Henry Hudson (1565-1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator who discovered the Hudson River in New York and New Jersey in 1609 and the Hudson Bay in Canada on his fatal last voyage in 1611.
Biography[]
Henry Hudson was born in England in 1565, and he began his naval career as a cabin boy before working his way up to captain. In 1607, the Muscovy Company of England hired Hudson to find a northerly route to the Pacific coast of Asia, and, on 1 May 1607, Hudson and a crew of ten men and a boy set out on the 80-ton Hopewell and landed in Greenland and attempted to saila cross the north Atlantic before turning back due to inhospitable ice conditions. In 1608, he launched another failed voyage, attempting to sail across northern Russia but being forced to turn back once more. In 1609, the Dutch East India Company hired Hudson to find an easterly passage to Asia, and, on 4 April, he departed Amsterdam aboard the Half Moon.
Voyages to the Americas[]
Hudson being set adrift, 1611.
Because ice blocked his passages, he instead decided to sail west, and he reached Newfoundland on 2 July and landed near LeHave, Nova Scotia. He stayed there for ten days to fish for food and repair a broken mast, and they also assaulted a Native American village and stole their boat, pelts, and other goods. On 4 August, the ship reached Cape Cod, and he later reached the Delaware Bay and turned north. On 3 September, he discovered the "North River", which was eventually renamed the "Hudson River" in his honor.
On 11 September, he sailed into the Upper New York Bay, sailing up to Albany over the next ten days. On 23 September, Hudson decided to return to Europe, and he was detained in Dartmouth, where the authorities forced him to give up his log as part of the English competition to colonize the Americas. He then returned to Amsterdam to submit his report, and his reports on the region's lucrative fur trade led to the formation of the Dutch West India Company, the establishment of a trading post at Albany in 1614, and the establishment of New Amsterdam along the Hudson river in the colony of New Netherland in 1625.
In 1610, the British East India Company and the Virginia Company funded a voyage to North America led by Hudson, who captained the Discovery. On 25 June, he reached Hudson's Bay in northern Canada, but his homesick crew turned against him and set Hudson, his son, and seven others adrift, leaving them to starve to death.