Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson (c. 1565–disappeared 1611) was an English navigator who in 1607 and 1608 twice sought a Northeast Passage above Russia. In 1609, sailing for the Dutch East India Company, he crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the river later named after him, opening it to Dutch settlement.

On his final expedition, seeking a Northwest Passage, he became the first European to see Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay. After wintering in James Bay, the crew mutinied in June 1611 and cast him, his son and six others adrift in an open boat; they vanished without trace.