Henry Hudson

 

 

 

 

 

Henry Hudson
1570(?) -1611(?)


Notes, Links, References & Printed Sources
on Henry Hudson & Arctic Exploration

Click to jump to Links or Bibliography

Last updated:
Dec. 30, 2008
Written & researched
by Ian Chadwick,
Text & design copyright
Ian Chadwick © 1992-2008
Ordovivian Webworks logo Web design, Net training, writing, editing, freelance columns, editorial commentary, research & data analysis.

Boat types:

Pinnace:  A small boat of about 20 tons, usually with two square-rigged masts, but occasionally with a lugsail on the main. They carried oars as well as sails. They sometimes accompanied the early voyages of exploration. The small Squirrel in which Sir Humphrey Gilbert lost his life on his return from Newfoundland in 1583 was a pinnace.

Barque or Bark: A sailing vessel with three masts, square-rigged on the fore and main and fore-and-aft rigged on the mizen. Ranged from small to mid-sized sailing ships.

Fly-boat or Vllie: A flat-bottomed Dutch vessel with a very high and ornate stern with broad buttocks, and with one or two masts either square-rigged on both or with a spritsail on the mainmast. Ranged from small to  about 600 tons. Mainly used for local coastal traffic.

Pinque, Pinkie or Pink:  A small square-rigged ship with a narrow and overhanging stern. Sometimes used as a fishing vessel. In the 15th and 16th centuries the name was loosely applied to all small ships with narrow sterns, a fairly common design in those days.

Shallop: An open rowing boat, usually small and often a river boat, double-ended, with a mast so it could be rowed or sailed. A very common vessel in Europe.

Caravel: A large, armed merchant vessel pioneered by the Portuguese originally as fishing and coastal trading boats. Later they were used for trade ships, around 80-130 tons, but sometimes (according to Samuel Bawlf) ranging up to 1,000 tons. While able to carry more trade goods than smaller ships, the cost to build and maintain these larger vessels absorbed much of the profits. Spanish galleons came after, and many were larger than caravels. Most European nations had their own galleons.

 

Notes:

Nautical measurements were usually different than land measurements. Distance was measured in leagues and nautical miles. The term league was derived from an ancient Celtic unit of measurement, then adopted by the Romans as a "legua." There were many different national variations on the definition of a league.

In England, a league was 6,080 yards - or three nautical miles (each league being 6,080 feet). That's 3.45 standard miles (the land-based mile is 5,280 feet). A nautical mile is thus roughly 1.15 standard miles.

Sixty nautical miles (20 leagues) formed one degree of latitude. The distance around the world at the equator is 21,600 nautical miles, 24,857 standard miles or 40,003 kilometers (a kilometer was first defined in 1791 by the French Academy of Science as being 1/10,000th of the distance from the North Pole to the equator).

Nautical leagues were also different from land-based leagues. In England and America, one league on land equalled three miles on land. But in Spain, a league equalled about 2.63 standard miles, in Portugal a league on land was 3.836 miles and in France it was about 2.422 miles. Mapmaking could get very confusing.

Nautical miles could further be broken into smaller measurements called "cables." Ten cables made one nautical mile.

The Portuguese used a slightly different system of nautical measurement: a Portuguese nautical league was 6,472 yards, so only 17.5 leagues made up a degree of latitude.

In 1929, the nautical mile was precisely defined at an international conference to be exactly 1852 meters or 6076.115 feet (1.11508 standard miles).

Depth was measured in fathoms. One fathom was six feet deep. 15 fathoms equal one shackle (sometimes noted as 12, other times 12.5 fathoms - based on the length of an iron anchor chain). See Nautical Units and Angles.

Speed was measured in knots, rather than miles per hour. One knot means covering one nautical mile per hour. This converts to approximately 1.85 km/h or 1.15 miles per hour. Ships in Hudson's era could travel 60-90 nautical miles a day, depending on wind and sea conditions.

A ship used a rope with a wooden float to measure its speed. Knots were tied in the rope every 7 fathoms (42 feet). Every hour, the float was tossed out and the knots counted off as they played out, measured against a small sand glass that ran out in 30 seconds (one half minute). If three knots were counted in the time it took to empty the top of the glass into the bottom, then that meant the ship was travelling three knots per hour (or one nautical mile), four meant a speed of four knots and so on. See Navigation Instruments in 16th Century England.

Speed, distance and depth were among the data recorded in a ship's journal, along with the time, birds, weather, land sightings, wind and compass readings. By the sixteenth century, navigators knew the magnetic compass did not point due north, and was sometimes subject to local fluctuations. They relied on the North Star as much as the readings from the compass rose.

Time was measured by sand glasses or hourglasses, usually in four-hour or half-hour sizes. Duty on a ship was divided into four six-hour watches and the ship's boy would tend to the half-hour glass, striking a bell every time he turned the glass over. See Navigation in John Cabot's Time.

Ships were also measured by how much cargo they could carry. The traditional unit was the ton or tun - a measure of volume, not weight. It was based on a 252-gallon cask of Burgundy wine and was about 40 cubic feet (1.13 m3). A ton was roughly equal to two butts (smaller casks 108-140 gal, each about 0.573 m3 ) A butt of beer was somewhat smaller at 0.491 m3. A 30-ton ship carried 16-18 crew. Later, a ton could also mean up to 50 cu. ft. of hewn lumber.

Web Sites & Links:

Because the Internet is in constant flux, pages change or move, hosts change, and even  domain names change. I have attempted to verify all of the links below, but some of these may not be current. If you find a broken link, please notify me through the discussion forum noted below. If you have a site you feel I should list, and I agree it is relevant, I will be happy to exchange links with you. There are also numerous references to people (including Henry Hudson), places and events mentioned in this narrative at www.wikipedia.org, and more are added all the time.

Henry Hudson Discussion forum: Ask your questions, post your comments or suggest new links about Henry Hudson, Arctic exploration or Elizabethan explorers in the Henry Hudson topic area. Please be careful not to post in one of the other topic areas.

I have reprinted some classical or out-of-print sources on my page at hudson_quotes.htm. Documents from the mutineers' trial are also reproduced on hudson_court.htm. I will attempt to transcribe or scan others in the following months.

Links about Hudson, his voyages, and his ships:

Half Moon replica- A detailed page about the replica of Hudson's ship. Also check out:
www.newnetherland.org, the home page of the New Netherlands Museum. The museum operates the reproduction of the ship that Henry Hudson sailed from Holland to the New World in 1609. Many good pictures at www.newnetherland.org/ship.html.

You can read about building the first replica of the Half Moon in 1909 for the Hudson-Fulton Celebration.

More on the Half Moon here: www.timesunion.com/halfmoon/
And more on Hudson's arrival at Long Island: www.lihistory.com/2/hs214a.htm
See a video clip of the Half Moon and a recreation of Hudson's arrival at Manhattan here:
www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/episode1/topic1/e1_t1_s1-hh.html
A model of the Half Moon is available from Hobby World at:
www.hobbyworld-inc.com/woodship47.html.
Also see Schooner Man's page on the replica and related sea links
www.novagate.com/~schoonerman/halfmoon.htm
And another site about the Half Moon, with Juet's entire journal of the 1609 voyage is at: www.timesunion.com/halfmoon/
Here's the Hudson River Maritime Museum, with images and information about the Half Moon: www.ulster.net/~hrmm/halfmoon/1609moon.htm. They also offer a curriculum for the study of Hudson and New Netherlands at www.ulster.net/%7Ekpanza/2004rivernews/2004march-2.htm

There are many good pictures of the Half Moon and a narrative at the New Netherland Museum, and an excellent virtual tour at Times Union

Hudson in Dutch service - Hudson's years with the Dutch East India Company. 

You can read the full text of Robert Juet's 1609 journal here:
www.lihistory.com/vault/hs216a1v.htm and at Newsday and excerpts at Times Union and the Point Pleasant history site.

Henry Hudson's Last Voyage - A National Film Board (Canada) film about Hudson and his fateful fourth voyage.

The Ghost of Henry Hudson - Douglas McNaughton's excellent story on the fate of Hudson, published in Mercator's World magazine.
Learning Adventures has a piece on Hudson at www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/episode1/topic1/e1_t1_s1-hh.html

Asimov's book on Hudson - a good introduction for elementary school students.

A general article on Hudson is here:
209.52.189.2/article.cfm/canadian_tourism/49120 and here: www.nyspirit.com/Issue127/article4.html

An excerpt from Emanuel Van Meteren's 1642 book on Hudson's 1610 voyage is here: www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext00/mohwk10.txt and here: jollyroger.nbci.com/xlibrary1/OriginalNarrativesofAN/OriginalNarrativesofAN1.html

An excellent map of the 1609 and 1610 voyages here: international.loc.gov/intldl/awkbhtml/kb-1/kb-1-1-4.html, the 1609 voyage: international.loc.gov/intldl/awkbhtml/kb-1/kb-1-1-5.html and the text is here: international.loc.gov/intldl/awkbhtml/kb-1/kb-1-1.html#track1

Velasco map, 1610 (greyscale)A page on the 1610 Velasco map and annotations for Hudson's discoveries around Manhattan is here: www.she-philosopher.com/gallery/1610mapC1.html

The year 1609 - From the history of Pelham County, New York State. Also see: members.bellatlantic.net/~ppbhist/time_hudson.htm for notes on Hudson's 1609 voyage.

Half Moon's arrival in the New World: www.lihistory.com/2/hs214a.htm

Explorer of the Hudson River - A description by Half Moon Press, book publisher.

A brief biography of Hudson: www.columbia.edu/~lt165/hudson.html

Hudson genealogy - A link to genealogy of the Hudson family. Also see:
sml.simplenet.com/smlawson/hudson.htm and:
www.mircscripts.com/hooleea/d0010/g0000078.html

The English East India Company - About the company that commissioned Hudson on his last voyage. Also see www.theeastindiacompany.com/company.html for more information. And check out les.man.ac.uk/IPA/papers/2.html for a Marxist analysis of the bourgeois revolution in the EEIC.

Links to related pages at the Hudson Valley Network site: www.hvnet.com/TOUR/upper/HIST/histtext.htm

An essay on Hudson's "lost leadership":
www.usask.ca/education/ideas/tplan/sslp/yukon/henry_h.htm

Two brief histories, but with incorrect maps: www.mariner.org/age/hudson.html Mariner.org's brief history with map (second voyage is incorrectly indicated) and:
www.schoolnet.ca/collections/arctic/explore/hudson.htm - a profile of Hudson's last voyage on Schoolnet, with a map of the journey (incorrectly shows southern terminus of voyage.)

Was Hudson after gold on his final voyage, not a Northwest Passage? See the intriguing article by Carl Schuster from Beaver Magazine: www.historysociety.ca/english/thebeaver/features/aug99/hudson_1.html

A little about Robert Juet, with a map of his comments on the 1609 journey up the Hudson Rover, at American Journeys: www.americanjourneys.org/aj-133/summary/index.asp

A Canadian government site about Hudson: www.collectionscanada.ca/explorers/kids/h3-1420-e.html

The PBS page on Hudson: www.pbs.org/empireofthebay/profiles/hudson.html

The Houghton Mifflin Ships of the World Historical Encyclopedia article on Hudson's ship Discovery:

Hudson River Maritime Museum

Julian Hawthorne's 1920 History of the United States has a chapter on Henry Hudson here.

An audio transcript that briefly describes Hudson's last voyage is available on the Atlas of Canada site. Apple's Quicktime player is required.

The History of New York State, online edition has several chapters about Hudson's voyage here and here and here.

Scientific American published an item on Hudson in 1909.

Rivers of America, a 1939 book, had a piece on Hudson.

The American Biography site has an entry about Hudson.

Edward Wright's "new map" (published by Hakluyt in 1599)

Excerpt about Hudson from Our County, a 19th century textbook.

Chapters from How the Dutch Came to Manhattan, by Blanche McManus (1897) are online.

A precis of the text of George Asher (see below) and John Meredith Read is at Famous Americans

Robert Juet is described as New York's first weather observer.

Passage Up the Hudson contains parts of Prickett's journal.

A page from the Stuyvesant Library on Hudson's 1609 voyage (in Dutch).

A history of Dutch Settlement in America (esp. Delaware) 1609-1636 is at Accessible Archives.

The Dictionary of Famous People has an entry about Hudson and many of his contemporaries. including Van Meteren (also at Science Daily).

The Mariners' Museum has a lot of biographies of explorers, including Hudson.

Henry Hudson page at the IMA Hero reading program

Links about related history, Arctic and other exploration and cartography:

Michael Turner's site about 16th century British explorer, Francis Drake is a rich resource for Drake's voyages and discoveries: www.indrakeswake.co.uk

The quest for the fictitious Strait of Anian is described here

Northwest Passage - About the challenges presented by the route to the Orient.

Here's a page about European mapmakers from 1560-1600: www.antiquemaps.co.uk/book/chapter13.html

Atlas of explorers of Canada and North America. A good, zoom-able map of Arctic explorers in Hudson Bay 1610-32 is at the Atlas of Canada

A biography of Hakluyt is here.

The Port of London has several pages on the East India Company

Early Canadiana Online - Has reproduced PDF versions of numerous early works of explorers and geography, including Hakluyt, plus a searchable database of those records at www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?language=en.

The Canadian Archives on Haklyut and Purchas: www.collectionscanada.ca/2/8/h8-222-e.html

Brief biography of Samuel Purchas at Bartleby's: www.bartleby.com/214/0503.html and at BC Bookworld: www.abcbookworld.com/?state=view_author&author_id=4161

Also see: odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/newnetherlands/nlxx.htm, about the relationship between the United States and the Netherlands. And see: www.ncb.gov.sg/nhb/raffles/VOC.html for the Dutch East India Company.

Dr. John Dee was a visionary, astrologer to Queen Elizabeth and friend to some of the Hudson family.

The Northeast Passage - Dutch explorers search during the "Little Ice Age."

Discoverers Web Pages - A rich source of information about exploration and adventure, with many links. The "Pirate King" Ossian site has a page on William Baffin.

The Duyfken was a Dutch ship that sailed to the Spice Islands in 1606. She was rebuilt in 2000 for an anniversary trip around the world. A great site about 16th-17th century shipbuilding and Dutch merchant sailors. The Duyfken would have been similar to the Half Moon and the Discovery.

Education aids for teachers on history and other topics can be found at www.edhelper.com

Nordic Explorers - Nordic explorers and their culture.

Chronology of Arctic explorers - A resource for Canadian Arctic explorations, from the Elisha Kent-Kane Museum.

Inuit and Englishmen - Chronicles the voyages of Martin Frobisher, his relations with the Inuit (which may have effected their reaction to Hudson who came later).

Pat O'Brien's Maritime Canada - A guide to Eastern Canadian history and culture.

Wintering on Nova Zembla - Mostly about Barentz, but has many good descriptions and photographs from a modern expedition.

The Elisha Kent-Kane Museum - The Elisha Kent Kane Historical Society is a historical society organized in the State of New York for the purposes of preserving and disseminating the lore and artifacts of nineteenth century Arctic exploration.

An article in Pravda about the Dutch at the Arctic Circle.

E-books about Hudson Bay and the Hudson Bay Company archives are at digitalbookindex.com

The Search for the Northwest Passage is on Channel 4 history

Other sites on the Northwest Passage include:
collections.ic.gc.ca/arctic/explore/intro.htm
www.athropolis.com/map9.htm
 

Geographical and nautical sites:

Parks Canada on Hudson Strait

Some pictures and paintings, including historic photographs of Hudson Bay and the Canadian Arctic are at: www.canadianheritage.org/reproductions/10105.htm

Excellent satellite pictures of Hudson Bay, ice and weather are available at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Centre image gallery. There are some stunning images of ice covering the bay in June.

Spitsbergen is now Svalbard. There are some terrific images on this island group online.

Environment Canada on sea ice in James Bay, Hudson Bay and Hudson's Strait

University of Waterloo has a site that studies the Canadian cryosphere

A abstract (PDF) on the mean and tidal currents in Hudson Strait

Charting Neptune's Realm: a site about the history & development of marine navigation, based on the works of Donald Johnson.

Navigation Instruments in 16th Century England.

Navigation in John Cabot's Time.

Wikipedia has an entry for Buss (Busse) Island, so does the Hudson Bay Company. The captain of Emmanuel, one of the ships on Frobisher's 1578 expedition, was sailing south of Greenland, and spotted an island that had never been seen before, around 57 N. It was soon added to new maps. Henry Hudson, looking for the Northwest Passage, hoped to see and perhaps even explore it, but never found it. Captain Zachariah Gillam on the Nonsuch claimed to have sighted it again, in 1668. In 1671, Thomas Shepherd, Captain of the Golden Lion, saw the island and claimed he landed on it. He made a map, naming 12 of the island's features. The Hudson Bay Company immediately sent out two vessels under Shepherd's command but they failed to find Buss Island again. By the mid-18th century, few sailors believed it really existed, although some suggested it had sunk. It disappeared from marine charts and maps by 1856. Also see www.eaudrey.com/myth/Places/buss_island.htm

The Hudson Valley in historic and modern times: www.hudsonvalley.org, Hudson River Museum, Hudson River Maritime Museum, A River that Flows Two Ways, Hudson River Historical Tour, Hudson River Valley Institute (historical documents),

Some sites about or images of Novaya Zemlya (Nova Zemlaya or Nova Zembla): encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Nova_Zembla, visibleearth.nasa.gov, The Winter at Novaya Zemlya 1596-97

Satellite images of the regions Hudson explored are available from NASA's Visible Earth site. Take a look at the stunning images of Hudson Bay covered in ice, as well as Ungava Bay, Baffin Island and Hudson Strait. Search for Hudson River and New York, Svalbard (Spitzbergen), the Kara Sea and Novaya Zemlya. NASA also has a gallery of images at Rapidfire.

Henry Davis has a site with links to numerous antique maps.

A shallop was "an open rowing and sailing vessel built to carry cargo, used for fishing, or just traveling on the water," with equipped with sail and oars.  Information about 17th century shallops at Plimouth Plantation and The Howland Shallop.

Here's Discovery in the Ships of the World database, as well as Half Moon.

Currents and tides in Hudson Strait: Maps & Graphics Database, Mean & Tidal currents (PDF), Parks Canada, Navigation of Hudson Bay & Straits (1883), The Inuit village of Ivujivik, near Digges Island (with map). Hudson Strait has one of Canada's three "Reversing Falls" at Barrier Inlet. See Fisheries & Oceans Canada. William Baffin's 1615 map of Hudson Strait is in the British Library. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency has a good modern navigational description of Hudson Strait, Ungava Bay, and the east side of Hudson Bay including James Bay. Tidal current in the Strait runs about 5 knots, slowing to 2-3 around Digges' Island. Tides range from 13.2m on the north side to 10.1m on the south. Winter storms in the strait have had winds recorded at 85 knots up to 110 knots (98-126 mph) recorded in 1931. There are many areas of magnetic disturbance noted in the strait, which would affect a ship's compass (see this article). For notes on a modern expedition through the strait, read the NFB's Sedna logs. The skipper wrote, "Winds at 30 knots in Hudson Strait run into an impressive tidal current and throw up walls over 5 metres high. SEDNA is turned into a roller-coaster." Tide tables show tides as high as 8.8m in the strait.

Akpatok Island (Ungava Bay) images from satellite are at Earth as Art pages (search for other images of Hudson Bay, James Bay and the Arctic).

Peter Pope's article on Ships & Navigation in Atlantic Canada in the 16th Century and here's a page on Tudor Sailing Ships.

Nunavut has The Northwest Passage Territorial Park.

A good map of Smith Sound (discovered by Bylot and Baffin) is in this PDF report on the Precambrian geology of Greenland.

Bibliography:

This is the list of printed sources, many of which were used to compile this web site. New books are constantly being published and research never ends, so there may be other published items available since this list was compiled. There are numerous young-adult books about Hudson in print, but not all are listed here.

Henry Hudson Discussion forum: Ask your questions, post your comments or suggest new publications about Henry Hudson, Arctic exploration or Elizabethan explorers in the Henry Hudson topic area. Be careful not to post in one of the other topic areas.

Fiction and film

Desire Provoketh - The Story of the Hudson Mutiny, by George Leal, Paul Mould Publishing, UK, 2005. A fictional account of the last voyage of Hudson, told from the perspective of Thomas Woodhouse, who was abandoned in the bay with Hudson and other crew, in 1611. Some pages of Woodhouse's journal were discovered in the ship after it reached England. The title derives from an island Hudson named as he entered the Furious Overfall. Unusual in that, despite its inherent drama, Hudson's last voyage has rarely been the subject of fiction. The author takes some literary and historical liberties with the characters in order to provide an entertaining, dramatic tale about both the voyage and the subsequent fate of those cast adrift. Available online through some booksellers, or directly from the publisher at at www.film-buff.com.

Another fictional account is Mutiny on Hudson Bay: The Story of the Last Voyage of Henry Hudson, by Delbert Young (W. J. Gage Limited, Toronto, 1963). A young adult book, written from the perspective of Nicolas Symes. Out of print

Contemporary sources:

  • God's Mercies by Douglas HunterGod's Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery. By Douglas Hunter (Anchor Canada, 2007). A book about Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain and their competitive "race to map and exploit the northern half of North America." Well written, full of historical asides and rich in information. Hunter writes well, making the 17th century come alive, as well as presenting some intriguing and thought-provoking conjectures about the two explorers and their backers.
  • Charting the Sea of Darkness, by Donald Johnson, McGraw Hill/International Marine, 1993. Important because he reprints much of the journals of Juet and Prickett, as well as Purchas and some other papers. Johnson makes them accessible for modern readers. Not much on Hudson's pre-1607 background, but contains an excellent commentary on his voyages by a mariner who understands the ocean. Highly recommended as a source book.
  • The Voyages of Henry Hudson, by Eugene Rachlis, Random House, 1962. A juvenile book, but well written, albeit with some small errors.
  • Henry Hudson, Arctic Explorer and North American Adventurer, by Isaac Asimov, Gareth Stevens, 1991. Another juvenile book, but good for young readers.
  • Looking for Henry Hudson, Smithsonian Magazine, October 1999, article by Lawrence Millman. Millman is also the author of Lost in the Arctic: Explorations on the Edge, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 2002, in which he has a chapter on Henry Hudson.
  • Beyond the Sea of Ice: The Voyages of Henry Hudson, by Joan Goodman, Mikaya Press, NY 1999. A young person's story, but entertaining and well-illustrated by Fernando Rangel.
  • Henry Hudson, by Ronald Syme, Grey Castle Press, 1955. Young adult, but has too much supposition and irrelevant rambling. Although it contains some historical context, this is pretty much fiction.
  • Juet's Journal: The Voyage of the Half Moon from 4 April to 7 November 1609. The New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, 1959. Reprints the same text as in Purchas and available at several online sites.
  • Voyages of Discovery, by Time Life Books, 1989. General information on explorers.
  • Unrolling the Map, by Leonard Outhwaite, John Day, 1972.
  • The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History by Robert Boyle, W.W. Norton, 1969.
  • Voyages of the Half Moon by Tracey West, Kaleidoscope Press, 1993. Another young adult book, a fictional recounting of Hudson's 1609 voyage, but based in fact.
  • The Magnificent Adventures of Henry Hudson, by Philip Vail, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1965. A bit flowery and overwritten in places, this is still a charming and valuable book.
  • The Search for the Northwest Passage, by Warren Brown, Chelsea House, 1991.
  • Henry Hudson, A Visual Biography, by Joan Joseph, Franklin Watts, 1974. A juvenile book, but well-written, with some good contemporary illustrations and maps.
  • Henry Hudson by Ruth Harley, Mahwah: Troll Associates, 1979.
  • The Company of Adventurers, by Peter Newman, Penguin Books, 1985. A good history of the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company, and early explorations into the north.
  • The Story of Henry Hudson, Master Explorer, by Eric Weiner, Dell Publishing (a Yearling Book), 1991. Another juvenile title about Hudson's four voyages, well written.
  • Explorers 2, National Film Board of Canada. An 87-minute video tape which contains The Last Voyage of Henry Hudson, a 27-minute, black-and-white dramatic version of the 1610 voyage. A bit over-acted, and missing several important incidents on the voyage, this is still an enjoyable recreation suitable for family and classroom viewing. It also contains dramas about John Cabot, Samuel de Champlain and Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Order no. C 0165 205.
  • The Polar Voyagers. Explorers of the North. by Frank Rasky, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1976. A well-written two-volume set about the people who explored the Canadian north.
  • The Encyclopedia Britannica has several good references. They have it online at www.eb.com/
  • Explorers' Maps by R. A Skelton, 1958 (reprinted 1970). A good source of maps and charts.
  • Across the Top of the World: The Quest for the Northwest Passage by James Delgado, New York: Checkmark Books, 1999. According to a review in BookWorld, Delgado suggests, "...Henry Hudson was a chronically unreliable leader, not to be trusted by his employees or his men. He was an unworthy captain who sacrificed accountability for ambition."
  • Sailor's Narratives of Voyages along the New England Coast 1524-1624. George Winship Parker editor, Burt Franklin Press, New York.
  • Passage to the West by Noel Gerson, Julian Messner, New York, 1968. A young adult book, now out of print, but sometimes found on eBay or online used book sellers.
  • Hudson: Henry Hudson Searches for the Northwest Passage (Exploring the World), by Robin Doak, Compass Books, 2003. Ages 9-12.
  • The Story of Henry Hudson (Dell Yearling Biography), by Eric Weiner, Dell, 1991. Ages 9-12.
  • Henry Hudson and His Voyages of Exploration in World History, by Judith Edwards, Enslow, 2002. Ages 9-12.
  • Henry Hudson: Ill-Fated Explorer of North America's Coast, by Barbara Saffer, Chelsea House, 2001. Ages 9-12.
  • Capitalism in Amsterdam in the 17th Century, by Violet Barbour, Ann Arbor Paperbacks, University of Michigan Press, 1966
  • Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony, by Robert Ruby, Henry Holt & Company, New York, 2001. Very well-written book about Martin Frobisher's expeditions.
  • The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake 1577-1580, by Samuel Bawlf, Douglas & McIntyre, Toronto, 2003. Francis Drake in search of the Strait of Anian.
  • The Northwest Passage, by Brendan Lehane, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia,  1981. Part of the series, The Seafarers.
  • A Fabulous Kingdom: The Explorations of the Arctic by Charles Officer and Jake Page (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2001).

Antiquarian and vintage sources:

  • Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes, contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages, and Lande Travells by Englishmen and others, vol. 3, by Rev. Samuel Purchas. Five books, London, originally printed in 1625. The principal source of historical records on Hudson. Purchas was the heir to Hakluyt's papers and attempted to continue his work, albeit with less success and more moralizing. His greatest contribution was to reprint various papers and journals since lost. Reprinted in Glasgow in 1905-07 in 20 vols. Cover shown here is from the Folger Institute (click on image for link). Includes "Divers voyages and Northerene discoveries of Henry Hudson" by Hudson and John Playse, Hudson's journal of his second voyage, Juet's journal of the third voyage, and Abacuck Prickett's story of the fourth voyage. The entire text of Purchas' 1625 edition is available on the Library of Congress - the Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake. The section on Hudson starts in the third book, page 567. The work was obviously a success. Reprinted by University Microfilms, 1966. Johnson reprints Purchas in an easily readable format his Charting the Sea of Darkness (see above).
    Purchas also wrote two other books with confusingly similar titles:  Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all ages and places discovered from the Creation unto this Present, which went through four editions 1613, 1614, 1617 and 1626. In this book, Purchas included a chapter on Hudson (book 8, chapter 3, part VI, starting page 817 - see Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake). He also wrote Purchas his Pilgrim; Microcosmus, or the Historie of Man in 1619.
    A reprint of the section on Hudson's voyages was made in 1966 by Readex Microprint Corporation (vol. 3 pages 566-611), occasionally available through used bookstores or online.
  • The Arctic North-East and West Passage. by Hessel Gerritsz, Amsterdam, 1612-3. Reprinted as Detectio freti Hudsoni (Hessel Gerritsz's collection of tracts by himself, Massa and De Quir on the N. E. and W. passage, Siberia and Australia) with an English translation by Fred. John Millard, S. Muller Publisher, Amsterdam, 1878. Text also reprinted in works by Asher and Murphy (see below). Gerritsz was also famous for his map of New England at Fordham University. Gerritsz was the official mapmaker for the Dutch East India Company, 1617-1632. He helped Flemish geographer Jan de Laet make his maps. Gerritz apprenticed with Willem Janssoon Blaeu and was close friends with Petrus Plancius. Gerritz published several works including Histoire du pays nomme Spitsberghe, a history of Spitzbergen Island, in 1613 (reprinted by the Hakluyt Society in 1904). In 1612, he published an account of Hudson's 1610 voyage, reprinting a map that apparently had been in the possession of Abacuck Prickett (see Barron Maps and Collections Canada).
  • Nieuwe Werlet (New World), Jan de Laet, (Joannis or John de Laet), 1625. Maps by Hessel Gerritz (Gerritsz). deLaet was a Flemish mapmaker and geographer reprinted fragments of Hudson's 1609 journal here. The journal obviously accompanied the Half Moon when it left England for Amsterdam after Hudson returned. No other portions of Hudson's own journal for 1609 are known to be in existence. Only Juet's journal has provided the record. This was partially reprinted in Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664, ed. Franklin Jamieson, Scriber, 1909.
  • Historie der Nederlanden, by Emanuel van Meteren, Amsterdam, 1614. The section on Hudson's 1609 voyage was reprinted by the New York Historical Society, 1849. van Meteren was born 1535 in Antwerp. His father took him to England in 1550 where he served for many years as the Consul representing "the Traders of the Low Countries" in London. Van Meteren had access to Hudson's journals, charts and logbooks. He died in London in 1612. See Fine Lineage for genealogy.
  • Henry Hudson the Navigator: the original documents in which his career is recorded, edited by George Michael Asher, Hakluyt Society, 1860. Many references, as well as all the original documents known until that time. Reprinted as Henry Hudson the Navigator; The Original Documents in Which His Career is Recorded, by Burt Franklin, 1964. This remains one of the major works on Hudson.
  • Henry Hudson, His Times and His Voyages, by Edgar Bacon, Putnam & Sons, New York, 1907.
  • Henry Hudson, a Brief Statement of His Aims and Achievements, by Thomas Janvier. Good record of the trial of the mutineers. Harper & Bros., 1909. This is now available online at the Gutenberg Project: www.gutenberg.org/etext/13442. The documents Janvier reprints from the mutineers' trial are also reproduced on hudson_court.htm
  • Hudson Tercentenary, An Historical Retrospect, by Frank Chamberlain, J.B. Lyon Company, Albany, 1909.
  • Henry Hudson in Holland, by Henry Murphy, Brothers Giunta d'Alboni, 1859. Reprinted by Martinius Nijhoff in 1909, and Lennox Hill, 1972. Reprinted by Burt Franklin in 1972. Based on material from old Dutch files.
  • Henry Hudson, by Llewellyn Powys, Bodley Head 1927 and Harper and Brothers, 1928. Two chapters are reprinted in Llewelyn Powys, A Selection of His Writings (ed. Hopkins), Horizon press, 1961.
  • An Historical Inquiry Concerning Henry Hudson, His Friends, Relatives and Early Life, Etc., by John Meredith Read, Joel Munsell, Albany, 1866.
  • The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Trafficks and Discoveries of the English Nation, by Rev. Richard Hakluyt, London, 1598-1600. Contains Edward Wright's revision of Mercator's map. Originally published in 12 volumes. An edited version was published by Viking Press in 1965 (Irwin Blacker, editor). Hakluyt only covered to 1600, so Hudson's voyages were not recorded in this massive work, but he did include influences on Hudson including Willoughby, Frobisher and Davis. Hakluyt's books are available in electronic form at the University of Adelaide and manybooks.net. Also available in the Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake. Reprinted in 1927 by J.M. Dent & Sons, Toronto.
  • The Northwest Passage: Light on the Murder of Henry Hudson from Unpublished Depositions by C. L'Estrange Ewen, 1938.
  • The Adventures of Henry Hudson, by Henry Hudson, D. Appleton & Co, 1842.
  • Late Tudor and Early Stuart Geography 1583-1650, by E. G, Taylor, London, 1934.
  • The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909, Six volumes, by Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, New York, 1915-28. Reprinted by Arno Press, 1967 and Martino in 1998.
  • Arctic Heroes: Facts and incidents of Arctic explorations from the earliest voyages to the discovery of the fate of Sir John Franklin, embracing sketches of commercial and religious results, Zachariah A. Mudge, Nelson & Phillips, NY, 1875.
  • William Parry: Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole - while not about Hudson, Parry goes into great detail about conditions in the Canadian Arctic during his early 19th-century explorations. Two volumes. Available online at www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/authrec?fk_authors=5104
  • Descriptio ac delineatio Geographics Detectionis Freti, sive transitus as aooasum... recens investigati ab M. Henrico Hudsono, edited by Hessel Gerritszoon, Amsterdam, 1612.
  • The third voyage of Master Henry Hudson by Robert Juet, in Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664, edited by J. Franklin Jamesen. New York: Scribner 1909, reprinted Barnes and Noble, 1967. The full text of Juet's 1609 journal is also on Newsday.
  • The third voyage of Master Henry Hudson, by Robert Juet. Original Narratives of Early American History 8, 1909
  • Henry Hudson the Navigator: the Original Documents in which his Career is recorded. Collected, partly Translated, and Annotated, with an Introduction, by G. M. Asher, LL.D. 1860. Listed on the Hakluyt Society website.
  • The New Mirror for Travellers and Guide to the Springs by James Kirk Paulding, 1828. This travelogue of the Hudson River valley includes parts of the journal of Abacuck Prickett.
  • Linschoten-Vereeniging, ‘s Grav., Zutphen, 1909-2004. 70 works in 112 volumes, plus two index volumes, many maps and plates. Contains unabridged narratives of Dutch travel and exploration, with scholarly annotations and early accounts of the Dutch East- and West-India Companies. Includes Henry Hudson, and Hessel Gerritsz.
  • Sailing directions of Henry Hudson, prepared for his use in 1608, from the old Danish of Ivar Bardsen: With an introduction and notes; also a dissertation on the discovery of Hudson River, by Benjamin Franklin DeCosta, J. Munsell Publishers, 1869. DeCosta argued that Hudson was not the first discoverer of the Hudson River, but that its mouth, and bay into which the river empties, were first seen by Verrazana in 1513. DeCosta also claimed that Stephanus Gomez followed Verrazana a few years later and discovered a large river he called "Rio de Gomez." De Costa believed this was the same river as the Hudson. Decosta's work on the Pre-Columbian discovery of North America is at Black Mask Online.
  • A larger discourse of the same voyage,: And the successe thereof, by Abacuck Prickett, New-York Historical Society, I. Riley Publishers, 1811. Reprinted by AMS Press, 1974. Prickett's journal as found in Purchas.
  • Juet's journal: Diary or alibi? (Tercentenary tale), by John Cunningham, New Jersey Tercentenary Commission, 1963.
  • James Isham's observations on Hudsons Bay, 1743: And, Notes and observations on a book entitled A voyage to Hudsons Bay in the Dobbs Galley, 1749, by James Isham, Krause Reprint, 1968.
  • A discourse, designed to commemorate the discovery of New York by Henry Hudson, by Samuel Miller, New York Historical Society, I. Riley publisher, 1811, reprinted by AMS Press, 1974.
  • Henry Hudson and the Dutch founding of New York, by Clifford Smyth, Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1931.
  • Hendrick Hudson in Hollands dienst, by H.S.S. Kuyper.  's Grav., Amsterdam, 1909.
  • A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, Volume 1, By Diedrich Knickerbocker (pseudonym for Washington Irving, 1783-1859), Inskeep & Bradford, New York, 1809. Available online at the University of Virginia Library.
  • The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, by J. Fiske, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1909. Has a chapter on Hudson. Online at Dinsmore Documentation.
  • How the Dutch Came to Manhattan, by Blanche McManus, E.R. Herrick & Co., New York, 1897. Online at Netherworld Books.
  • The Voyages of John Davis the Navigator, edited by Albert Hastings, Hakluyt Society, London, 1880. Includes the "new map with the augmentation of the Indies," printed 1600 CE. called by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, "The New Map," with notes on same by C. H. Coote.
  • Henry Hudson, by Elbert Hubbard, 1910. Combined in a small self-published book by Hubbard, with Manhattan by Joseph Clarke Printed and bound at the Roycrofters' shop, Aurora, New York.
  • Richard Hakluyt and The English Voyages, by George Bruner Parks, American Geographical Society, New York, 1928. Contains good material on many pre-Hudson voyages, Hakluyt and his writings, as well as information and some conjecture on Hakluyt's influence on the search for the Northwest Passage and Hudson's voyages.
  • Famous Americans.net references three classic works: "Historical Inquiry Concerning Henry Hudson," by John Meredith Read (Albany, 1866); "Henry Hudson in Holland," by Henry C. Murphy (New York, 1859); and "Henry Hudson the Navigator," by Dr. Asher (Hakluyt society publications, London, 1860).
  • The Internet Archive of American Libraries has several 19th and early 20th century works on or related to Henry Hudson in PDF and other formats. These include The Adventures of Henry Hudson ("Uncle Philip", Applelton, New York, 1852), A List of Books and Magazine Articles on Henry Hudson and the Hudson River... in the Brooklyn Public Library, (1909), A Historical Inquiry Concerning Henry Hudson by John Meredith, (1866), Vol. 6 of American Biography (1902) and several others.
  • I have reprinted some classical or out-of-print sources on my page at hudson_quotes.htm. Documents from the mutineers' trial are also reproduced on hudson_court.htm. I will attempt to transcribe or scan others in the following months.