English explorer Henry Hudson is set adrift by mutineers - June 22nd, 1611

On this day in 1611, English navigator Henry Hudson was cast adrift with eight others after his mutinuous crew seized control of his ship.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that explores the past one day at a time.
I'm Gabe Lousier and in this episode, we're looking at
the sad tale of Henry Hudson, a headstrong explorer who

(00:21):
wound up on the wrong side of his own crew.
The day was June six, eleven. English navigator Henry Hudson
was cast adrift with eight others after his mutinous crew

(00:44):
seized control of his ship. The seeds of the mutiny
had taken route the previous winter, when ice had blocked
the crewise path back to England and forced them to
spend a harsh winter camped out in northern Canada. As
their Arctic confined and dragged on and their rations ran
dangerously low, many of the crew began to resent Captain Hudson,

(01:07):
a feeling that came to a cruel head on June twenty.
Little is known about the early life of Henry Hudson,
except that he was born in England around fifteen sixty five,
and that he studied navigation and his youth. In sixteen
oh seven, an English trading company financed his first major expedition.

(01:27):
The goal was to find a shorter path from Europe
to Asia by sailing northeast through the Arctic Ocean. Hudson
made it as far north as Faulberg Archipelago, but there
he was blocked by ice and forced to turn back.
He embarked on a second expedition a year later, but
was once again routed by ice. For his third expedition,

(01:51):
Hudson switched teams and sailed for the Dutch East India Company.
A different country now held the purse strings, but the
goal was much the same, find a clear northern path
from Europe to Asia. Hudson stuck to that plan at first,
sailing northeast through the Arctic Ocean. However, when his path

(02:11):
forward was blocked for a third time, Hudson went rogue.
Instead of returning to Holland as he had agreed to,
he sailed west toward North America. He had heard rumors
of a northwest route to the Pacific along the North
American coast. Hudson figured that if such a path really existed,
it might still be a faster way to reach Asia

(02:34):
than sailing all the way around Africa. He spent months
searching the northeast coast for a path to the Pacific.
Along the way, he encountered the modern day Chesapeake, Delaware,
and New York Bays, and then became the first European
to sail what's now known as the Hudson River. He
didn't find a clear route through North America, but his

(02:55):
impromptu visit to the continent later served as the basis
for a Dutch aim to the region he explored. For
his fourth and ultimately final expedition, Henry Hudson once again
sailed for the English. He set out from London on
April seventeenth, sixteen ten, aboard a ship called Discovery. The mission,

(03:16):
as ever, was to find a northern passage to Asia.
After his third voyage, Hudson was convinced that the North
American coast was where they ought to be looking, so
back across the Atlantic they went. That summer, the crew
of the Discovery explored the region between Greenland and Labrador.
They entered what's now the Hudson Strait and eventually passed

(03:38):
into the Hudson Bay. Some of the explorers, including the captain,
believed this was it. They'd finally found the route they'd
been searching for Unfortunately, the crew spent a little too
much time exploring and were eventually caught in some nasty
winter weather. Conditions were so bad that the crew was
forced to ground the ship that November and wait for

(04:01):
warmer weather next spring. It was not an easy way.
Camping out for an Arctic winter wasn't part of the
original plan, and the expedition wasn't prepared for the extreme temperatures.
They quickly ran low on food, blankets, and other vital supplies,
and fights began to break out amongst the crew. Some
also began to suspect Captain Hudson of stashing away food

(04:25):
and blankets for his favorite members of the crew. It
wasn't long after that whispers of a potential mutiny began
to spread among the men. By spring of sixteen eleven,
the ice and the bay had finally broken apart enough
for the ship to sail through and head home. However,
Hudson refused to set a course for England. He and

(04:46):
his crew had been tasked with finding the elusive Northwest Passage,
and he had no intention of leaving until they did.
That dedication turned out to be Hudson's undoing. The crew
kept their dark intentions secret as they wearily searched the
North American coast for Hudson's long sought shortcut. Finally, with

(05:06):
the coming of summer, and with rations stretched beyond their
breaking point, Hudson gave the order to set a course
for England. It was music to the cruise ears, but
for many it came far too late. On June, once
the voyage home had begun, the mutinous members of Hudson's
crew forced him and eight supporters into a small lifeboat

(05:28):
and then set them adrift in the bay. Among those
abandoned to the waves were Hudson's teenage son John, several
crewmen who had stayed loyal to their captain, and several
others who were dying from scurvy. The castaways kept pace
with the Discovery for several days, but they eventually fell
behind and had to watch sadly as the ships sailed

(05:51):
out of sight. Henry Hudson, his son, and the seven
others were never seen again. As for the mutinous crew
of the Discovery, they managed to return to England later
that year, though several men did die along the way.
The survivors were arrested for mutiny and put on trial
for the murder of Captain Hudson. According to court documents,

(06:14):
the crew admitted to setting Hudson and others adrift, but
couldn't say for certain whether they were alive or dead.
In the end, none of the men were convicted of murder,
and even their mutiny went largely unpunished. Henry Hudson never
received justice for the crimes against him, nor did the
men who died by his side. He also never found

(06:36):
the Northern passage he searched for so desperately. The Dutch
in the English, however, were able to stake out valuable
territorial claims on the grounds of his discoveries. Hudson's legacy
has also benefited from those discoveries. Today there's a river,
a strait, a bay, and several towns in North America

(06:57):
all named after him. It's not the best consolation prize
for being left to die in open water, but it's
still more than his companion's got. I'm Gabe Lousier and
hopefully you now know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. You can learn even more about
history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

(07:20):
T D I HC Show, and if you have any
comments or suggestions, feel free to send him my way
at this day at I heart media dot com. Thanks
to Chandler Mays for producing the show. Thanks to you
for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for
another day in history class