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First Voyage of Henry HudsonGreenland and Hope For the Northwest Passage
Henry Hudson sails his ship as far as Greenland, seeking the Northwest Passage.
Farewell to Home and HearthHenry Hudson, in 1607, became the master of the ship Hopewell. With his son John as cabin boy and his crew of ten, he sailed from London on April 23. A week later, on May 1, the Hopewell again lifted anchor, this time at Gravesend. This was her last stop on English soil. She moved the rest of the way down the Thames that soon widened into the North Sea. For the next four weeks they sailed northward, passing the Faroe Islands and Iceland, then turning northwest. As May gave way to June, and suddenly without warning, the sun that had warmed them disappeared and gales blew in from the east. The winds brought fog and freezing weather with it that froze the ship's sails and shrouds, forcing the ship to hug the coast of Greenland as visibility was vastly reduced. For many weeks the Hopewell proceeded blindly, surrounded in a shroud of fog and frost. Repeatedly, Hudson recorded in the ship's log of days and nights of fresh gales, stiff gales, thick fog, rain and snow. On the fifteenth of June the wind was so strong that they were unable to maintain any sail at all. But a brief reprieve was to come. On the twentieth they saw the sky clear. But what else they saw may have driven fear deep within them. A New Danger Recorded: A New Land FoundAround the Hopewell, on June 20, Henry Hudson and his men could see many pieces of ice floating on the sea. Extreme care by the lookouts had to be made to avoid contact with these ice floats, solid burgs that could easily sink the Hopewell if sharp contact was made. Throughout the rest of the day and night a lookout was made. Then the worst happened to diminish visibility. Darkness fell and on the following day the fog returned and grew thick. New DiscoveriesOn the twenty-second the weather once again cleared with the help of a gale. Now Hudson turned his ship northeast. Whales were sighted as well as strange birds that had the form of a duck but sported a feathered costume that displayed black and white bellies. Through most of the fog they had passed Hudson had not been certain that they were indeed off the coast of Greenland. But now the weather stayed clear enough, long enough, for them to observe the land beyond the waters. What they saw was an unbroken chain of mountains, capped and draped in snow, that had never before been reported by any other voyager. A New World Perhaps DiscoveredHad Henry Hudson reached Greenland as planned? Or was this expanse he gazed upon an unvisited and unexplored winter paradise yet to be viewed by any European until now? To sail this close to Greenland had not been a part of Hudson's original plan. In spite of this, he continued to sail northward, unable to curb his curiosity. To find and explore a new land was the dream of any explorer and Hudson was no different than all of those who came before him, or those who came after. Once he realized that he had, as far as he knew, reached an unexplored part of the world he began to wonder, and hope, that here he would discover that waterway, yet to be found, that would be a passage to the Orient, the Northwest Passage. Henry Hudson continues with Henry Hudson and Icebergs: Perils of Early Sailing Ships. Previous: Henry Hudson: Adventurer, Sea Captain, Explorer.
The copyright of the article First Voyage of Henry Hudson in Colonial America is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish First Voyage of Henry Hudson in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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