During the 16th century, the Dutch and English explored a proposed northern sea route through the Arctic Ocean and along the northern coast of Russia known as the Northeast Passage.
Europeans had long had a fascination and attraction toward the Far East. Throughout the Middle Ages myths and legends of Far East riches and magic circulated throughout the European continent. By the end of the 15th century, European states achieved a level of technology and wealth that allowed them to explore the world beyond the European coasts. Numerous expeditions set out with the goal of discovering an accessible route to the Far East, with Portugal and Spain setting the early pace. As the 16th century progressed, the English, Dutch, and French began to resent the Spanish-Portuguese overseas monopoly. With the Southwest Passage in firm control of Iberian hands, these countries explored the possibilities of a Northwest Passage over—and preferably through— the North American continent and a Northeast Passage over the top of Europe and Asia.
Ironically, it was the Portuguese who first explored the possibility of a northeast route in 1484. The voyage reached Nova Zembla but did not draw many imitators for more than half a century. Beginning in the middle of the 16th century, English merchants began exploring the possibility of expanding their commercial opportunities. Goaded by promoters of long-distance trade, merchants paid close attention to any venture that promised rapid movement along (or through) the northern edge of Europe and Asia. In 1553 the Merchant Adventurers commissioned Sebastian Cabot to organize an enterprise bound for Malay via the Arctic Ocean. Although he did not take part in the voyage due to his old age, Cabot set forth the general instructions for the expedition. Weeks into the voyage the ships directed by Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor separated off the Norway coast, never to meet again. Willoughby and his crew froze to death near Kola in Lapland, while Chancellor rounded the North Cape and undertook a daring trip through the White Sea before moving downriver from Dwina to Moscow. There, he met with Ivan the Terrible, and although Cabot’s planned expedition did not reach Cathay, Chancellor opened up communication and trade with Russia, as evidenced by the formation of England’s Muscovy Company.
English advances in Arctic waters soon found imitation from their Dutch neighbors. The Dutch explorer Willem Barents’s voyages in the 1590s convinced contemporaries that China could be reached by sailing north of Nova Zembla. Privy to Barents’s geographical notebooks, Henry Hudson’s second major voyage, sponsored by the Muscovy Company, explored the possibilities of the Northeast Passage. Leaving England in 1608, his advance knowledge of the Scandinavian coastline was readily apparent, but he had little accurate information about Nova Zembla and the Siberian coast on the Kara Sea, nor any warnings about a series of foreboding promontories jutting into icy waters. As a result, Hudson had to return to England, where interest in a Northeast Passage faded, although attempts to discover a Northwest Passage continued over the next few centuries.
Further reading: Benson Bobrick, Ea. st of the Sun: The E-pic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia (New York, Poseidon Press, 1992); Richard Bohlander, ed., World Explorers and Discoverers (New York: Da Capo Press, 1998); J. Gamel, England and Russia, trans. John Studdy Leigh (New York: Da Capo Press, 1968); Donald S. Jackson, Charting the Sea of Darkness: The Four Voyages of Henry Hudson (New York: Kodansha, 1995); Henry C. Murphy, Henry Hudson in Holland (New York: B. Franklin, 1972).
—Matthew Lindaman
World History
