Henry Hudson's Course Gave Rise To New York - Investors.com
He wasn't supposed to go west.
Henry Hudson, the English explorer who pierced the North American continent and claimed a vast area for the Dutch, was charged with finding a Northeast passage to the riches of Asia during his voyage in 1609.
This was at least his third attempt to find an Arctic route to the Pacific, to avoid the long route beneath the African continent. As with his past two known tries, he found the way north blocked by ice.
So Hudson — without the permission of his bosses at Dutch East India Co. — turned west and began looking for a Northwest passage.
Though he didn't find it — couldn't find it, since it didn't exist — Hudson ventured farther inland than previous explorers and claimed vast swaths of the North American continent for the Dutch.
His explorations led to the humble trading posts that would become the global financial center of New York City. He also helped establish the trading networks that would help Europe and the New World prosper.
Historians have few facts about Hudson's early days. He's generally thought to have been born in the 1560s or 1570s in England.
In 1607, he undertook his first known voyage, for Muscovy Co. — a British exploration firm. He was charged with finding a route to Asia through the northern polar ice. But even in the summer, such a route was unmanageable against the ice.
The following year, the company sent him east, along the coast of Northern Russia, to find a way through to the Far East. Again, even in the summer, he found the route blocked by ice.
In 1609, Dutch East India Co. hired him to try again.
These trading firms badly wanted to find a way through.
Such a route curving over Russia would have reduced a round-trip Asian trade voyage to about six months vs. the standard two years using the hairier southern voyage.
Result: Higher Returns
One in five ships sent to Asia via the southern tip of Africa disappeared, wrote Douglas Hunter in "God's Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery."
"A northern passage could avoid, among other hazards, battles with the Spanish and Portuguese, devastating diseases, hulls that rotted out from under their commanders during lengthy stays in tropical waters, and the mysterious, debilitating scourge of scurvy, which cut down men by the score on lengthy ocean passages," he wrote.Henry Hudson's Course Gave Rise To New York - Investors.com
