Henry Hudson. Adapted by Laura Magner

Transcription

1 Henry Hudson Adapted by Laura Magner

2 Who was Henry Hudson Henry Hudson was an explorer. He was Born in England in He was married to a woman named Katherine. Hudson got lost at sea in 1611!!

3 Henry Hudson s Ships Hudson took several voyages, four to be exact! The first two voyages were on a ship called Hopewell. England paid for these trips. (1607 & 1608) Half Moon was the ship for the third voyage. England would not pay, so Hudson went to the Dutch. They were rivals of England. He was able to get funds from the Dutch East India Company. (1609) On his last voyage he used the ship Discovery. (1610)

4 Henry Hudson s first voyages the Hopewell Henry Hudson first sailed the Arctic Ocean on May 1, 1607, for the English Muscovy Company with the goal of sailing across the North Pole to China. Hudson made it as far as the Svalbard archipelago north of Norway before he was stopped by ice. At Spitsbergen (now called Svalbard), he noted the large number of whales. In 1610, Jonas Poole made the same report, which led to the establishment of an English whaling outpost in Spitsbergen, which became a profitable business. He sailed again on the Hopewell for the English Muscovy Company on April 22, 1608, to find the Northwest Passage and managed to go as far as Novaya Zemlya, an island north of Russia, which was also covered in ice.

5 Henry Hudson s next voyage the Half Moon Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India Company on March 25, 1609, and commanded the Half Moon. Originally he sailed in a northeasterly direction, but after the crew complained he changed direction and sailed in the northwest direction. He travelled to Virginia and discovered the Delaware Bay before going up north. Although Giovanni da Verrazzano first discovered the Hudson River in 1524, followed by Estevan Govez in 1525, Hudson was the first to explore the river. At first, Hudson thought that it was the Northwest Passage, but discovered that it was not the Northwest Passage once the river became shallow further inland. During his voyage he stepped on land only once, to spend the night with a group of Native Americans, who broke their arrows to prove that no harm would come to him.

6 Henry Hudson s fourth voyage Discovery In 1610, he was commissioned to search for the Northwest Passage by the British East India Company. He commanded the Discovery, and sailed on April 17, In June of 1610, he entered what is now the Hudson Strait, but strong currents made him stay in Ungava Bay, north of present-day Quebec, Canada. In July he entered what is now called the Hudson Bay, which he thought was the Pacific Ocean. Once he found St. James Bay, he wandered for months until his ships were trapped by the ice.

7 Henry Hudson s fate Hudson s relationship with his crew deteriorated. The crew had already started to argue and began to consider mutiny when Hudson divided the food rations. The crew thought that Hudson had given more food to people he liked, while Hudson thought that the crew hoarded food. Relations grew worse when he went on a failed expedition instead of searching for food. The final straw was when Hudson demoted both Robert Juet and another man, and Juet convinced the man to turn against Hudson. The crew mutinied, and on June 21, 1611, Hudson, his son John, and a few faithful and sick crew members were sent adrift on a small boat and were never heard from again. The remaining crew suffered even more hardships and were put on trial when they returned to England. Because there was little evidence that they had done something wrong, they were released and ended up exploring more of Hudson Bay.

8 Legacy, Impact The bay he discovered and its estuaries provided access to otherwise landlocked parts of western Canada and the Arctic which allowed the Hudson Bay Company to expand its trade and influence throughout North America. The Hudson Strait became the entrance for all ships who searched for a Northwest Passage through the Arctic. The Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, the Hudson River and several cities and bridges are named in his honor.