John Knight (died 1606) was a British explorer of

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

and

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

. He is known for two expeditions: he was a member of a Danish exploration of the coast of Greenland, and he led an expedition to discover the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arct ...

, during which he was lost.

Greenland

In 1605 Knight took part in a Danish expedition to

, led by John Cunningham with James Hall as pilot. Knight captained the pinnace ''Katten''. They sailed from

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

on 2 May. On 30 May, in latitude 59° 50′, they sighted high land, which they called Cape Christian, but the ice prevented them from reaching it. On 12 June they sighted high land on the west coast of Greenland, and named Cape Anna after

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

, wife of James I, Cape Sophia after her mother, King Christian's Fjord, and Cunningham Fjord, in latitude 67° 10′. Some small islands off Cape Sophia were named Knight's Islands. This is apparently the extent of their voyage, of which few particulars have been preserved. They returned to Copenhagen in August.

Labrador

In England in the following year he was employed on a joint venture of the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

East India East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The region roughly corresponds to the historical region of Magadh ...

Companies to discover the

. In the ''Hopewell'' of forty tons he sailed from

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

, Kent, on 18 April 1606, and, leaving the

Orkney Islands Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

on 12 May, fell in with a large

ice field An ice field (also spelled icefield) is a mass of interconnected valley glaciers (also called mountain glaciers or alpine glaciers) on a mountain mass with protruding rock ridges or summits. They are often found in the colder climates and highe ...

, and after a long passage made the coast of

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

, in about lat. 57°, on 19 June. Knight intended to explore the coast during the summer, and to winter ashore.Knight, John
''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''. Retrieved 22 February 2018. The ice was still very troublesome, and after pushing through it for a couple of days the ''Hopewell'' anchored. In a violent gale on 23 and 24 June, probably near Nain, the cables parted and the ship drove ashore. She was got afloat again, but her rudder was torn off, and she was making a great deal of water. Gorrell, the mate, was sent on shore to look for a place where she could be beached for repairs; he was unsuccessful, so on the next day, 26 June, Knight went himself with Gorrell and four men. Leaving two men in the boat, Knight and his three companions went inland over a hill, and were never seen again. It was concluded that they were killed by local people. The survivors on board repaired the ship as they best could, with some opposition from local people, and so reached

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, from where they sailed on 22 August, and arrived at

Dartmouth, Devon Dartmouth () is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the western bank of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes. It lies within the ...

on 24 September.

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, John 1600s missing person cases 1606 deaths British explorers of North America Explorers of Canada Formerly missing people History of Greenland History of Newfoundland and Labrador Lost explorers Male murder victims Missing person cases in Canada Unsolved murders in Canada

Greenland

Labrador

See also

References