffee house in London, the Sign of Pasqua Rosee in St Michael's Alley off Cornhill, was opened by 1652.

1658

• Anne Hudson, listed as daughter of Henry, married George Stodard of London. She bears the coat of arms of her father (Argent, a Cross Sable between four Fleurs-de-lis Gules).

1668-70

• A voyage funded by the Hudson's Bay Company set out from London with the Nonsuch and Eaglet. The small vessel, Nonsuch, sailed from through the Hudson Strait and into Hudson Bay, and opened a sea route for trade in furs with the local Indians.
• Capt Zachariah Gillian, master of the ketch Nonsuch, and his crew constructed Fort Charles, a trading site, on the shore of James Bay, near the mouth of the Rupert River, on the ruins of a house supposedly built there 60 years before by the English. Those ruins were widely believed to be the remains of the house built by Staffe for the wintering in 1610-11, or possibly made after the abandoned crew made landfall.
• Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Medard Chouart Sieur de Groseillers - Courier de Bois - were aboard the ships, Radisson sailing with Capt. William Stannard aboard the Eaglet, Groseillers aboard the Nonsuch. The Eaglet was forced to turn back by a violent storm, and the Nonsuch went on into James Bay.
• After wintering over, the Nonsuch returned home the next year, with many pelts.
• The Hudson Bay Company is founded to take advantage of opportunities to trade in pelts with natives in the New World. The company would assume its coat of arms in 1678: Argent, a Cross Gules between four Beavers proper. This may in fact refer back to the coat of arms of the Hudson family.

1719(?)-22

• James Knight, in an expedition funded by the Hudson's Bay Company, left in search of "minerals and to traverse the 'Strait of Anian.' They departed from Gravesend on the lower Thames in June 1719 and were never seen again. His ships Albany and Discovery (Hudson's former ship) attempted to take refuge on Marble Island in Hudson Bay, but in the attempt the ships were damaged. After two winters, there were no survivors. Presumably, they all starved. 

1725

• In his book, Passage to the West, Noel Gerson reported in 1725 an agent of the Hudson Bay Company called Miller met a Cree Indian with "surprisingly pale skin" and who had boasted of an English ancestor, one of a "few" Englishmen who had been living in the forest and eventually joined the Cree and taken a Cree wife.

1741

• Captain Christopher Middleton sets out with the Furnace and Discovery. The vessels winter at Sloop Cove, between the Hudson's Bay Company's fort, named after the Prince of Wales, and the recently vacated Old Factory on the Churchill River. The following year they headed north to the uncharted and ice-infested waters of Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome (now Roe's Welcome Sound), between the west coast of Southampton Island and the east coast of North America. They reached a deep bay whose upper reaches touched the Arctic Circle. Middleton named it Repulse Bay because he was repulsed from his efforts to find a northwest passage.

Miscellaneous notes:

• Hudson's logs from his third voyage (1609) were probably among the property of the Dutch East and West India Companies, sold at auction by the Dutch government in 1821. The New York State Legislature attempted to find them in 1841. Their agent, John Romeyn Brodhead, wrote, " ... the papers of the West India Company relating to New Netherlands ... are now irrecoverably lost." One excerpt was published in 1625. In it, Hudson wrote about the area, "It is as pleasant a land as one can tread upon."
• Bantam was a common name for Java, although it was really the name of a town on the northwest shore of the island. When the Dutch arrived, they built Batavia, their own port, nearby and Bantam lost is importance.
• Boys served on ships as cabin boys until age 16, paid only in food. After that they served as apprentices for seven years to learn the art of sailing and, eventually become ranked as a 'seaman'.
• Puchas notes a "bittacle" was a small enclosed area used to house the compass. References in Juet's 1609 journal.
• 1607: Captain John Smith first encountered Iroquois in Chesapeake Bay.
• 1608: Champlain founded the first permanent European settlement in the New World: Quebec. Jamestown was founded the same year; the first permanent English colony in New World.
• Scurvy: gums swell and turn black, teeth loosen and fall out, rheumatism, lethargy sets in.
• Ship's watch was changed every 4 hours.
• Ship's punishments: flogging, hanging, 3 knocks on head by bo'sun's (boat swain's) club (for swearing).
• Daily rations: 1 lb biscuit/man. Four days/week: 1 lb salt beef or salt pork plus handful of peas. Two days/week: salt cod instead of meat. Friday: 1/2 lb cheese, sometimes small portion of butter or spoonful of olive oil. Food was eaten uncooked if no galley fire was lit (due to bad weather).
• Midday: captain checked the ship's location with his astrolabe, if sun is visible, and calculates latitude with help of tables. Observations were checked by mate using ship's cross staff (less accurate). Speed was also checked with a knotted rope and log thrown out behind the ship, for the duration of an upturned sand-glass.
• The Dutch returned to the area of Hudson's discoveries in what is now New York and established a colony a few years after the 1609 voyage. In 1621, a West India Company was formed to trade in the New World. In 1626, Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the natives and made it the capital of the company's properties. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant arrived there as Director-General and laid the foundations for New Amsterdam, now New York.
• More than 30 vessels that went in search of the Northwest Passage were forced to endure unexpected winters in the Arctic. Several were crushed, and many crew died.
• Ungava means "Faraway"
• Cree: contraction of Kristinaux, French form of Kenistenoag. Young men shaved their hair except for a small spot on their crown. The Cree buried their dead in shallow graves covered by stones, rarely on platforms. They lined the graves with branches & articles of the deceased. Men wore tight leggings to hip, breechcloth one foot wide, five foot long, wrapped, with belt, vest or shirt worn long to hips, sometimes a cap, moccasins, mittens in winter. Women wore skirts to their knees, arms covered to wrists, same leggings & shirt as man but shirt was longer. Men had sweat house ceremonies. They used a double-headed drum and rattle for ceremonies. Cree were expert canoe users. They call Iroquois "Iri akhoiw." The Cree lived all along west side of Hudson & James Bay.
• Eskimo (Inuit) lived along east shore, not quite to south end of James Bay, and all around the north shore of Quebec.
• Algonkin (Algonquin) lived to the south.
• Ojibwa lived to the southwest.
• Chippewa is from Cree "Chippwayanawok" from Chipwa "pointed" and weyanaw "skin" - northern Athabascan tribes.
• Hudson Strait is a 450-mile bottleneck, a boiling maelstrom of currents and pulverizing ice pans.
• Shakespeare played in Gray's Inn, London, in the early 1600s. Possibly one of his plays was seen by Hudson between or before his voyages. The Globe Theatre was built outside London in 1599 and the first play produced there was Julius Caesar. "The prince of darkness is a gentleman" - Shakespeare wrote in King Lear. A suitable comment for either Greene or Juet.
• Greenland was originally believed to be in two parts: south was named Desolation, north was Greenland.
• The National Film Board of Canada made a film about Hudson's last voyage. Check out www.nfb.ca/FMT/E/MSN/11/11350.html
• Discovery, (OV-103), the third of NASA's fleet of reusable, winged spaceships, is named for two famous sailing ships; one sailed by Henry Hudson in 1610-11 and the other by James Cook on a voyage during which he discovered the Hawaiian Islands. It arrived at Kennedy Space Center in November 1983. It was launched on its first mission, flight 41-D, on August 30, 1984.
• In 1725, Vitus Bering began his quest to discover whether Asia and North America were joined. He discovered the strait that now bears his name. Extensive Russian exploration of the northern Siberian coastline began in 1733. In 1741, Bering claimed Alaska for his (now) homeland Russia. He died that year of scurvy on a remote island off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
• 1860: Historian George Asher heard rumours of a confession written by one of the mutineers, but was unable to locate it. "It is said that a document has been discovered among the archives of the Hudson bay company at their headquarters at York Factory, which is the confession of one of the mutineers. The manuscript is written in a large, firm hand, and consists of ten slips of paper, apparently torn from a book and tied together for better preservation, and it is now in the office of the Hudson bay company in London." See Famous Americans.
• 1976: The white-flowered 'Henry Hudson' rose, a hybrid rugosa, was introduced as one of the Canadian Explorer series, a group of roses bred in Ottawa for cold and wind tolerance. This modern cultivar of wild Rosa rugosa typically produces single-to-semi-double flowers, which bloom all season.
• In 1909, poet Henry Van Dyke wrote a poem about Hudson's last voyage, called The Shallop on Hudson Bay, and having Hudson say,
  "I believe/That God has poured the ocean round His world,/Not to divide, but to unite the lands./And all the English captains that have dared/In little ships to plough uncharted waves,--/Davis and Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher, Raleigh and Gilbert, --all the other names,--/Are written in the chivalry of God/As men who served His purpose."