William Baffin ( – 23 January 1622) was an English navigator, explorer and cartographer. He is primarily known for his attempt to find a
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 ...
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, during the course of which he was the first European to discover
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; kl, Avannaata Imaa; french: Baie de Baffin), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arc ...
situated between Canada and Greenland. He was also responsible for exceptional surveys of the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
and
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...
on behalf of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...
.
Life
Nothing is known about Baffin's early life (an estimated year of birth, 1584, originated in the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica'' in the 19th century, but without known documentary support). It has been conjectured that he was born to a humble station in London and gradually raised himself through his diligence and perseverance. In printing his journals,
Samuel Purchas
Samuel Purchas ( – 1626) was an English Anglican cleric who published several volumes of reports by travellers to foreign countries.
Career
Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex son of an English yeoman. He graduated from St John's College, Cam ...
wrote of him as a "learned-unlearned Mariner and Mathematician... wanting art of words" who "really employed himself to those industries, whereof here you see so evident fruits."
His earliest mention occurs in 1612, when he was chief pilot on Captain
James Hall's 4th expedition to Greenland.
Hall's three earlier explorations had been underwritten by the
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
of
Denmark-Norway anxious to reestablish contact with the
Norse settlements there. It was still unknown that they had been overrun by the
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territorie ...
centuries before, but after the third failed expedition, Christian abandoned the project. Hall then successfully interested four
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
merchants—
Thomas Smythe
Sir Thomas Smythe (or Smith, c. 1558 – 4 September 1625) was an English merchant, politician and colonial administrator. He was the first governor of the East India Company and treasurer of the Virginia Company from 1609 to 1620 until envel ...
,
James Lancaster
Sir James Lancaster (c. 1554 – 6 June 1618) was an English privateer and trader of the Elizabethan era.
Life and work
Lancaster came from Basingstoke in Hampshire. In his early life, he was a soldier and a trader in Portugal.
On 10 April 1 ...
,
William Cockayne
Sir William Cockayne (Cokayne) (1561 – 20 October 1626) was a seventeenth-century merchant, alderman, and Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Life
He was the second son of William Cokayne of Baddesley Ensor, Warwickshire, merchant of London, so ...
, and Richard Ball—in permitting him to continue his work. Baffin and Hall sailed from the
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between ...
aboard the ''Patience'' on 22 April, accompanied by the ''Heart's Ease''. During this voyage, Captain Hall was killed by the Inuit on the west coast of Greenland but Baffin successfully returned to
Hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship
* Submarine hull
Mathematics
* Affine hull, in affi ...
on 9/11 under the new captain Andrew Barker.
Over the next two years, Baffin served in the
Muscovy Company
The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company russian: Московская компания, Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint s ...
-controlled
whale-fishery off
Spitzbergen
Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group rang ...
. During the 1613 season, he served under Captain Benjamin Joseph as pilot of the ''Tiger'', the
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...
of the 7-vessel whaling fleet; in 1614, he and Joseph served on the ''Thomasine'', amid a fleet of 11 ships and 2
pinnace
Pinnace may refer to:
* Pinnace (ship's boat), a small vessel used as a tender to larger vessels among other things
* Full-rigged pinnace
The full-rigged pinnace was the larger of two types of vessel called a pinnace in use from the sixteenth ...
s. Icy conditions precluded exploration to the north, but Baffin examined a "considerable portion" of Spitzbergen's coast, returning to London on 4 October.
In 1615, he entered the service of the "Company of Merchants of London, Discoverers of the North-West Passage", which had been established in 1612. Its first governor was
Thomas Smythe
Sir Thomas Smythe (or Smith, c. 1558 – 4 September 1625) was an English merchant, politician and colonial administrator. He was the first governor of the East India Company and treasurer of the Virginia Company from 1609 to 1620 until envel ...
, one of the underwriters of Hall's fourth voyage. Baffin served as pilot of ''
Discovery
Discovery may refer to:
* Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown
* Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown
* Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence
Discovery, The Discove ...
'', which left England under Captain
Robert Bylot on 15 March. It carefully explored
Hudson Strait
Hudson Strait (french: Détroit d'Hudson) links the Atlantic Ocean and Labrador Sea to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and Nunavik, with its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Newfoundland and Labrador and ...
in search of a
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 ...
from the North Atlantic to the
Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The t ...
. The accuracy of Baffin's tidal and astronomical observations on this voyage was confirmed when
William Edward Parry
Sir William Edward Parry (19 December 1790 – 8 July 1855) was an Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for his 1819–1820 expedition through the Parry Channel, probably the most successful in the long quest for the Northwest Pas ...
passed over the same ground in 1821.
Baffin again sailed as pilot of ''
Discovery
Discovery may refer to:
* Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown
* Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown
* Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence
Discovery, The Discove ...
'' the next year. Leaving
Gravesend
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is ...
on 26 March, he passed west of Greenland up the
Davis Strait, discovering the large bay to its north which
now bears his name, together with a series of sounds which radiate from its head and were named by him after members of the North-West Passage Company:
Lancaster,
Smith, and
Jones. On this voyage, he sailed over farther north than his predecessor
John Davis: since his voyages seemed to preclude hope of an ice-free nautical path to the Orient, the area was not explored again for two centuries and his
furthest north (about remained unsurpassed in North America until the Royal Navy officer
Edward Augustus Inglefield reached in the same area in 1852.
With the abandonment of projects for the Northwest Passage, Baffin took service with the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...
, possibly with the intent of eventually discovering the passage from the western end. He left as master's mate to
Andrew Shilling, captain of ''Anne Royal'', on 4 February 1617. The fleet – under the command of Captain
Martin Pring – reached
Saldanha Bay in South Africa on 21 June and
Surat
Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is ...
in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
in September. Baffin's ship then performed separate service on runs to
Mocha in
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...
and other ports of the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
and
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...
. Upon his return to London in September, 1619, the company granted him special recognition for the valuable charts he had made during the course of his voyage.
In 1620, he sailed east again as master of the ''London'' on the special recommendation of Capt. Shilling, the commander of the expedition. Baffin left
the Downs on 25 March and reached
Suvali Beach near
Surat
Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is ...
in India on 9 November. Hearing of a joint
Portuguese and
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
fleet searching for them, Shilling went in search of them: he was wounded in battle in the Gulf of Oman on 28 December and died on 6 January. A year later, the East India Company agreed to join the
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
n assaults on the Portuguese fortresses on
Qeshm and
Hormuz islands in exchange for certain trade concessions. At Qeshm off
Bandar Abbas
Bandar Abbas or Bandar-e ‘Abbās ( fa, , , ), is a port city and capital of Hormozgān Province on the southern coast of Iran, on the Persian Gulf. The city occupies a strategic position on the narrow Strait of Hormuz (just across from Musand ...
, he was sent ashore on 23 January 1622 to take measurements of the height and distance of the walls of Fort Queixome to assist the fleet's gunners. One of his contemporaries described his death:
Master Baffin went on shoare with his Geometricall Instruments, for the taking of the height and distance of the Castle wall, for the better levelling of his peece to make his shot; but, as he was about the same, he received a small shot from the Castle into his belly, wherewith he gave three leapes, and died immediately.
He was one of few English casualties. The garrison swiftly surrendered, and Anglo-Persian control of Qeshm permitted the swift
conquest of Ormuz, opening
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
to direct trade.
His wife – reckoned a "troublesome, impatient woman" – forced the East India Company into court over her husband's wages and other claims. Three years later, a settlement of
£500 was agreed upon.
Legacy
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; kl, Avannaata Imaa; french: Baie de Baffin), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arc ...
and
Baffin Island
Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...
were named in William Baffin's honour, and he is responsible for the names of several of their features. His journals were the only account of several of his voyages. Excerpts were printed by
Samuel Purchas
Samuel Purchas ( – 1626) was an English Anglican cleric who published several volumes of reports by travellers to foreign countries.
Career
Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex son of an English yeoman. He graduated from St John's College, Cam ...
in 1625, but Baffin's charts and hydrographic observations were omitted owing to the expense involved. All but one were subsequently lost, and in time Baffin's discoveries came to be doubted. He was, however, a hero to the explorer
John Ross, who led an expedition in 1818 that confirmed Baffin's account in almost all particulars.
Besides his geographical discoveries, Baffin is celebrated for the scrupulous accuracy of his many scientific and magnetic observations. His
reckoning of longitude at sea by
lunar distances on 26 April 1615 is the first of its kind on record.
He is also the namesake of the William Baffin rose.
See also
*
Samuel Purchas
Samuel Purchas ( – 1626) was an English Anglican cleric who published several volumes of reports by travellers to foreign countries.
Career
Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex son of an English yeoman. He graduated from St John's College, Cam ...
*
Blackburn Baffin
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baffin, William
16th-century births
16th-century English people
17th-century explorers
1622 deaths
Baffin Bay
Baffin Island
British polar explorers
English explorers of North America
Explorers of Canada
Explorers of Svalbard
Explorers of the Arctic
Muscovy Company
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Year of birth unknown