Henry Hudson made four major voyages between 1607 and 1611 while searching for a navigable northern route between Europe and Asia. The voyages repeatedly failed at that objective but produced geographical knowledge that later shaped trade and colonization.
In 1607 and 1608 Hudson sailed for the English Muscovy Company toward Arctic waters, exploring near Greenland and Spitsbergen and probing for a northeast passage.
In 1609 he sailed Half Moon for the Dutch East India Company. Ice blocked the intended northeast route, and Hudson turned west across the Atlantic.
The expedition explored the North American coast and then sailed up the river now bearing Hudson’s name. The river did not provide a route to Asia, but Dutch commercial interest in the region expanded afterward.
In 1610 Hudson returned under English sponsorship aboard Discovery and entered the huge inland sea later named Hudson Bay.
The crew wintered in the bay under severe conditions. In June 1611 a mutiny placed Hudson, his teenage son, and several others into a small open boat.
Hudson was never seen again. The mutineers who returned to England provided much of the surviving account, meaning the end of the voyage is reconstructed from interested witnesses rather than Hudson’s own testimony.
The story should also retain Indigenous presence. These waters and rivers were already known, traveled, and inhabited by Indigenous peoples before European naming.
For TransitSatellite, each of the four voyages should be mapped separately; combining them would create a false route never sailed as one journey.