HUDSON, HENRY

born c. 1565, , England died , after June 22, 1611, in or near Hudson Bay? English navigator and explorer who, sailing three times for the English (1607, 1608, 161011) and once for the Dutch (1609), tried to discover a short route from Europe to Asia through the Arctic Ocean, in both the Old World and the New. A river, a strait, and a bay in North America are named for him. Of Hudson's early life, nothing is known. Several Hudsons were associated with his sponsors, the Muscovy Company of London, a generation before his own time. A 1585 voyage by the English navigator John Davis, who sailed to the Arctic to make the first attempt to find a Northwest Passage from Europe to Asia, was planned in the home of a Thomas Hudson in Limehouse, now in the docks area of London's East End. Henry Hudson may have been present on that occasion and consequently developed a lifelong interest in Arctic exploration. It is certain that he was well informed about Arctic geography and that his competence as a navigator was such that two wealthy companies chose him to conduct hazardous explorations. Additional reading G.M. Asher (ed.), Henry Hudson the Navigator (1860, reprinted 1963), provides the surviving journals of Hudson's four voyages, supplementary materials, and an important critical introduction. Llewelyn Powys, Henry Hudson (1928), is a good popular biography. R.A. Skelton, Explorers' Maps (1958, reprinted 1970), reproduces pertinent charts.