Divers Voyages and Northerne Discoveries

On 19 April 1607, in the church of St Ethelburga in London, a crew takes communion before putting to sea. Its captain, Henry Hudson, means to open a passage to Japan and China by way of the North Pole.

Four times he sets out again. In 1607, he follows the coast of Greenland as far as Spitsbergen and passes 80 degrees before the ice closes the way. In 1608, he pushes toward Novaya Zemlya, and a sailor leaning over the side sees a mermaid. In 1609, sailing for the Dutch, he gives up on the northeast, crosses the Atlantic among the French fishermen of the Grand Banks and sails up a great river of America, where John Colman dies with an arrow in his throat. Finally, in 1610, he forces his way through the strait that will bear his name, names the capes as he goes and pushes deep into an immense bay, where his ship is caught in the ice for the winter.

Five witnesses take turns: John Playse, Hudson himself, Robert Juet, his former mate, then Abacuk Pricket and the student Thomas Wydowse. Logbooks, a letter, a survivor's account: gathered by Samuel Purchas in 1625, they tell of discovery, cold, hunger and the grudges smouldering among the crew.

In the spring of 1611, before weighing anchor, the captain shares out what is left of the bread and weeps as he hands it round. What happens on board during the night of 21 to 22 June will make him the explorer who was never seen again.