Editing Northwest Passage (section)

===Northern Atlantic===
[[File:John White – The skirmish at Bloody Point, Frobisher Bay (British Museum) (cropped).png|thumb|Skirmish between [[Martin Frobisher]]'s men and [[Inuit]], {{circa|1577–78}}]]
The first recorded attempt to discover the Northwest Passage was the east–west voyage of [[John Cabot]] in 1497, sent by [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] in search of a direct route to the [[Orient]].<ref name="cook">{{cite book|last=Collingridge|first=Vanessa|title=Captain Cook: The Life, Death and Legacy of History's Greatest Explorer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1C_ZKQnqmD0C&pg=PP1|year=2011|publisher=Ebury|isbn=978-1-4481-1716-1}}</ref> In 1524, [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] sent [[Estêvão Gomes]] to find a northern Atlantic passage to the [[Spice Islands]]. An English expedition was launched in 1576 by [[Martin Frobisher]], who took three trips west to what is now the [[Canadian Arctic]] in order to find the passage. [[Frobisher Bay]], which he first charted, is named after him.

As part of another expedition, in July 1583 Sir [[Humphrey Gilbert]], who had written a treatise on the discovery of the passage and was a backer of Frobisher, claimed the territory of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] for the English crown. On August 8, 1585, the English explorer [[John Davis (English explorer)|John Davis]] entered [[Cumberland Sound]], Baffin Island.<ref name=Morison>{{cite book|last=Morison|first=Samuel Eliot|title=The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages|url=https://archive.org/details/europeandiscover00moririch|url-access=registration|year=1971|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

The major rivers on the east coast were also explored in case they could lead to a transcontinental passage. [[Jacques Cartier]]'s explorations of the [[Saint Lawrence River]] in 1535 were initiated in hope of finding a way through the continent. Cartier became persuaded that the St. Lawrence was the Passage; when he found the way blocked by rapids at what is now [[Montreal]], he was so certain that these rapids were all that was keeping him from China (in French, ''la Chine''), that he named the rapids for China. [[Samuel de Champlain]] renamed them Sault Saint-Louis in 1611, but the name was changed to [[Lachine Rapids]] in the mid-19th century.

In 1602, [[George Weymouth]] became the first European to explore what would later be called [[Hudson Strait]] when he sailed {{ship||Discovery|1602 ship|2}} {{convert|300|nmi|km}} into the Strait. Weymouth's expedition to find the Northwest Passage was funded jointly by the British [[East India Company]] and the [[Muscovy Company]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Glyn|title=Arctic Labyrinth: The Quest for the Northwest Passage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H6kwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|year=2010|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26995-8|page=45}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hunter|first=Douglas|title=God's Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal, and the Dream of Discovery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzoSiqV--t8C&pg=PP1|year=2007|publisher=Doubleday Canada|isbn=978-0-385-67268-9|pages=13, 41}}</ref> ''Discovery'' was the same ship used by [[Henry Hudson]] on his final voyage.

[[John Knight (seafarer)|John Knight]], employed by the British East India Company and the Muscovy Company, set out in 1606 to follow up on Weymouth's discoveries and find the Northwest Passage. After his ship ran aground and was nearly crushed by ice, Knight disappeared while searching for a better anchorage.{{sfnp|Hunter|2007|pp=71–73}}

In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up what is now called the [[Hudson River]] in search of the Passage; encouraged by the saltiness of the water in the estuary,<!--[salt water is detectable no further than 50 miles upriver under the lowest rainfall/runoff conditions.life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/fc.1.estuaries.html]--> he reached present-day [[Albany, New York]], before giving up.  On September 14, 1609, Hudson entered the [[Tappan Zee]] while sailing upstream from [[New York Harbor]]. At first, Hudson believed the widening of the river indicated that he had found the Northwest Passage. He proceeded upstream as far as present-day [[Troy, New York|Troy]] before concluding that no such [[strait]] existed there. He later explored the Arctic and Hudson Bay.

In 1611, while in [[James Bay]], Hudson's crew mutinied. They set Hudson and his teenage son John, along with seven sick, infirm, or loyal crewmen, adrift in a small open boat. He was never seen again.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/hell/anthology/travel/Travel1625Pricket.htm |title=Excerpt from A Larger Discourse of the Same Voyage |first=Abacuk |last=Pricket |date=1625 |publisher=Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto |work=Computing in the Humanities and Social Sciences |access-date=February 19, 2011 |archive-date=August 24, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824090707/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/hell/anthology/travel/Travel1625Pricket.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite DCB |title=Hudson, Henry |first=L.H. |last=Neatby |volume=1 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hudson_henry_1E.html}}</ref> The only account is by one of the mutineers, [[Abacuk Pricket]].

A mission was sent out in 1612, again in ''Discovery'', commanded by Sir [[Thomas Button]] to find Henry Hudson and continue through the Northwest Passage. After failing to find Hudson, and exploring the west coast of Hudson Bay, Button returned home due to illness in the crew. In 1614, William Gibbons attempted to find the Passage, but was turned back by ice. The next year, 1615, [[Robert Bylot]], a survivor of Hudson's crew, returned to Hudson Strait in ''Discovery'', but was turned back by ice.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Wilson|first=John|title=Bylot, Robert|editor=Mark Nuttall|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Arctic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Swr9BTI_2FEC&pg=PA295|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-78680-8|pages=295–296}}</ref> Bylot tried again in 1616 with [[William Baffin]]. They sailed as far as [[Lancaster Sound]] and reached 77°45′ North latitude, a record which stood for 236 years, before being blocked by ice.

On May 9, 1619, under the auspices of [[King Christian IV]] of [[Denmark–Norway]], [[Jens Munk]] set out with 65 men and the king's two ships, ''Einhörningen'' (Unicorn), a small [[frigate]], and ''Lamprenen'' (Lamprey), a sloop, which were outfitted under his own supervision. His mission was to discover the Northwest Passage to the Indies and China. Munk penetrated Davis Strait as far north as 69°, found Frobisher Bay, and then spent almost a month fighting his way through Hudson Strait. In September 1619, he found the entrance to Hudson Bay and spent the winter near the mouth of the Churchill River. Cold, [[famine]], and [[scurvy]] destroyed so many of his men that only he and two other men survived. With these men, he sailed for home with ''Lamprey'' on July 16, 1620, reaching [[Bergen]], Norway, on September 20, 1620.

[[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]] built the [[sailing ship]], {{ship||Le Griffon}}, in his quest to find the Northwest Passage via the upper [[Great Lakes]]. He made his way across [[Lake Erie]] and [[Lake Huron]], making port on [[Mackinac Island]] before landing at Washington Island at the mouth of [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]] to trade for furs with [[Pottawatomie]] Indians. La Salle stayed behind while the ship sailed back to Mackinac with the furs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sailfarlivefree.com/2011/12/ghosts-of-great-lakes.html|title=Ghosts of the Great Lakes|access-date=December 12, 2021|archive-date=December 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212005803/http://www.sailfarlivefree.com/2011/12/ghosts-of-great-lakes.html|url-status=live}}</ref>  ''Le Griffon'' disappeared in 1679 on the return trip of her maiden voyage.<ref name="History of the Great Lakes">
{{cite book |chapter=CHapter VII: Story of La Salle and The Griffon |title=History of the Great Lakes |volume=I |date=1899 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreatla01mans/page/78 |publisher=J.H. Beers & Co |location=Chicago |editor-first=J. B. |editor-last=Mansfield |pages=78–90}}</ref> In the spring of 1682, La Salle made his famous voyage down the [[Mississippi River]] to the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. La Salle led an expedition from France in 1684 to establish a [[List of French possessions and colonies|French colony]] on the Gulf of Mexico. He was murdered by his followers in 1687.<ref>{{cite DCB |title=Cavelier de La Salle, Rene-Robert |first=Céline |last=Dupré |volume=1 |url= http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cavelier_de_la_salle_rene_robert_1E.html}}</ref>

[[File:Voyage à la baye de Hudson, fait en 1746 et 1747.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|Ellis expedition: Voyage to Hudson Bay, in 1746 and 1747]]
[[Henry Ellis (governor)|Henry Ellis]], born in Ireland, was part of a company aiming to discover the Northwest Passage in May 1746. After the difficult extinction of a fire on board the ship, he sailed to [[Greenland]], where he traded goods with the [[Inuit]] peoples on July 8, 1746. He crossed to the town of Fort Nelson and spent the summer on the [[Hayes River]]. He renewed his efforts in June 1747, without success, before returning to England.

In 1772, the English fur trader [[Samuel Hearne]] travelled overland northwest from Hudson Bay to the Arctic Ocean, thereby proving that there was no strait connecting Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean.