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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that explores the past one day at a time.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lousier and in this episode, we're looking at

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Speaker 1: the sad tale of Henry Hudson, a headstrong explorer who

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Speaker 1: wound up on the wrong side of his own crew.

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Speaker 1: The day was June six, eleven. English navigator Henry Hudson

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Speaker 1: was cast adrift with eight others after his mutinous crew

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Speaker 1: seized control of his ship. The seeds of the mutiny

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Speaker 1: had taken route the previous winter, when ice had blocked

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Speaker 1: the crewise path back to England and forced them to

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Speaker 1: spend a harsh winter camped out in northern Canada. As

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Speaker 1: their Arctic confined and dragged on and their rations ran

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Speaker 1: dangerously low, many of the crew began to resent Captain Hudson,

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Speaker 1: a feeling that came to a cruel head on June twenty.

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Speaker 1: Little is known about the early life of Henry Hudson,

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Speaker 1: except that he was born in England around fifteen sixty five,

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Speaker 1: and that he studied navigation and his youth. In sixteen

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Speaker 1: oh seven, an English trading company financed his first major expedition.

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Speaker 1: The goal was to find a shorter path from Europe

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Speaker 1: to Asia by sailing northeast through the Arctic Ocean. Hudson

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Speaker 1: made it as far north as Faulberg Archipelago, but there

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Speaker 1: he was blocked by ice and forced to turn back.

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Speaker 1: He embarked on a second expedition a year later, but

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Speaker 1: was once again routed by ice. For his third expedition,

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Speaker 1: Hudson switched teams and sailed for the Dutch East India Company.

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Speaker 1: A different country now held the purse strings, but the

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Speaker 1: goal was much the same, find a clear northern path

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Speaker 1: from Europe to Asia. Hudson stuck to that plan at first,

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Speaker 1: sailing northeast through the Arctic Ocean. However, when his path

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Speaker 1: forward was blocked for a third time, Hudson went rogue.

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Speaker 1: Instead of returning to Holland as he had agreed to,

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Speaker 1: he sailed west toward North America. He had heard rumors

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Speaker 1: of a northwest route to the Pacific along the North

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Speaker 1: American coast. Hudson figured that if such a path really existed,

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Speaker 1: it might still be a faster way to reach Asia

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Speaker 1: than sailing all the way around Africa. He spent months

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Speaker 1: searching the northeast coast for a path to the Pacific.

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Speaker 1: Along the way, he encountered the modern day Chesapeake, Delaware,

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Speaker 1: and New York Bays, and then became the first European

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Speaker 1: to sail what's now known as the Hudson River. He

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Speaker 1: didn't find a clear route through North America, but his

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Speaker 1: impromptu visit to the continent later served as the basis

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Speaker 1: for a Dutch aim to the region he explored. For

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Speaker 1: his fourth and ultimately final expedition, Henry Hudson once again

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Speaker 1: sailed for the English. He set out from London on

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Speaker 1: April seventeenth, sixteen ten, aboard a ship called Discovery. The mission,

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Speaker 1: as ever, was to find a northern passage to Asia.

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Speaker 1: After his third voyage, Hudson was convinced that the North

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Speaker 1: American coast was where they ought to be looking, so

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Speaker 1: back across the Atlantic they went. That summer, the crew

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Speaker 1: of the Discovery explored the region between Greenland and Labrador.

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Speaker 1: They entered what's now the Hudson Strait and eventually passed

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Speaker 1: into the Hudson Bay. Some of the explorers, including the captain,

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Speaker 1: believed this was it. They'd finally found the route they'd

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Speaker 1: been searching for Unfortunately, the crew spent a little too

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Speaker 1: much time exploring and were eventually caught in some nasty

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Speaker 1: winter weather. Conditions were so bad that the crew was

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Speaker 1: forced to ground the ship that November and wait for

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Speaker 1: warmer weather next spring. It was not an easy way.

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Speaker 1: Camping out for an Arctic winter wasn't part of the

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Speaker 1: original plan, and the expedition wasn't prepared for the extreme temperatures.

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Speaker 1: They quickly ran low on food, blankets, and other vital supplies,

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Speaker 1: and fights began to break out amongst the crew. Some

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Speaker 1: also began to suspect Captain Hudson of stashing away food

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Speaker 1: and blankets for his favorite members of the crew. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't long after that whispers of a potential mutiny began

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Speaker 1: to spread among the men. By spring of sixteen eleven,

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Speaker 1: the ice and the bay had finally broken apart enough

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Speaker 1: for the ship to sail through and head home. However,

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Speaker 1: Hudson refused to set a course for England. He and

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Speaker 1: his crew had been tasked with finding the elusive Northwest Passage,

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Speaker 1: and he had no intention of leaving until they did.

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Speaker 1: That dedication turned out to be Hudson's undoing. The crew

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Speaker 1: kept their dark intentions secret as they wearily searched the

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Speaker 1: North American coast for Hudson's long sought shortcut. Finally, with

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Speaker 1: the coming of summer, and with rations stretched beyond their

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Speaker 1: breaking point, Hudson gave the order to set a course

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Speaker 1: for England. It was music to the cruise ears, but

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Speaker 1: for many it came far too late. On June, once

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Speaker 1: the voyage home had begun, the mutinous members of Hudson's

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Speaker 1: crew forced him and eight supporters into a small lifeboat

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Speaker 1: and then set them adrift in the bay. Among those

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Speaker 1: abandoned to the waves were Hudson's teenage son John, several

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Speaker 1: crewmen who had stayed loyal to their captain, and several

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Speaker 1: others who were dying from scurvy. The castaways kept pace

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Speaker 1: with the Discovery for several days, but they eventually fell

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Speaker 1: behind and had to watch sadly as the ships sailed

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Speaker 1: out of sight. Henry Hudson, his son, and the seven

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Speaker 1: others were never seen again. As for the mutinous crew

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Speaker 1: of the Discovery, they managed to return to England later

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Speaker 1: that year, though several men did die along the way.

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Speaker 1: The survivors were arrested for mutiny and put on trial

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Speaker 1: for the murder of Captain Hudson. According to court documents,

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Speaker 1: the crew admitted to setting Hudson and others adrift, but

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Speaker 1: couldn't say for certain whether they were alive or dead.

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Speaker 1: In the end, none of the men were convicted of murder,

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Speaker 1: and even their mutiny went largely unpunished. Henry Hudson never

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Speaker 1: received justice for the crimes against him, nor did the

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Speaker 1: men who died by his side. He also never found

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Speaker 1: the Northern passage he searched for so desperately. The Dutch

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Speaker 1: in the English, however, were able to stake out valuable

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Speaker 1: territorial claims on the grounds of his discoveries. Hudson's legacy

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Speaker 1: has also benefited from those discoveries. Today there's a river,

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Speaker 1: a strait, a bay, and several towns in North America

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Speaker 1: all named after him. It's not the best consolation prize

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Speaker 1: for being left to die in open water, but it's

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Speaker 1: still more than his companion's got. I'm Gabe Lousier and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. You can learn even more about

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Speaker 1: history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: T D I HC Show, and if you have any

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Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, feel free to send him my way

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Speaker 1: at this day at I heart media dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 1: to Chandler Mays for producing the show. Thanks to you

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Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for

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Speaker 1: another day in history class