Sir John Wolstenholme was one of the most persistent of the Merchant Adventurers and, after Baffin’s return, he fitted out a ship in 1619 for John Hawkridge, the friend of Button who had accompanied him on his voyage. But Hawkridge never got beyond the entrance to Hudson Strait.

The sailor King of Denmark then resolved to have a turn at the North-west Passage and appointed Jens Eriksen Munk to command an expedition.

The early adventures of this gallant Danish seaman are not without interest. His father had an estate at Barbo near Arendal in Norway, but the boy Jens was brought up by an aunt at Aalborg in Jutland from the time that he was nine years old. Three years later, in 1591, he was sent in charge of a Friesland skipper to England, and thence to Oporto to learn the language, in the employment of a Portuguese named Duarte Duez. Duez sent the boy at the age of 13 to his brother Miguel Duez at Bahia in Brazil. On his arrival young Munk found that Miguel Duez was gone, so the boy went on a returning ship to go home. The ship was attacked by a French privateer and sunk, only seven of the crew being saved, including the Danish boy. He was landed at Bahia destitute, and became a shoemaker’s apprentice for eleven, and a portrait painter’s boy for six months. At last Miguel Duez came back, and young Munk was with him for three years. In 1598 two Dutch vessels arrived, and the Spaniards on shore formed a plot to seize them. They were saved by the youthful Dane. Getting wind of the treachery, he swam off to the ships in the night, and warned them just in time. The Dutchmen were grateful, and enabled their saviour to return to Copenhagen. In 1601, Munk entered the service of a merchant named Hendrik Rommel, and made voyages to the Baltic ports and to Spain. He became a Captain in 1605 and made a voyage on his own account to Iceland for a cargo of sulphur, then to Archangel and Kolguev Island, where he was wrecked. In 1610 he made a voyage to Novaya Zemlya. In 1611 he received a commission as Captain in the Danish Royal Navy, and was in a naval action with the Swedes, but peace was signed in 1613. Next he accompanied Jacob Ulfeldt in an embassy to Spain, and in 1616 we find him at St Jean de Luz engaging Basques for the whale fishery.

Christian IV could not have found a better man to command his Arctic expedition than Jens Eriksen Munk, then aged 40. He was to lead two exploring ships, the Eenhiörningen (Unicorn) and Lamprenen (Lamprey), sailing from Copenhagen on the 9th May, 1619. When Munk sighted Cape Farewell he humorously remarked that he who gave it the name never wished to see it again. The two exploring vessels had to make their way through much ice before they could enter Hudson Strait. Crossing Hudson’s Bay Munk decided upon wintering on the west side, at a place now called Port Churchill, where they anchored in September, and moored with six hawsers on the 28th during a terrible snow-storm.

Captain Munk did his best for the health of his people. He sent them out to gather whortleberries and crowberries, and to shoot ptarmigan, and also procured white whale flesh. There was weekly divine service and Holy Communion, and exercise for the men, who were sent out on ski. But the dreaded scurvy appeared very early. The first death was on December 13th, the surgeon of the Lamprey. There was a solemn service on Christmas Day, but the chaplain, Rasmus Jensen, took to his bed a few days afterwards and died in February. Those who were strong enough were sent to gather berries for the sick. Day after day more and more were prostrated. Men were dying almost every day. At the end of March, Munk wrote, “commenced my greatest sorrow and misery, attending all day to the sick. I was then like a wild and lonely bird.” On the 1st of April his own young nephew, Erik Munk, died, then his Lieutenant, Morits Stygge, then the mate, a young Englishman named John Watson. Munk had baths prepared for the survivors, and on April 20th he shot three ptarmigan. Still there were deaths daily. Those smitten with the scurvy suffered great pains in the loins, the body turning blue and brown, and becoming powerless, the mouth in a miserable condition, with all the teeth loose. Captain Munk was at last too weak to bury the dead. Only three besides himself were left in June. He wrote a note asking anyone that came to bury him. He and the other survivors crawled about on shore, seeking for any green thing. Towards the end of June they caught some fish, and got some every day. They began to gain strength, and in the middle of July they were strong enough to get the little Lamprey ready for sea, leaving the larger vessel, and the four survivors at length sailed, arriving at Bergen on the 25th September, 1620.

After this appalling experience Munk needed some rest. His ability, however, was well known to the King and he was later much employed. During the early part of the Thirty Years War he was in command in the Weser. He became an Admiral, and died in 162892.

After Munk’s disastrous voyage there was a pause for a dozen years, and then Luke Foxe, with his diligent research, whole-hearted enthusiasm, and quaint humour engages our attention.

Foxe was a Yorkshireman and almost certainly from Hull. He tells us that he was sea bred from a boy and had been in voyages to the Baltic and the Mediterranean. He had evidently received a good education and was well read. He had an excellent opinion of himself, and was very young when he applied to Captain Knight to take him as his mate. He was reminded of his youth and he afterwards admitted that he had been rather presumptuous. Foxe was much with John Tappe, a bookseller with a shop on Tower Hill, who published the Maryner’s Book, and a translation of the Arte de Navegar by Martin Cortes. This friend enabled him to study Arctic history. Foxe also had the great advantage of securing the friendship of Henry Briggs, the famous mathematician, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, who introduced the practical use of logarithms. When Foxe resolved to get command of an Arctic expedition, it was through Briggs that he obtained the patronage of Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador, who had returned from India.

In 1631, with the help of the Trinity House, Luke Foxe, full of intense eagerness, secured his heart’s desire. He was allowed to have H.M.S. Charles, an old gunboat of 70 or 80 tons, which had seen much service, and had been ordered to be sold. The Master, whose name is never given, and the mate Yourin or Hurin, were not of his choosing, having been appointed by the Trinity House. Of the Master, Foxe says he was “the most arrogant bull calf that ever went or came as Master and the most faint-heartedest man.” The crew consisted of 20 men and 3 boys, and the ship was provisioned for 18 months. Foxe was against the use of tobacco as “a thing good for nothing,” but all the men smoked.

The Charles sailed from Deptford on the 5th of May, 1631, going north about, instead of down channel.

Another expedition had sailed from Bristol nearly at the same time and with the same object, under the command of Captain James. He sighted Greenland encompassed about with ice, and worked continually to keep clear of it. Passing down Hudson Strait and between Nottingham Island and Cape Digges, Captain James, as we shall see, met the Charles in Hudson’s Bay on the 29th August.

Foxe first came to Lumley Inlet on the west coast of Davis Strait, really Frobisher Strait, which Davis did not realise. Davis named it after Lord Lumley who had “built the pier of that distressful poor fisher town Hartlepool at a cost of £2000, and was a great favourer of Davis.” In Hudson Strait the progress of the Charles was much impeded by ice from the 23rd June to the 4th July. Foxe describes the ice and also mentions the use of log and line for registering the ship’s run93.

In the middle of July Foxe tried to sail between Nottingham and Salisbury Islands, but he was stopped by the ice in his attempt to go to the north-west, as others had been before him. He therefore turned to the south and made his way along the south coast of Southampton Island, sighting Mansel Island and Cary’s Swan’s Nest, named by Button. Foxe then discovered the wide opening between the west side of Southampton Island and the main land, without finding the narrow strait at the northern end. Supposing it to be a deep bay, he named it after his patron, “Sir Thomas Roe’s Welcome.” An island was named “Briggs his Mathematics” on the 31st July, after the great mathematician to whom we owe the use of logarithms, who had died a few months before Foxe sailed on his voyage of discovery. Our explorer then visited the winter quarters of Button and Munk, finding the remains of their ships, but, convinced that there was no passage on the west side of Hudson’s Bay, he resolved to return to the east side of Southampton Island and make another attempt by the north-west.

In crossing Hudson’s Bay the Charles came in sight of another vessel, which proved to be the Henrietta Maria, commanded by Captain James. The two exploring ships stopped to communicate and Captain James entertained Captain Foxe at dinner, the ships then proceeding on their respective ways on the 1st September. Captain James wintered at Charlton Island in the extreme south-east angle of Hudson’s Bay. The party underwent the most terrible suffering, but the ship arrived safely in England in the autumn of 163294.

On the 7th September the Charles was off the south point of Southampton Island. Much hampered by ice Foxe reached Mill Island of Baffin, and then stood over to the north main land at a point he called King’s Cape. He was now in the locality where Baffin turned back, judging from the indications that there was only a large bay ahead. All beyond would, therefore, be new discovery. He had reached what we now know as Fox Channel. Sailing onwards, he passed two promontories, 20 leagues apart, which he named Lord Weston’s Portland and Cape Dorchester; then, on the 22nd, in 66° 47′ N., he reached his furthest point, which he rather pompously called “North-West Foxe his furthest.” He was on his way to a north-west passage or rather to one lane by which the two oceans unite, for it could never be a passage. The discovery was completed in after years by Parry, Ross, Rae, and M’Clintock.

Foxe had found his master and mate to be nuisances and hindrances throughout the voyage, and the former was very pusillanimous. Now his difficulties were much increased by the spread of sickness among the crew. His decision to return without risking a winter was no doubt right. He took all possible means at his disposal for the good of the sick, and established a dietary of four beef days in the week. Passing Cape Chidley on the 15th, the Charles arrived off the Downs on the 31st October, 1631, “not having lost one man nor boy, nor any manner of tackling.”

The account of his voyage published by Luke Foxe is a remarkable book in several respects. It is the first attempt to give a history of all the Arctic voyages which preceded his own, from the account of Othere’s voyage given by King Alfred down to his own time. It contains the only narrative that has been preserved of the voyage of Button. His own story is that of a well-conducted and, on the whole, successful expedition. Above all, “North-West Foxe,” as he calls himself, has given us the quaintest and most amusing narrative in the whole range of Polar literature, which is fairly voluminous. His too obvious self-conceit and very high estimation of the merits of North-West Foxe himself may well be forgiven for the sake of his quaint remarks and the amusing style of his writing. Foxe’s book is an acquisition to Arctic literature.

One more rather unimportant expedition closes the first period of Arctic endeavour. John Wood was a Master’s mate in the Sweepstakes under Sir John Narborough when a voyage was undertaken through Magellan’s Strait to Chile in 1669. He gave want of employment and aversion to an idle life as reasons for submitting a plan to Government for discovering the north-east passage. The plan met with the approval of Samuel Pepys, the Secretary to the Admiralty, and Wood received the command of the Speedwell, with the Prosperous pink as a tender. The Speedwell also had the eminent hydrographer Grenville Collins on board. The expedition sailed on the 28th May, 1676; the polar pack between the North Cape and Novaya Zemlya was reached on the 22nd June, and Novaya Zemlya was sighted on the 26th. But there was no one on board with any experience of ice navigation; the Speedwell grounded on the 29th and became a wreck. Fortune, however, favoured the crew. There was no loss of life, and all the members of the expedition returned home in the pink, arriving in the Thames on the 24th August.

The civil war and the unsettled state of the country gave pause to Arctic work until the 18th century, but this “Elizabethan era” of polar discovery as it may comprehensively be termed, forms a truly magnificent record. 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. But the Elizabethan heroes had fortitude, indomitable energy, and the strongest sense of duty, and were influenced by that loyalty and patriotism without which no country can remain great. Virtute non armis fido was their motto. The splendour and magnitude of their achievements remains unsurpassed.