Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson’s Voyage of Discovery
Explorer twice passed what are now Cortlandt and Peekskill in 1609 while seeking a passage through North America to the Pacific Ocean and Asia.
It was 402 years ago this month that Henry (Hendrick) Hudson, an English sea captain in the service of the Dutch, sailed his ship, De Halve Maen (Half Moon),into what is now New York Harbor and pushed north up the tidal river that some Native Americans called Mahicanittuck, or “Tidal River of the Mahicans.” That voyage opened the way for European colonization of what is now known as New York and its environs and eventually brought a new name to the Mahicanittuck – Hudson River.
Specific details about Hudson’s life are few. He was born somewhere in England between 1560 and 1570 and eventually became a captain. In 1607 and 1608 he made the first two of his four great voyages of discovery, sailing for the London-based Muscovy Company in search of a northerly route to the Pacific Coast of Asia. Neither voyage was successful in that regard.
In 1609, again seeking a northern route to the Pacific Ocean, Hudson left Amsterdam April 4 under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company in the 85-foot Half Moon, following a course that, if successful, would take him past the northern coast of Scandinavia and Russia. Impenetrable ice barred his way north of Norway, so he turned west and eventually reached the coast of North America, initially at Nova Scotia in early July. He was at Chesapeake Bay and then Delaware Bay a month later.
Hudson and his crew of Dutch and English sailors, estimated variously between 12 and 20 men, entered what is now New York Harbor in early September. They entered the Upper Bay Sept. 11 and then headed up what Hudson called the River of the Mountains, hoping the great stream would lead through the North American continent to the Pacific. They anchored off what is now Yonkers the night of Sept. 13 – the first white men known to have seen what is now Westchester County. Marveling at the richness and fertility of the land, they passed what are now Cortlandt and Peekskill and reached what is now Albany, where they reluctantly turned back on Sept. 23 as they realized that the narrowing river was not the passage they sought. The Half Moon was back in the Atlantic by Oct. 4 and in Europe a month later.
While Hudson did not find his passage to Asia he did claim the fertile river valley, with its abundance of fur-bearing animals and prime timber, for the Netherlands. Within 20 years the bustling community of New Amsterdam (now New York City) was thriving on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. As for relations with the initially friendly native peoples, misunderstandings and insulting behavior by the Europeans led to armed clashes with deaths on both sides.
Hudson began his fourth and final voyage in 1610 under English auspices, yet again seeking a northerly route to the Pacific. After exploring what became known as Hudson Bay the ship became stuck in ice. The following spring the captain wanted to continue exploring but many members of his crew, anxious to return home, mutinied and set Hudson, his son and a few other crewmen adrift in a small boat. Their fate has never been determined.
The Half Moon fared no better than her most famous captain. In 1615 she was wrecked off the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean while on a voyage to the Dutch East Indies.
Hudson’s accomplishments were trumpeted in 1909 during a massive 300th anniversary celebration that also touted the accomplishments of Robert Fulton’s steamboat a century earlier, in 1807. The 400thanniversary, the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial of 2009, expanded the celebration to include the 1609 exploration by Samuel de Champlain of the lake straddling New York, Vermont and Quebec that now bears his name. Locally, the festivities included a stop in Peekskill Sept. 15 by a fleet of 19 historical Dutch vessels on their way to Albany. As a lasting legacy of the Quadricentennial the Town of Cortlandt erected three panels on the riverfront in Verplanck tracing the history of the Hudson in this area from ancient times to the present.
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