Category: Adventure

The Three Voyages of William Barents to the Arctic Regions (1594, 1595, and 1596)

The Right Hon. Sir DAVID DUNDAS, President. Admiral C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. } Vice-Presidents. Major-General Sir HENRY RAWLINSON, K.C.B., F.R.S. } W. A. TYSSEN AMHURST, Esq. Rev. Dr. G. P. BADGER, D.C.L., F.R.G.S. J. BARROW, Esq., F.R.S. Vice-Admiral Sir RICHARD COLLINS...

Chapters

21. Part 21

The 29 of August, the ship lying vpright againe, we vsed all the meanes we could, with yron hookes [709] and other instruments, to breake the flakes of ice that lay one heap’d v...

22. Part 22

The 19 of October ye wind blew north-east, and then there was but two men and a boy in the ship, at which time there came a beare that sought forcibly to get into the ship, alth...

24. Part 24

The 26 of Janurie it was faire cleere weather, but in the horrison there hung a white or darke cloude, [986] whereby we could not see the sun; whereupon the rest of our companio...

26. Part 26

The 1 of June it was faire [beautiful] weather, and then our men were for the most part sicke with eating the liuer of a [1144] beare, as it is said before, whereby that day the...

23. Part 23

The 17 of December the wind still held north-east, with faire weather, and so great frosts that we were of opinion that if there stood a barrel full of water [891] without the d...

28. Part 28

The 11 of July in the morning as we sate fast vpon the ice, the sunne being north-east, there came a great beare out of the water running towards vs, but we watcht for her with...

25. Part 25

The 27 of March it was faire weather, the wind west and very calme; then the ice began to driue away againe, but the ship lay fast and stird not.

20. Part 20

The first of July wee saw the Beare-Island [626] againe, and then John Cornelison and his officers came aboard of our ship, to speak with vs about altering of our course; but we...

29. Part 29

The 3 of August, about the north sun, the weather being somewhat better, we agreed amongst our selues to leaue Noua Zembla and to crosse ouer to Russia; and so committing our se...

30. Part 30

The 20 of August, being not farre from the land, the north-east wind left vs, and then it began to blow stiffe north-west; at which time, seeing we could not make much way by sa...

16. Part 16

From the Island of Crosses to the point of Cape Nassawe, [290] they sailed east, and east and by north, about 8 [32] miles: it is a long [291] flat point which you must be caref...

18. Part 18

After that we held diuers courses because of the ice, and sayled south-east and by east and south south-east for the space of 18 [72] miles, till the 18 of August, when the sunn...

19. Part 19

The 20 of September, wee sayled south and by west and south south-west, 7 [28] or 8 [32] miles, at 80 fadome deepe, black slimie ground; from morning till noone wee sailed with...

17. Part 17

Then againe they sailed south-west and by west, and west south-west 3 [12] miles; there they had 70 fadome deepe, and so sayled till the thirteenth of August in the morning, sou...

27. Part 27

The 23 of June we sailed still forward west and by south till the sunne was south-east, and got to the Trust Point, [1233] which is distant from the Ice Point 25 [100] miles, an...

15. Part 15

It is a most certaine and an assured assertion, that nothing doth more benefit and further the common-wealth (specially these countries [230]) then the art and knowledge of naui...

31. Part 31

Cvm meminissem, amice optime, quanta, cum vnà ageremus, delectatione afficerere in legendis geographicis scriptis Homeri, Strabonis, Aristotelis, Plinij, Dionis et reliquorum, l...

7. Part 7

But to return to Pet, who after parting from Jackman continued his course eastwards, apparently following in Willoughby’s track, till, on the 4th of July, he saw land in latitud...

35. Part 35

[574] Hielt de loef van ons, ende quam niet af tot ons, maer wy ghinghen hem een streeck int ghemoet—kept to windward of us, and would not fall off towards us; but we altered ou...

34. Part 34

[360] Meel-haven—apparently the Strogonov Bay of Lütke, who, in his account of his third voyage (p. 316), speaks of a tradition, according to which this was formerly the residen...

3. Part 3

And then, as Mr. Muller remarks, the journal of Barendsz, which gives fewer anecdotes but more courses, merits even more confidence than the indistinct statements of De Veer. Th...

32. Part 32

[21] See “Notes on the Ice between Greenland and Novaya Zemlya”, by Captain M. H. Jansen, of the Dutch Navy (Proceedings of the R.G.S., vol. ix, No. IV, p. 170).

36. Part 36

[746] Ende drie bleven byt hout om dat te behouwen, soo werdet so veel te lichter int slepen—and three remained behind with the wood, to hew it, so that it might be the lighter...

2. Part 2

Olivier Brunel was born at Brussels in the first part of the sixteenth century. Of the early years of his life absolutely nothing is known. It may be that he went in 1565 with t...

11. Part 11

Seeing the signal failure of the second expedition, the States General, after mature deliberation, decided that no further attempt should be made at the public expense to discov...

33. Part 33

In the advertisement to the reader in this latter work (copies of which have sold as high as £10 15s.), it is stated that the “Booke being commended by Maister Richard Hackluyt,...

38. Part 38

Regarding the several observations of stars as well as of the sun (except those of March 20th, April 2nd and 18th, and May 24th, which are uncertain), as being all equally good,...

6. Part 6

Before meeting with his untimely end, Willoughby, on the 14th of August, “descried land, which land (he says, in a note found written in one of the two ships) we bare with all,...

37. Part 37

[965] Want wy sagen gestadich op de vorrnoemde twee planeten dat se altemet malcanderen naerderden—for we looked constantly at the two planets aforesaid, (and saw) that, from ti...

12. Part 12

Barents made so many discoveries and traced so large an extent of coast, both of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, that the surveys of the whole of our recent explorers, put togeth...

4. Part 4

For the rest, the account of Witsen is rather vague, and exclusively depends upon verbal communications. These old voyages of the Dutch walrus-hunters, as well as those of the N...

10. Part 10

The several vessels composing the fleet having assembled at the Texel, they all sailed out of Mars Diep on the morning of Sunday, the 2d of July, 1595. It was not till the 10th...

13. Part 13

Now the facts of the case are in reality as follows:—In the first place, the Dutch reckoned their time according to the new style, which had already been adopted in the Netherla...

9. Part 9

It is not, however, to be imagined that the Netherlanders—we can scarcely speak of the “Dutch” at the earliest period to which we are now adverting—had no previous connexion wit...

8. Part 8

It likewise seems only right that the name Matthew’s Land (the “Land of Matpheoue”) or Matvyéeva Zemlya, should not be lost from our maps; and it is therefore proposed to approp...

1. Part 1

The Right Hon. Sir DAVID DUNDAS, President. Admiral C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. } Vice-Presidents. Major-General Sir HENRY RAWLINSON, K.C.B., F.R.S. } W. A. TYSSEN AMHURST, E...

5. Part 5

“37. Iron clock-work, in which are seven cog-wheels; the cover is of iron plates, but partly rusted. The dial-plate is lost, but one of the hands is still present. There is also...

14. Part 14

Im Jar nach unserer Erlösung 1595, sein von den Unirten Ständen in Holl und Seeland, &c., und dem Duchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren, Herren Mauritz, Grafen zu Nassa...

39. Part 39

[1449] We have here a convincing proof that they were no longer under the able guidance of William Barentsz. For this reason it has, since the time of his death, been deemed unn...