Perhaps the greatest mystery in the history of Arctic exploration is the fate of Henry Hudson. Though the British navigator failed to find a northwest passage from Europe to Asia, his several voyages in search of that goal laid the groundwork for the Dutch colonization of the Hudson River region, as well as English land claims in Canada. His final expedition, begun in April 1610, sought a more southerly path to Asia: a supposed water passage across North America.

Instead, Hudson’s ship Discovery spent months drifting through the lower reaches of the vast Canadian bay that would later bear his name. While enduring harsh winter conditions with no outlet to the Pacific in sight, some crew members grew restless and hostile, suspecting Hudson of hoarding rations to give to his favorites.

In June 1611, as the expedition began its return to England, sailors Henry Green and Robert Juet led a mutiny. Seizing Hudson and his son, they cast them adrift on what is now James Bay in a small open lifeboat, along with seven other men who were suffering from scurvy. Hudson was never heard from again.

Over the centuries, tales have come down to the inhabitants of the James Bay area telling of fair-skinned strangers on their shores. Could they have been the abandoned master and his crew? Author and Arctic explorer Lawrence Millman examines the mystery of Henry Hudson’s disappearance and offers a possible explanation based on stories he collected from Cree elders in the James Bay villages of Wemidji and Waskaganish in the late 1990s. 

Part of the Uncharted Territory: Great Expeditions and the Trailblazers Who Led Them program series.