Willem Barentsz

Willem Barentsz (c. 1550–1597) was a Dutch cartographer and navigator who led three expeditions seeking a Northeast Passage to China, believing the summer sun would melt the ice north of Siberia and leave a trade route open.

In 1594 he mapped Novaya Zemlya's west coast before ice drove him back, and a follow-up expedition in 1595 also failed. In May 1596 he sailed again, discovering Bear Island and Spitsbergen, but his ship was trapped off Novaya Zemlya, where the sixteen men wintered in a driftwood lodge, Het Behouden Huys.

In June 1597 the survivors set out in open boats; Barentsz died at sea on 20 June. The Barents Sea bears his name.