The Early Years
Young Henry Hudson was quickly growing into a man as English exploration was beginning to take a new direction. The Muscovy Company, established in 1555 by Sebastian Cabot and another Henry Hudson, like others of its kind of the time was beginning to speculate that a shorter route to the Pacific and the Orient, after crossing the Atlantic westward, might exist. In deed, there were many that were willing to stake their fortunes and lives on the possibility. The exact year and place of Henry Hudson's birth is unknown but documents of the time describe him as "Henry Hudson, Englishman." And as a boy he well may have watched the ships of the Muscovy Company unload their riches of furs, hides, timber, hemp, tar and wax that was obtained in Russia.
While adventurous men were living and dying during impossible quests, young Henry Hudson was reading adventures such as Humphrey Gilbert's Discourse and other exciting journals of earlier explorers. Henry had studied the maps made by Gerhardus Mercator, who in 1569 had published a map of the world that was based on mathematical principles.
Henry Hudson Enters Adulthood
Even as Henry Hudson entered manhood, and some one hundred years since Christopher Columbus had sailed on his first voyage, men still knew very little about the New World. It had yet to be realized that the new land across the Atlantic consisted of two huge continents, today called North and South America, that presented a land barrier between Europe and Asia.
The Northwest Passage
Columbus and the many explorers who followed in his wake were trying to prove that Asia could be reached more quickly by sailing in a westward direction. In time, the myth was dispelled that North America was a part of Asia. But another myth continued for some time to persist in that a waterway crossed North America, providing a passage from the Eastern-seaboard to the Northwest Pacific.
The idea of a "Northwest Passage" tantalized the noble and royal classes of Europe as well as the merchant society. So overpowering was the desire to discover this elusive route that it brought more death and misfortune to many than it provided success. The reason, of course, was that there was no such passage across North America.
Hudson and the Muscovy Company
Henry Hudson was in the employment of the Muscovy Company when England's Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, which caused James VI of Scotland to become James I of England. Hudson's family held shares in the company and Henry had served in its London offices as well as its ships at sea. He had yet to command one of the company's ships, but that time was soon to come.
Hudson had no desire to sail a merchant ship to such locations as Archangel or any of the Mediterranean ports of the Middle East. Still in his mind were, however, the scenes of his youth of ships returning to England loaded with furs, hides, and hemp from far away places that to Henry were still mysterious places. Not forgotten were his days of studying Mercator's maps as well as those of other mapmakers. And, finally, the match that lit the fuse to set off his explosive desire to become an explorer was the fact that the elusive "Northwest Passage" had still not been discovered.
Henry Hudson's chance came at last in 1607, when the Muscovy Company decided to explore in an untried direction. It was decided to send a sea venture almost due north, up the eastern side of Greenland.
Hudson Takes Command
By 1607, Henry Hudson was well known as a skillful navigator. Also by that year, Hudson was a married man with a youthful son named John. It was this son who would serve as cabin boy for his father on the voyage that Hudson had been waiting for. That same year Henry Hudson was chosen to head an expedition in search of a passage across the North Pole to China-the elusive Northwest Passage.
The Muscovy Company may not have had much hope of the passage being found since they only supplied Hudson with the tiny ship Hopewell and a crew of ten men, as well as Hudson's son John as cabin boy.
Henry Hudson continues with: The First Voyage of Henry Hudson: Greenland and Hope For the Northwest Passage.
Mary Trotter Kion - Mary Trotter Kion is a published author of both history and fiction. In addition, she has some six hundred articles published on the ...
