POLAR REGIONS

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 B arents was caught by ice near Novaya Zemlya. 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.

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