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Arctic Exploration
The Search for the Northeast
and Northwest Passages
T
he English and Dutch
wanted sea routes to
Cathay. They searched
for a way through the
Arctic. Hudson and
Barents sailed north of
Russia trying to find the
Northeast Passage.
About the same time
Frobisher, Davis (about
1550-1605), and later
Hudson sailed around
North America, looking
for the Northwest
Passage.
E
lizabeth I (1533-1603) wanted her sailors to find a
sea route to Cathay. The overland route could not
compete with the Portuguese and Spanish. The English
thought there must be a route north of Russia. The Muscovy
Company was formed to try and find it.
The Muscovy Company sent three ships in 1553. They
soon met with tragedy. The crews of two ships froze to
death north of Lapland. One ship struggled on to the White
Sea. In terrible winter conditions the crew left the ship and
traveled overland to Moscow. They did not find a way to
Cathay, but they did establish a fur trade route with Russia.
Henry Hudson
Hudson was a remarkable English sea captain. He was born
about 1550 and was trained as a navigator by the Muscovy
Company. He was about 57 years old when the Muscovy
Company sent him to look for a route to Cathay over the
North Pole. Hudson left in 1607 in a tiny ship called
Hopewell
to explore the east coast of Greenland and the seas
north of Spitzbergen. He saw that the seas there were full
of whales. When the Dutch and English heard of this they
started more than 200 years of whaling around Spitzbergen.
Willem Barents
The Dutch also tried to find the
Northeast Passage. In 1596 they sent
Willem Barents. He thought he could
sail around the ice-blocked sea by going
farther north. But he was caught in the
ice and his ship was crushed. Barents
and his men were forced to camp for
the winter on Novaya Zemlya. Barents
died of cold and disease, but he is
remembered as the first European to
winter so far north of the Arctic Circle.
B
arents was caught by ice near Novaya Zemlya.