The River
Hudson River is the life line of New York. To imagine New York without Hudson that runs languidly through the state and encircles the island of Manhattan, is like painting a soulless, lifeless canvas. Originating in the Adirondack Mountains it flows southward in the eastern United States but primarily in New York for over 300 miles, then it looses herself in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Hudson River has played a significant role in the development of New York City and the surrounding region. It was a major transportation route for goods and people in the 18th and 19th centuries and helped facilitate trade and commerce in the area. The river also played a crucial role in the American Revolution, as it allowed American troops to move troops and supplies, and played a role in the formation of the state of New York. Today, the Hudson River is still an important waterway for shipping and transportation, as well as a popular recreational area for boating, fishing, and other activities.
What the native American tribe of this region, Lenape, called this river is not on record, but the river is named after the English explorer Henry Hudson, who explored it in 1609 while searching for a northwest passage to Asia on behalf of the Dutch East India Company.
Northwest passage deluded him. Instead, he discovered what is now known as the Hudson River and sailed up it as far as present-day Albany, New York. Hudson’s exploration of the river helped open up the region to European settlement and commerce, and the river became an important trade route.
Northwest Passage
In the 17th century European capitals and trading companies were anxious to establish a new route to Asia, and especially India with its coveted and valuable spices.
Shipping goods to and from this part of the world was an expensive and dangerous enterprise. It meant sailing all the way around Africa where pirate ships lay in wait and many merchant vessels were captured or sunk.
So the call went out for a new route to be found. Called the Northwest Passage, a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It was a hypothetical sea route that would allow ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean via the Arctic Ocean, bypassing the long and hazardous trip around the southern tip of South America.
Among those answering the call was explorer Henry Hudson. Little is known about him. He is thought to have been born in or near London around 1570 probably to a wealthy family. Some researchers claim that he was born on September 12, 1575.
In 1607, while in his thirties, Hudson became the commander of a ship, demonstrating a talent for navigation.
He reasoned that since the sun shone most of the summer on the North Pole, the ice there would melt at that time of the year, possibly allowing him to sail right over the top of the world to India.
Starting in 1607, he set out from England on the first of four expeditions searching for the elusive Northern Passage. The first trip was a failure, though he did discover numerous whales off Greenland, opening up new hunting territory. On the second voyage his progress was blocked by thick ice in the Arctic Ocean and he had to return home.
Ice again thwarted his third mission, but instead of heading home Hudson sailed west and came ashore at what is now Nova Scotia.
In 1610 he set out on his final, fatal voyage aboard the ship Discovery.
After crossing the Atlantic and skirting the southern tip of Greenland, he entered what was later named as the Hudson Strait. The next body of water that he reached was also to bear his name – Hudson Bay. Pressing south, the explorer soon found he had come to a dead end at what is now known as James Bay.
Hudson’s later life and fate are uncertain, as he disappeared during a subsequent expedition in the Arctic in 1611..
A Tragic End
Trapped in ice and low on supplies, tensions developed between Hudson and his crew and grew worse when they were forced to spend the winter in the bay.
Conditions gradually improved and the ship was able to set sail again in June 1611 but hostility between Hudson and the crew had reached the point of mutiny and with his young son and other sailors he was set adrift in a small boat, never to be seen again.
The day was June 22 and the year 1611. He was never seen again. It is presumed that after being set adrift by mutineers he and his sons either starved or froze to death.
The Discovery
It was to be another 300 years before the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean was discovered. The man who later in 1911 was to beat Englishman Robert Falcon Scott in the race to become the first person to reach the South Pole, finally solved the centuries-old riddle in 1906. He was Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and his crew sailed through the passage on the ship Gjøa, which he had specially equipped for the journey.
Amundsen’s successful navigation of the Northwest Passage was a major achievement in polar exploration and opened up new possibilities for Arctic exploration and trade. However, the passage is not always navigable and still presents significant challenges and risks, even for modern ice-breaking ships. The melting of Arctic sea ice due to climate change has made the route more accessible in recent years, raising new questions about the feasibility of commercial navigation of the Northwest Passage.
Hudson met an unhappy and tortured death. No one knows the reasons for the mutiny on his ship. Was it his demanding inhuman behaviour or rivalry or pure conspiracy, remains shrouded in mystery. And though unsuccessful in his quest to find the Northern Passage, Hudson’s discoveries and maps enabled both the English and the Dutch to establish trading posts and settlements and he thus opened the door to further exploration and settlement of North America.
And of course, he remains immortal till New York retains its place in history.
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