Hudson Strait

“ A number of safe harbours easy of approach have been explored on the southern side of the strait, and others equally good and safe are known to be located on the north side, although they are at present unsurveyed.
The passage from the western entrance of the strait to the port of Churchill, on the western side of Hudson bay, is five hundred miles. From the mouth of the strait the course is due west for seventy miles to the eastern end of the wide channel between Coats and Mansfield islands. ”

“ The first British vessel of modern times to visit Hudson bay for whales was the Newfoundland steamer Nimrod, which, according to Hall, was at Repulse bay in 1867. The Scotch steamer Arctic made two or three voyages to the bay, the last being in 1897, when she struck a rock in Hudson strait, and was damaged to such an extent that she subsequently sunk in Cumberland gulf. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s ship Perseverance, already alluded to, was in Hudson bay from 1894 to 1896, and only took five small whales. ”

“ Novaya Zemlya and the two straits on either side of the Waigat discovered, the greater part of the Spitsbergen shores delineated, portions of the eastern side of Greenland sighted, the whole west coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell to Smith Sound discovered or re-discovered, the whole western side of Baffin’s Bay and Davis Strait traced, Hudson Strait, Hudson’s Bay, and Fox Channel discovered, and this mostly in frail little vessels of from 10 to 100 tons, with few appliances, no comforts, instruments most difficult to work with any accuracy, and very limited means. ”

“ Along the south shore of Hudson strait, from Cape Hopes Advance to Cape Weggs, live some thirty families, while to the westward of these, as far as Cape Wolstenholme there are about seventy-five natives living on the coast, principally in the neighbourhood of Deception and Sugluk bays and near Cape Wolstenholme. ”

“ Asher, in his publication, says: “Hudson river, Hudson strait and Hudson bay remind every educated man of the illustrious navigator by whom they were explored.” But though the name of Henry Hudson possesses the preservative against oblivion, little more has been done in its behalf, and few persons have any accurate notion of the real extent of its merits. By considering 61 Hudson as the discoverer of the three mighty waters that bear his name, we indeed both overrate and underrate his deserts. ”

“ Lawrence, the tide rises and falls nearly up to Montreal, a distance of about 800 miles from the general shore-line. Still farther north are Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, which, although but imperfectly explored, seem to be an example not only of the drowning of a river-valley, but of the largest part of a river-basin. The geography of the arctic archipelago fringing the north shore of the continent also suggests that a strongly stream-cut plateau has there been deeply submerged. ”

“ Sir W. E. Parry, in 1821, made his third voyage to the Arctic islands, in command of the Fury, having as second in command Captain G. F. Lyon, in the Hecla. This time the attempt was made through Hudson strait and up Fox channel. The first season, he examined Repulse bay and went into winter quarters at Winter island, a few miles beyond the eastern entrance of the Frozen strait of Middleton, whose accuracy was proved after being long clouded by the reckless attacks of Dobbs. ”

“ Yet, in view of what has been already ascertained, it certainly seems as if the probabilities were all in favor of the Hudson Bay route being found practicable, and pressed into the world's service at no very distant day.
The era of sailing-vessels is rapidly passing away. The freight-carriers between the continents will ere long be exclusively steamships, and to steamships properly adapted for the work the passage of Hudson Strait has been clearly shown to be perfectly feasible and free from danger. ”

“ He set off upon his last voyage in 1610, discovered the strait now called Hudson Strait, and passed through it into Hudson Bay, where, although poorly provisioned, he determined to pass the winter. When food gave out, the sailors mutinied, and cast Hudson and eight others adrift in the summer of 1611. The ringleaders perished in a fight with savages, and the survivors after great suffering reached England. All these voyages were made in the service of Dutch merchants. See George Asher's Henry Hudson the Navigator. ”

“ Although it is certain that the four great geographical landmarks which to-day serve to keep Hudson’s memory alive, namely the Hudson Bay, Strait, Territory and River, had repeatedly been visited and even drawn on maps and charts before he set out on his voyages, yet he deserves to take a very high rank among northern navigators for the mere extent of his discoveries and the success with which he pushed them beyond the limits of his predecessors. The rich fisheries of Spitzbergen and the fur industry of the Hudson Bay Territory were the immediate fruit of his labours. ”

“ The fact of these people having crossed Hudson's Strait on so rude and frail a conveyance, strongly corroborates, I think, the opinion that America was originally peopled from Asia. The Asiatic side of Behring's Strait affording timber sufficiently large for the purpose of building boats or canoes, there seems nothing improbable in supposing that, when once in possession of that wonderful and useful invention—a boat, they might be induced, even by curiosity—that powerful stimulus to adventure—to visit the nearest island, and from thence proceed to the continent [pg 83] of America ”

“ The company's agent informed Lieutenant Gordon that the ice takes over the harbor of Nachvak, which is in latitude 59° 10' north, and longitude 63° 30' west, about the middle of November in each year, and, curious to note, has, for the last seven years, at all events broken up within a day of the 26th of June in each year. Off Cape Chudleigh, which is just at the mouth of Hudson Strait, the Neptune was enveloped in a dense fog, which compelled her to lay-to from Sunday until Tuesday morning. ”

“ On the return of the successful adventurer, after an absence of two years, to England, he was knighted and received the highest scientific honours.
CAPTAIN JOHN ROSS BY SEA.
When the British people become roused upon a subject, failure seems but to whet the public mind for new enterprise and greater effort. The North-West Passage was now regarded as a possibility. After the coast of the Arctic Ocean had been traced by the Franklin-Richardson expedition, to reach this shore by a passage from Parry's Fury and Hecla Strait seemed feasible. ”

“ Asher that the river, the strait, and the bay were all marked in maps many years before the time of Hudson. What Hudson really did was to show, in four several voyages, that the passage to Cathay was certainly not the simple thing that it had been represented by Thorne and others; that there was no strait through the continent of North America in a low latitude, and that if there was one in a high latitude it could scarcely be of any practical value. ”

“ But though Wager's Strait had thus disappointed our hopes, as had also done Rankin's Inlet, which was now found to be a close bay; and though other arguments, founded on the supposed course of the tides in Hudson's Bay, appeared to be groundless, such is our attachment to an opinion once adopted, that, even after the unsuccessful issue of the voyage of the Dobbs and California, a passage through some other place in that bay was, by many, considered as attainable ”

“ Each of the ship’s boats is in charge of an officer, who always attends to the steering. The ‘boat-steerers’ are in reality the harpooners, and have nothing to do with the steering of the boat.
Towards the end of June the boats cross through the floating ice to Southampton island, where they remain until compelled to return for fresh supplies, usually about three weeks. A second trip to that island is sometimes made, and in August the ship, now free from the ice, is taken to Repulse bay or the Frozen strait connecting it with Fox channel. ”

“ Upon the whole, it was impossible for us not to receive a very unfavourable impression of the general behaviour and moral character of the natives of this part of Hudson's Strait, who seem to have acquired, by an annual intercourse with our ships for nearly a hundred years, many of the vices which unhappily attend a first intercourse with the civilized world, without having imbibed any of the virtues or refinements which adorn and render it happy. ”

“ Its captain was Henry Hudson, and on September 3 he cast anchor inside Sandy Hook.
HENRY HUDSON'S QUEST
[1609]
Out from the harbor of Amsterdam
The Half Moon turned her prow to sea;
The coast of Norway dropped behind,
Yet Northward still kept she
Through the drifting fog and the driving snow,
Where never before man dared to go:
"O Pilot, shall we find the strait that leads to the Eastern Sea?"
"A waste of ice before us lies—we must turn back," said he. ”

“ In the Hudson Straits Windswept, bleak and ragged, savagely beautiful in their utter desolation, the mighty shores of Labrador tower over the racing tides of Hudson Straits.
Far out on the horizon a bank of mist hangs low, blending itself with the steel grey of the sea. ”

“ It is easy enough to pass from Davis Straits into Hudson's Bay, but to get out of Hudson's Bay in the direction of the Arctic Ocean is like getting out of a very cleverly arranged maze. There are innumerable false exits, which have disappointed one Arctic explorer after another. When they had discovered that Hudson's Bay to the south was only like a great bottle, and had no outlet, they explored its northern waters; and when they found Chesterfield Inlet on the north-west, which leads into Baker Lake, they thought perhaps here was the passage through into the Arctic Sea. ”

“ THE broad surface of the Hudson is scored by passage of craft of all trades and industries. Tugs and barges crowd the waterway in unending succession, threading their courses in a maze of harbour traffic; high-sided ferry-boats surge out from their slips and angle across the tide—crab-wise—towards the New Jersey shore; laden ocean steamers hold to the deeps of the fairway on their passage to the sea. Up stream and down, back and across, sheering in to the piers and wharves, the harbour traffic seems constantly to be scourged and hurried by the lash of an unseen taskmaster. ”

“ This seems to be certain, that there must be one great Channel, as Hudson's Streights are to Eastward, also to Westward though intricate by which the Waters to Westward pass into the South Sea, and as that to Northward, the North-east Part of the Tartarian Sea. We already know there is not a Communication by Hudson's Bay, thro' any Inlet by which the Waters do come in there or sufficient for that Purpose ”

“ As there is generally a glut of ice floating about the centre of Hudson’s Bay, a ship, on leaving Mansfield Island, and having a northerly wind, ought to steer for Cape Churchill, until they reach within sixty leagues of the land, when they may alter the course, and steer for York direct. ”

“ In the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, London, are literally shelf loads of such directions. That modern enterprise will ultimately surmount all difficulties of navigation in the straits cannot be doubted. What man sets himself to do—he does; but the difficulties are not child’s play, nor imaginary ones created by politicians who oppose a Hudson Bay route to Europe. One has only to read the record of three hundred years’ sailing by the fur traders to realize that the straits are—to put it mildly—a trap for ocean goers. ”

“ The light-coloured limestone forms the bottom of the harbour, and gives the water a dangerous looking, light tinge, which is quite misleading, as the depth is sufficient for the largest ships. The east and west sides of the harbour are bounded by high cliffs, while at the northern end the land is low, and it is not far across it to the bay on the northern coast lying directly west of Cape Clarence. ”

“ They expressed great joy at meeting with us, by singing, shouting, and clapping their hands; and instead of proceeding on toward the ships, they turned their boats, and followed us to the shore. The coast appears to be completely fringed with small rocky islands, and these no doubt form a shelter to many good harbours; but the shores of Hudson’s Straits have never been thoroughly examined, although a small 69 vessel might accomplish the task in two summers, with ease: indeed, a voyage for this purpose would, if well conducted, turn out advantageously, in a mercantile point of view ”

“ As one approaches the Atlantic Coast there is a feeling comes that one, not born, not having lived, through youth and young manhood in the Middle or Far West will never quite understand. Near my own room in the city, lying in the Hudson River, were vessels that to-morrow would set sail for Europe, other vessels that had arrived from Europe but the day before. As I lay on my cot in my room at night I could hear the steamboats crying in the river. At night when there was a fog they were like cows lost in a forest, somewhere out in the Middle West, lost and bawling for the warm barns. ”