Henry Hudson’s name is on schools, counties, towns, rivers and a bay but there are large gaps in the information about him — No birth records, no baptism, no marriage record, in short nothing outside of the records of the 4 voyages themeselves. No drawing or image of Hudson was made during his lifetime and the iconic image that we now recognize as Hudson is a generic image created with very little to guide the artist.
His third voyage is the most famous. Hudson left port April 4, 1609 with a crew of 3 English speaking sailors including Juet, the keeper of the journal which survived the trip. Hudson picked up additional 12 crew members who spoke only Dutch and then sailed for the New World. According to Juet when they made land near Virginia they spotted another ship and followed it south for a day and a half. The journal suggests that they just wanted to say “hello” to the other travelers but scholars have suggested another possible reason, one which may explain the assumed name.
Juet regularly corrected Hudson’s navigational errors which were significant and suggest that Hudson was not skilled in navigation beyond the English Channel. Taken together, the false name, the lack of navigational skills and the defrauding of investors point to another reason for Hudson to pursue a ship which apparently was not interested in ‘saying hello’ — Was Hudson a former pirate?
On July 25, 1609 the crew of the Half Moon raided a Native village stealing pelts and a boat. Native Americans in the area were used to trading with French sailors but Hudson seems to have had no interest in trading.
Hudson’s ship, the Half Moon entered the river which now bears his name through the Verrazzano Narrows which was discovered about 80 years earlier by Giovanni da Verrazzano. On September 9, crew member John Colman was killed by Native Americans who shot a arrow through his neck. A week later the Half Moon ran aground about 20 miles below Albany New York.
After discovering nothing new the ship began its return to Amsterdam but Hudson was detained during a stop in Dartmouth England on November 7. The English wanted access to the ships log but it managed to be passed to the Dutch ambassador instead and was later used to establish Dutch claims to the fur trade and the region of New York.
Hudson’s last voyage began a year later and allegedly ended with Hudson and his teen aged son cut adrift by his crew and left to die in the north of Canada however none of the crew were convicted of mutiny.
