Meghan Shepherd, age 13, of Willingboro, N.J., for her question:
HOW MANY VOYAGES DID HENRY HUDSON MAKE?
Henry Hudson was one of the most famous English explorers. As a sea captain in the early 1600s, he made four voyages in an attempt to discover a northern route between Europe and Asia. Hudson never found such a sea passage, but he sailed farther north than any previous explorer.
Hudson explored three North American waterways that later were named for him: the Hudson River, Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait.
In 1607, the Muscovy Company, an English trading firm, hired Hudson to find a northern sea route to Asia. European merchants and geographers believed that a ship could reach the Orient by traveling north, northeast or northwest. They thought such a route would be much shorter than any other.
At this time the Arctic had never been explored. People did not know that ice blocked the entire region around the North Pole. But they were about to make this discovery.
Hudson set out from England in a ship called the Hopewell with his young son John and a crew of 10 men. He sailed northeast along the coast of Greenland and reached Spitsbergen. He was about 700 miles from the North Pole when huge ice floes forced him to return to England.
Hudson told of seeing many whales in the region and his report led to later English and Dutch whaling near Spitsbergen.
In 1608 Hudson made another attempt to find a northern route, but the ice again blocked him.
In 1609 the Dutch East India Company hired Hudson to lead a new expedition. He had a crew of about 20 men and a ship named the Half Moon. He crossed the Atlantic and sailed down the east coast as far south as what is now North Carolina. He explored Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay and traveled up to what became known as the Hudson River. Holland based its claims to land in North America on Hudson's third voyage.
In 1610, sailing for an English company, Hudson's fourth voyage led him into Hudson Bay. On his ship named the Discovery, he sailed through a body of rough water that later was named Hudson Strait.
As he passed through the Hudson Strait into Hudson Bay, the happy explorer thought he had reached the Pacific Ocean.
Hudson sailed south after he entered Hudson Bay and went to what is now James Bay. But he failed to find an outlet at the south end of this bay and ice forced the men to spend an entire winter there.
In the spring of 1611, Hudson intended to search for a western outlet from James Bay. But his crew mutinied and set Hudson adrift in a small boat with his son John and seven loyal crewmen. Hudson and his party were never seen again.
The mutineers sailed back to England and their report gave continued hope that a passage existed between Hudson Bay and the Pacific.
England based its claim to the vast Hudson Bay region on Hudson's last voyage.