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Across the Top of the World (D&M $45)
From 1940 to 1942, the St. Roch became the second vessel to navigate the Northwest Passage, tracing Roald Amundsen's route from west to east, then the St. Roch navigated a more northerly route through Melville Sound and Prince of Wales Strait in 1944. The successful voyages of the Gjoa and the St. Roch were preceded by a remarkable litany of failures, most notably the Sir John Franklin expedition from 1845 to 1848. All 129 members of Franklin's party famously perished. Commemorated as a hero by Lord Tennyson, the ill-prepared Franklin ironically became the man most responsible for popularizing the renewed quest for the Northwest Passage in the 19th century. The valiant, tragic and sometimes foolish voyages to find a shortcut from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean were mainly sponsored by the British Admiralty. James Delgado's Across the Top of the World (D&M $45) provides an illustrated overview of Europeans' various Arctic explorations and Arctic research commencing with Martin Frobisher's expedition in 1576.
Perhaps the most poignant tale belongs to Henry Hudson who discovered the 'inland sea' that became the centre for a fur-trading empire, the Hudson's Bay Company. This company, in turn, gave birth to Canada as a political entity. Hudson's first Arctic voyage in 1607 took him just 577 miles from the North Pole. It was a naval accomplishment that would not be eclipsed for more than a century-and-a-half. Only the threat of mutiny forced Hudson's return to England. Hudson next tried sailing northeast, across the top of Norway and Russia, in 1608. Again blocked by ice, Hudson's crew threatened to mutiny for a second time. Hudson agreed to provide 'a certificate under my own hand' to prove his men had not forced him to return to London. For his third voyage in 1609, Hudson embarked from Amsterdam under a Dutch flag and surveyed the east coast of North America. His 'discovery' of the Hudson River gave the Dutch a land claim in the New World. They founded New Amsterdam, a city that was renamed New York. Henry Hudson received his first official sanction to search for the Northwest Passage in 1610 for his fourth and final voyage. Fearing mutiny in advance, he took the precaution of planting an informant named Henry Greene among his 22 crewmen.
Aboard the Discovery, Hudson entered the ice-clogged waters of Hudson Strait in late June. According to his charts, they had proceeded more than 100 leagues further west than any other Englishman. Did they wish to continue? Hudson consulted with his men and weakened his authority in the process. In early August they pushed through the strait and found a large 'sea'. By November 1st they had reached the southernmost end of Hudson Bay, at James Bay. Hudson ordered his men to haul Discovery ashore and prepare for winter. The men were none too keen to comply. Hudson relieved his first mate, Robert Juet, with Robert Bylot, and fell out with the ship's carpenter, the gunner and his informant Greene. The unpredictable Hudson then replaced Bylot. It must have been a long and miserable winter.
The Discovery didn't break free of ice until the following June. With their exit from James Bay feasible, the crew took control. They seized Hudson, tied him up, and set him adrift in a small boat with several 'poor, sick lame men' and Hudson's 19-year-old son John. The castaways were given a gun, some shot, the carpenter's tools, an iron pot and some pikes -and little hope for survival. In romanticized paintings that have depicted Henry Hudson's fate as a castaway, his son has been depicted as a small boy, heightening sympathy for the explorer. Delgado's Across the Top of the World 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. The Discovery sailed out of Hudson Bay with Greene and Bylot in control. Greene was killed at Digges Island when his landing crew of six men was attacked by Inuit; others died en route to Europe. Starving, the skeleton crew of Discovery reached Ireland in 1611. Pawning the anchor and cable for food, some of the mutineers made it to England.
Hudson's journal had been mostly destroyed by the men but they had saved his chart. "This, and Bylot's report that the currents and tides of the bay indicated that it led to the Northwest Passage, saved the surviving mutineers from the gallows,"; writes Delgado. "It also inspired a return to Hudson's Bay."; Welshman Thomas Button followed, reaching the Nelson and Churchill Rivers of Manitoba, and John Ingram, William Gibbons and Robert Bylot all mounted Arctic voyages in Henry Hudson's durable Discovery. Bylot's proficient pilot William Baffin passed the entrance to the Northwest Passage, Lancaster Sound, and conclusively reported, "there is no passage nor hope of passage in the north of Davis Straights."; Baffin and Bylot's daring penetration of Baffin Bay was forgotten. "Two hundred and three years later,"; writes Delgado, "William Edward Parry of the Royal Navy would push through Lancaster Sound and enter the great maze of the Canadian Arctic archipelago that held the Northwest Passage.";
1-55054-734-8
[BCBW SPRING 2000]
Perhaps the most poignant tale belongs to Henry Hudson who discovered the 'inland sea' that became the centre for a fur-trading empire, the Hudson's Bay Company. This company, in turn, gave birth to Canada as a political entity. Hudson's first Arctic voyage in 1607 took him just 577 miles from the North Pole. It was a naval accomplishment that would not be eclipsed for more than a century-and-a-half. Only the threat of mutiny forced Hudson's return to England. Hudson next tried sailing northeast, across the top of Norway and Russia, in 1608. Again blocked by ice, Hudson's crew threatened to mutiny for a second time. Hudson agreed to provide 'a certificate under my own hand' to prove his men had not forced him to return to London. For his third voyage in 1609, Hudson embarked from Amsterdam under a Dutch flag and surveyed the east coast of North America. His 'discovery' of the Hudson River gave the Dutch a land claim in the New World. They founded New Amsterdam, a city that was renamed New York. Henry Hudson received his first official sanction to search for the Northwest Passage in 1610 for his fourth and final voyage. Fearing mutiny in advance, he took the precaution of planting an informant named Henry Greene among his 22 crewmen.
Aboard the Discovery, Hudson entered the ice-clogged waters of Hudson Strait in late June. According to his charts, they had proceeded more than 100 leagues further west than any other Englishman. Did they wish to continue? Hudson consulted with his men and weakened his authority in the process. In early August they pushed through the strait and found a large 'sea'. By November 1st they had reached the southernmost end of Hudson Bay, at James Bay. Hudson ordered his men to haul Discovery ashore and prepare for winter. The men were none too keen to comply. Hudson relieved his first mate, Robert Juet, with Robert Bylot, and fell out with the ship's carpenter, the gunner and his informant Greene. The unpredictable Hudson then replaced Bylot. It must have been a long and miserable winter.
The Discovery didn't break free of ice until the following June. With their exit from James Bay feasible, the crew took control. They seized Hudson, tied him up, and set him adrift in a small boat with several 'poor, sick lame men' and Hudson's 19-year-old son John. The castaways were given a gun, some shot, the carpenter's tools, an iron pot and some pikes -and little hope for survival. In romanticized paintings that have depicted Henry Hudson's fate as a castaway, his son has been depicted as a small boy, heightening sympathy for the explorer. Delgado's Across the Top of the World 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. The Discovery sailed out of Hudson Bay with Greene and Bylot in control. Greene was killed at Digges Island when his landing crew of six men was attacked by Inuit; others died en route to Europe. Starving, the skeleton crew of Discovery reached Ireland in 1611. Pawning the anchor and cable for food, some of the mutineers made it to England.
Hudson's journal had been mostly destroyed by the men but they had saved his chart. "This, and Bylot's report that the currents and tides of the bay indicated that it led to the Northwest Passage, saved the surviving mutineers from the gallows,"; writes Delgado. "It also inspired a return to Hudson's Bay."; Welshman Thomas Button followed, reaching the Nelson and Churchill Rivers of Manitoba, and John Ingram, William Gibbons and Robert Bylot all mounted Arctic voyages in Henry Hudson's durable Discovery. Bylot's proficient pilot William Baffin passed the entrance to the Northwest Passage, Lancaster Sound, and conclusively reported, "there is no passage nor hope of passage in the north of Davis Straights."; Baffin and Bylot's daring penetration of Baffin Bay was forgotten. "Two hundred and three years later,"; writes Delgado, "William Edward Parry of the Royal Navy would push through Lancaster Sound and enter the great maze of the Canadian Arctic archipelago that held the Northwest Passage.";
1-55054-734-8
[BCBW SPRING 2000]
Submitted on July 11, 2003 in By David.
