In the struggle for independence against Spain in the height of her power, the Dutch nation saw the necessity for making every effort to increase her commerce in order to obtain the sinews of war, and it thus came about that, while in the fight for freedom England and Holland were close allies and friends, it was inevitable that in matters of trade there should be rivalry.

It was not long before the Dutch, seeing the great success of England’s trade with Russia by the White Sea, began to follow so promising a lead. In 1565 a ship from Enkhuizen arrived at a spot on the coast of Russian Lapland to which the name of Kola was given, and formed a settlement. In the next year two merchants from Antwerp, starting from Kola, reached the mouth of the Onega, and made a journey to Moscow. Next, a trustworthy person was found to make a voyage to Kholmogori to learn the Russian language and if possible to establish commercial relations.

The name of the person selected was Oliver Brunel, a native of Brussels. He was the founder of the White Sea trade of the Dutch, and their first Arctic navigator. Brunel made a remarkable journey in the country of the Samoyeds, crossing the river Petchora and reaching the banks of the Obi. He was successful in acting as an agent for Russian merchants, and in 1578 a Dutch ship anchored for the first time at the mouth of the Dwina. It was quickly followed by another ship owned by Balthazar de Moucheron, and thus the Dutch trade with the White Sea was established.

It was Balthazar de Moucheron, an eminent merchant of Middelburg, who conceived the project of imitating the English adventurers, and sending two vessels to discover a north-east route to China. One was the Swan of Keer in Walcheren, commanded by Cornells Nai of Enkhuizen, the other the Mercury of Enkhuizen under Brant Tetgales. They were to attempt a passage by the Waigat. The merchants of Amsterdam fitted out a vessel also named the Mercury but, acting under the advice of the cosmographer Plancius, they adopted another route, and resolved to attempt a passage round the northern end of Novaya Zemlya. The commander of this second Mercury was Willem Barentsz, a native of the island of Terschelling, an accomplished seaman and pilot. He had translated the sailing directions of Ivar Bardsen the Greenlander34, and the journal of Arthur Pet; showing the close attention he had paid to the former history of northern enterprise. Barentsz understood the science of navigation, and was an excellent observer.

The three vessels, with Cornelis Nai as Admiral, sailed from the Texel on the 4th June, 1594. On the 29th Barentsz parted company to pursue his more northern route, while Nai and Tetgales shaped a course for Waigatz. It was agreed that, if they had to return, they were to wait for each other until September at Kildin, on the coast of Lapland.

Barentsz came in sight of Novaya Zemlya in 73° 25′ N. on July 4th, and, proceeding northwards along the coast, passed Cape Nassau in 76° 20′ N. on the 10th. Here the land turns nearly due east, with many glaciers, and hills rising to 2000 feet behind them. Off the coast are the two Orange Islands, each about half a mile long, with precipitous sides and flat summits about 100 feet above the sea. Hitherto Barentsz had been in a fairly open sea, but on rounding Cape Nassau he was stopped by floes of ice. He persevered in an attempt to pass through them for some days, but on the 3rd of August he was obliged to begin the homeward voyage. Between Cape Nassau and the Orange Islands Barentsz had put his ship about no less than 81 times, and had sailed over 1546 miles including all the tacks. On the 15th of August he reached Matthew Island on the south coast of Novaya Zemlya, where he met Nai and Tetgales. They had passed through Pet Strait, and had gone for a short distance into the Kara Sea. All three vessels returned to Holland in September. The narrative of his first voyage was written by Barentsz himself.

A well-known traveller and writer, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, sailed with Tetgales in the Enkhuizen ship. Linschoten was born at Haarlem in 1563. At the age of 16 he joined his brothers, who were merchants at Seville. He went thence to Lisbon, and obtaining a place in the suite of the Archbishop of Goa sailed for India in 1583. He remained at Goa until 1589, when he took ship at Cochin to return with his friend Dirk Gerritz, who had been 26 years in the East and had been to China and Japan as gunner of a Portuguese ship. Dirk Gerritz wrote notes upon China and India, and in 1598 he was pilot in the first Dutch voyage through the Straits of Magellan. Linschoten stopped on his homeward voyage at Terceira, one of the Azores, for more than two years, which enabled him to give a full account of the memorable fight of the Revenge. At length he got back to Holland in September 1592 and wrote his Itinerary, which was published in 1596. He was an indefatigable collector of information of all kinds, and his book of travels is most fascinating35. But, while busily engaged upon it, Linschoten’s attention was diverted by the project of de Moucheron for the discovery of the North-east Passage, and he sailed with Tetgales as supercargo36.

It was Linschoten’s sanguine report expressing a full conviction that the northern route to the Indies was discovered which induced the Dutch merchants to undertake a second voyage on a larger scale. Seven vessels were fitted out, two in Zeeland, two from Enkhuizen, two from Amsterdam, and one from Rotterdam. The Griffin and Swan from Zeeland were again under Cornelis Nai, the Hope of Enkhuizen was commanded by Tetgales, and Barentsz had the Greyhound of Amsterdam and was chief pilot. Linschoten, Jacob van Heemskerk, and Jan Cornells Rijp were the supercargos. Linschoten was also a Commissioner on behalf of Prince Maurice of Orange and the States General.

The ships assembled at the Texel and sailed on the 2nd July, 1595. On the 19th August they reached the entrance of Pet Strait which was closed with ice, “most frightful to behold,” writes Linschoten. Parties were sent across Waigatz Island to report on the state of the ice in the Kara Sea. Barentsz himself crossed to the mainland to get information from the Samoyeds, and several efforts were made to pass through the ice, but all in vain. The crews began to murmur. The attempt was accordingly abandoned and the fleet returned to Holland in October37.

The total failure of this voyage caused great disappointment, and the States General decided that no further attempt should be made at the public expense. Barentsz, however, supported by Plancius, persisted in the opinion that a passage might be effected round the north of Novaya Zemlya, so the merchants of Amsterdam were induced to fit out one more expedition. It consisted of two vessels, one commanded by Jacob van Heemskerk, the other by Jan Cornells Rijp. Barentsz went with Heemskerk as chief pilot.

On the 9th June, 1596, the two ships came to a small steep island north of the Finmarken coast which received the name of Bear Island38. It appears that the plan was to keep away from Waigatz Island, where failure had attended the second voyage, and instead to shape a northerly course.

The Finmarken coast is separated from Bear Island by a sea 280 miles wide with a depth of 300 fathoms. A wild cheerless waste presents itself on the north-western half, covered with lakes and marshes, while the south-eastern part is mountainous. Mount Misery rises to 1760 feet in height. The formations are of carboniferous limestones and sandstones with rich coal beds on the north coast. Bear Island may be considered as the southernmost headland of the submarine plateau out of which Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land rise.

Only 105 miles to the north is the South or Look-out Cape of Spitsbergen. The Dutch explorers, on leaving Bear Island, continued on a northerly course from the 13th to the 19th June. But no part of Spitsbergen was sighted until they reached its north-western point in 79° 49′ N. A marvellous fight with a bear is recounted by Gerrit de Veer, and two landings on the coast to get ballast and birds’ eggs. There was another landing on the 23rd to observe the variation of the compass. Then, as the ice stopped the way northward, a southerly course was shaped on June 28th. The land was supposed to be a part of Greenland. By the 1st July they were again at Bear Island.

There was much dispute between Barentsz and Rijp as to the course, and it ended in Rijp returning with his ship to Holland. Heemskerk, under the guidance of Barentsz, then made for Novaya Zemlya, and coasted along to the northward, until he doubled Cape Nassau, and passed the furthest point reached by Barentsz on his first Voyage. Here the ship was beset and, after fruitless attempts to extricate themselves from the ice by tacking about in various directions, Heemskerk and Barentsz found themselves on the west side of a bay which was named Ice Haven. Here “they were forced, in great cold, poverty, misery, and grief to stay all the winter.” This was on the 26th August. The heavy pack ice drifted into the bay, gave the ship several severe nips, and firmly wedged her between grounded masses of pack ice. But the ice was seen to be in motion in the offing until Christmas.

The crew consisted of 17 souls all told. Fortunately there was a large supply of driftwood, and with this, eked out by planks from the ship, they built a house, 32 feet long by 20 broad, into which they removed all their provisions and valuables. A chimney was fixed in the centre of the roof, a Dutch clock was set up and made to strike the hours, bed-places were fixed along the walls, and a wine cask was converted into a bath. Snowstorms and gales of wind prevailed throughout the winter, which had the good effect of drifting snow round the house as high as the roof and thus raising the temperature within.

They entered upon the year 1597 “with great cold, danger, and disease”; but strove to keep up their spirits by mild festivity on Twelfth-night, their meal consisting of a little wine and pancakes of meal and oil. Foxes were caught in traps, and occasionally a bear was shot, but sickness began to appear from want of exercise and unwholesome food. The little ship’s boy died, Barentsz himself had long been ill, and a man named Claas Adrianszoon was also in an almost hopeless state.

When the summer came and open water appeared it was found that the ship was too much damaged by the ice to be seaworthy, so it was resolved to retreat in the boat and the schuit39. Barentsz wrote a paper giving an account of their proceedings, which was placed in the chimney. They then dragged down the remaining provisions and merchants’ goods to the boats, and loaded them. Willem Barentsz, who was unable to walk, was brought down to the boats on a sledge. Claas Adrianszoon was conveyed in the same manner; and the forlorn people divided themselves between the two boats, each of which took one of the sick men. They all signed a letter stating their reason for abandoning the ship, except four who either could not write or were too ill to sign.

“So committing themselves to the will and mercy of God, with a west-north-west wind, and on indifferent open water, they set sail and put to sea,” on the 13th of June, 1597. They reached the Orange Islands, and landed at Point Desire to melt snow and fill their beakers, and to get birds’ eggs for the sick. Here Captain Heemskerk fell into the water and nearly lost his life; but he was rescued, and dried his clothes at the fire of driftwood they had made to melt the snow. From the Orange Islands they sailed about 20 miles to Ice Point. The boats being close together the captain hailed Willem Barentsz to know how he did. Barentsz replied “I am well, mate, and I hope to be able to run before we come to Wardhaus.” Gerrit de Veer, the mate, was in the same boat with Barentsz. “Gerrit,” he said, “if we are near the Ice Point [the northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya] just lift me up again. I must see that point once more.”

On the 17th June the boats were beset by the ice, “it came so fast upon us that it made our hair stand upright on our heads, it was so fearful to behold.” The boats were hauled up on the ice and repaired. The two sick men were laid on the floe. Barentsz seemed better, and had some discussion with Gerrit de Veer about the chart. Then he said “Gerrit, give me to drink.” He had no sooner swallowed the water than he was taken with a sudden spasm and died. Claas Adrianszoon died soon afterwards. On the 22nd they got the boats into open water and again made sail.

With much labour, and frequent difficulties with the ice, the two boats made their way southwards along the coast of Novaya Zemlya until, on the 28th July, they fell in with two Russian lodias. By this time they were all suffering, more or less, from scurvy. The Russians sailed away towards Waigatz Island. The Dutchmen though very sick, and scarcely able to pull their oars, also managed to reach the island where, to their great joy, they found plenty of scurvy grass, which cured them. They had heard of its healing virtues in Holland, and they now ate the leaves in handfuls.

At length the weary voyagers reached Kola in Lapland, where they found a Dutch ship commanded by the very same Jan Cornelis Rijp who had parted company with them in the previous year. On the 30th of August he came and welcomed them with great joy as if they had risen from death to life again. He brought a barrel of beer, wine, spirits, bread, meat, salmon, and sugar to comfort and relieve them. At Kola they left the two boats in which they had sailed over 600 miles “whereat the inhabitants could not sufficiently wonder.” On the 17th September the homeward voyage was commenced in the ship of Jan Cornelis Rijp. Still very weak, but rapidly recovering, they reached Amsterdam on the 1st of November, 1597, in the same clothes they wore in Novaya Zemlya, and were received by Prince Maurice.

The narrative of this remarkable voyage was simply but well written by Gerrit de Veer, the mate, and faithful companion of Barentsz in his last two voyages40.

Willem Barentsz deservedly holds a high place in the roll of Arctic worthies. He was a good sailor, and an accomplished pilot and navigator. As an observer he was careful and remarkably accurate. But he possessed still higher qualities. He was resolute and persevering, and, while taking all possible precautions, he was ready to run some risk in order to secure success. He knew well that to be over cautious was to secure nothing, and that some slight dash of recklessness was the very essence of achievement. Hence his deeds exceeded those of all others in that 16th century. He was trusted by his men, and anxiety was mingled with their sorrow at the loss of their “chief guide and only pilot.”

For 278 years the winter quarters of Barentsz remained unvisited. The north-east point of Novaya Zemlya was never again rounded until the spell was broken by the Norwegian, Captain Elling Carlsen, who reached the Ice Haven of Barentsz on September 7th, 187141. He saw the house standing at the head of the bay, with large puncheons standing round it, and found the interior exactly as represented in the old drawing which illustrates the narrative of Gerrit de Veer. There was the row of standing bed-places, the Dutch clock, the halberd and muskets, the great kettles and cooking-pans over the fireplace, the instruments, and the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night. One book was a translation of the Spanish work of Medina on navigation, another a chronicle of Holland, another a Dutch translation of Mendoza’s History of China. There was also a Dutch version of Arthur Pet’s journal. Implements and utensils of all kinds too there were, down to the flute and the small shoes of the poor little ship’s boy who died during the winter42.

Queen Elizabeth took great interest in the northern voyages of her own subjects and of her Dutch allies. We find Sir Francis Vere, her General in the Netherlands, sending home a full account of the first voyage of Barentsz on 7th October 159443, and adopting Linschoten’s sanguine views of the ultimate commercial success of the enterprise, which was to be renewed in the following year. This letter was the consequence of an order from the Queen to keep her fully informed respecting the maritime, and more especially the Arctic, undertakings of the Dutch.