Henry Hudson's Last Voyage and Mutiny in Hudson Bay (1610-1611)

Henry Hudson’s last voyage (1610-1611) was an English expedition in search of a Northwest Passage to Asia. Hudson sailed the Discovery through Hudson Strait into the vast bay that now bears his name, but after a harsh winter trapped in ice in James Bay, part of his crew mutinied in June 1611. Hudson, his son and seven loyal or sick men were set adrift in a small boat and never seen again.

Background

Hudson had already made three voyages in search of a northern route to Asia, the third being his Half Moon voyage for the Dutch in 1609. Banned by English authorities from sailing for the Dutch again, he found English backers instead, including the merchants Sir Thomas Smythe, Sir Dudley Digges and Sir John Wolstenholme.

Earlier English explorers, among them Martin Frobisher and John Davis, had reported a “furious overfall” of tides west of Greenland that suggested a strait. Hudson aimed to follow it.

The voyage into the bay

The Discovery, a small ship of about 55 tons with a crew of around 22 men and boys, left London on 17 April 1610. It sailed by way of Iceland and southern Greenland and in late June entered the strait, battling ice and strong currents for weeks.

In early August 1610 the ship emerged into open water. The great bay seemed at first to be the Pacific Ocean. Hudson sailed south along its eastern shore, but the coast turned into a closed southern extension now called James Bay. For weeks he searched its shores for an exit.

Winter in James Bay

By November 1610 the Discovery was frozen in near the southern end of James Bay. The crew built a shelter ashore and survived the winter by hunting birds and fishing, but food was short and scurvy set in. The ship’s gunner, John Williams, died.

Tensions rose. Hudson quarrelled with his mate Robert Juet, demoted him and also fell out with Henry Greene, a young man he had brought aboard as a personal companion. In the spring, a meeting with a single Cree man raised hopes of trade, but he did not return.

The mutiny

The ice broke in June 1611, and the Discovery started north. Hudson shared out the last of the bread and cheese, and some men suspected him of hiding food. On 22 June 1611, led by Greene, William Wilson and Juet, a group of mutineers seized Hudson as he left his cabin.

Hudson, his son John and seven other men, most of them sick, were forced into the ship’s shallop, a small open boat, with a few provisions. The carpenter, Philip Staffe, is said to have chosen to go with Hudson rather than stay with the mutineers. The Discovery sailed away, and the shallop was soon lost from sight. No trace of the men was ever found.

The return home

On the way back through Hudson Strait, the mutineers stopped at the Digges Islands to trade with Inuit for food. A fight broke out, and Greene, Wilson and two others were fatally wounded. On the hungry voyage across the Atlantic Juet died. Robert Bylot, an experienced sailor, navigated the ship to Ireland and then England, which the eight survivors reached in September 1611.

The survivors, especially Abacuk Prickett, gave accounts that blamed the dead leaders. They were questioned, and in 1618 several were tried for murder in the High Court of Admiralty and acquitted. Their knowledge of the bay was valuable, and Bylot returned there with Thomas Button in 1612 and later sailed with William Baffin.

Timeline

• 1610, 17 April: The Discovery leaves London.
• 1610, late June-July: The ship works its way through Hudson Strait.
• 1610, early August: Hudson enters Hudson Bay.
• 1610, November: The ship is frozen in at the southern end of James Bay.
• 1611, 22 June: Mutineers set Hudson and eight others adrift.
• 1611, July: Greene and other mutiny leaders are killed at the Digges Islands.
• 1611, September: Eight survivors reach England.
• 1618: Survivors are tried for murder and acquitted.

Legacy

Hudson’s final voyage did not find a passage to Asia, but it put Hudson Bay on European maps. Later English voyages proved that the bay had no western outlet to the Pacific. Its value lay instead in furs: in 1670 the Hudson’s Bay Company received a royal charter for trade across the bay’s vast drainage basin.

The image of the abandoned explorer has inspired paintings and stories, most famously John Collier’s 1881 painting “The Last Voyage of Henry Hudson”. Some later local traditions claim that Hudson survived for a time in the area, but there is no reliable evidence.

Why it matters

The voyage opened Hudson Bay to European shipping and trade, shaping the later fur trade and the history of northern Canada. It is also one of the best-known mutinies in maritime history and a stark example of the dangers faced by early Arctic explorers.