September 12th, 1609 — Homage for Henry Hudson (Part 1)

Today marks the quadricentennial celebration of a famed explorer who became lost, quiet literally; but as history shows, his greatest triumphs serve as the results of a few miscues and mistakes. Henry Hudson, the European explorer whose navigation led to the Native Americans' Mannahatta, or as it was later called Manhattan, was consistently barraged with dramatic tragedies, each proceeding and overshadowing the man's valued accomplishments.

Navigating Through the Unknown

It was 400 years ago when Henry Hudson first began sailing the river that today bears his name. And while it is remarkable that there is nothing known about this Englishman's upbringing prior to the records of his Muscovy Company-sponsored exploration of the Northeast Passage in 1607, it was Hudson's drive to find the mysterious Northwest passage that later earned him a place in maritime history.

Furthermore, since we're dealing with an era far before the age of cameras, no one actually has a definite depiction of Hudson. Therefore, all illustrations of the explorer are simply based on what an explorer was expected to look like during the time.

Researchers also note that Hudson felt his major accomplishment to be a major failure. While searching for what he thought was the Northwest Passage – a shortcut expected to unveil Asian riches such as gold and spices – the river now known as the Hudson River was initially deemed an endless disappointment by Hudson and his crew. With this assessment, Hudson turned around and headed home not knowing just how important his unintended discovery would be to the development of North America.

Crosswinds and Compasses

In hindsight, who could blame Henry Hudson for not achieving his initial goal? Bear in mind that this was a period when explorers were essentially hired by big companies to somewhat naïvely attempt to help "globalize" sea trade — all with inadequate and incomplete cartography in the works.

In preparation for New York state's celebration of this day in history, Charles Gehring, head of the New Netherland Project at the New York State Library in Albany, NY, recently told CBS that "looking right down at the North Pole, the idea was that the further north you went, the warmer it would become, because the rays of the sun hit directly in the north. This was a theory that they had!"

Part 2 of this three-part series will run tomorrow with a look at the famous ship that boldly went where no Dutch sailing ship had gone before.

References:

CBS Early Morning Show: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/05/sunday/main5134460.shtml?tag=topnews
The Halfmoon Press: http://www.hudsonriver.com/halfmoonpress/stories/hudson.htm
The Mannahatta Project: http://themannahattaproject.org/explore/mannahatta-map/