THE ARCTIC OCEAN HISTORICAL NOTES Passing over the semi-mythical voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and " many other islands beyond Norway, even under the North Pole," mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Lombard as having been made during the reign of the old British King Arthur—the exploits of the Heligolander Othar, of whom we are told, on the authority of Alfred the Great, that he "rounded the point of the globe beyond which it sinks again to the south "—and the equally improbable voyage of Nicholas da Cynha in 1360 to the North Pole (I), but who probably never ventured further than the Hebrides or Faroe Islands—we come to the first properly authenticated account of an expedition of discovery in the Northern Seas. It is said that, upon the representation of Dr. Robert Thorne, of Bristol, Henry VIII. " sent two fair ships, well-manned and victualled, having in them divers cunning men, to seek strange regions " to the north of the British Isles. The ex pedition sailed from the Thames on the 20th of May, 1527, but all we know is that only one of the vessels returned, the other having been wrecked probably off the coast of New foundland. Hakluyt justly blames the writers of those times for not having kept a record of the " worthie acts " of the first actual expedition for the exploration of the Northern Seas sent out from this country. Nine years later, two small vessels, the Trinitie and the Minion, left Gravesend under the command of a Londoner named Hoare, but instead of pushing north, they sailed west to Newfoundland, where they suffered intensely from the cold and want of food. The sur vivors of this ill-fated expedition seized on a French vessel which fortunately arrived off the coast, and returned in her to England, followed some time after by the French mariners whom they had so unceremoniously treated. The latter laid their case before Henry VIII., and were fully recompensed for the seizure of their vessel by the English adventurers.
The Muscovy Company having obtained the exclusive right of trading to the northern regions, despatched, in 1553, three vessels under Sir Hugh Willoughby, with Richard Chancellor second in command, in the hope of discovering a passage to the "far Cathay," either right across the Polar Seas, or round the northern shores of Eurasia—the recently discovered route round the Cape of Good Hope being long and tedious, besides being controlled by the Spaniards and Portuguese. Sir Hugh's vessel and another smaller one en tered the river Arzina in Lapland, but during the winter all on board perished. Chancellor, in the other vessel, was more fortunate, and, after wintering in a Muscovite port, returned to England. The veteran explorer, Cabot, being nominated Governor of the Muscovite Company, pushed on the ex ploration of the Northern Seas—the advantages of an inde pendent and shorter trade-route to the East being evidently of supreme importance to the Company. The Search-Thrift
was therefore fitted out in 1556, under the command of the intrepid Burrough. Sailing north-east, he discovered the strait between Vaygatz Island and Nova Zembla ; but was deterred from venturing into the Kara Sea by northerly winds and the "great and terrible abundance of ice." Enter ing the White Sea, he wintered at Archangel, returning to England the following year.
Queen Elizabeth, keenly conscious of the importance of the commercial interests of her country, stimulated the Muscovy Company to further efforts by threatening to revoke their charter, unless the passage that was to open up the wealth of Cathay to England was speedily discovered. This led to the despatch of three small vessels in 1576, under the famous Martin Frobisher, who sailed north as far as the mouth of the inlet now known as Frobisher Bay, and then returned. The following year a larger expedition, under the same leader, left Gravesend in May, and returned in Decem ber with a large quantity of ore, supposed to contain gold. The maiden Queen determined to establish a colony on the Meta Incognita, as she called the newly-found land, and accordingly, Frobisher again set sail with fifteen ships. A violent storm, however, sunk one of the vessels, and so severely damaged the rest, that all hope of founding the colony was abandoned. After taking on board several hun dred tons of the supposed gold-ore, the fleet returned—their ill-success being further aggravated by the information that the ore was utterly worthless. But the Company still con tinued the search, as if determined to force the icy barriers of the north, and in 1580 sent out the George, under the command of Pet, and the William, under the command of Jackman. These two vessels, of only 40 and 20 tons re spectively, penetrated some distance into the Kara Sea, but the ice barred further progress. Only one of them returned home, the other having most probably foundered off the coast of Norway. The next expedition to the northern seas sailed in 1583, under Sir Humphrey Gilbert. After founding a colony in Newfoundland, Sir Humphrey proceeded north in the Squirrel, accompanied by two other vessels—the Delight and the Golden Hind. The latter was wrecked off Sable Land, and the other two then turned towards home. In a terrible storm, when near the Azores, the little Squirrel and her brave commander and crew perished; the Golden Hind with difficulty reached England. The gallant John Davis set out, in 1585, in command of the Sunshine and the Moon shine, and succeeded in reaching Cape Walsingham. The following year he sailed again north with two additional vessels, and ascended most probably as far as the 80th parallel. In his third voyage he reached Cape Hope Sanderson. Shortly after, George Waymouth and other navigators explored the Greenland Seas, but without positive results.