WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.600 Okay, let's just dive right in. I want you to, 00:00:01.659 --> 00:00:05.179 for a second, just visualize a map of North America. 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:07.000 Unless you're driving, of course. Please don't 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.259 close your eyes if you're driving. Right. But 00:00:09.259 --> 00:00:11.880 for everyone else, picture the East Coast, the 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:14.019 Canadian North. What names just, you know, jump 00:00:14.019 --> 00:00:16.149 out at you? Well, you can't miss them, really. 00:00:16.230 --> 00:00:19.289 There's the Hudson River slicing right past Manhattan. 00:00:19.690 --> 00:00:22.210 A pretty big landmark. Huge. And then you have 00:00:22.210 --> 00:00:24.850 the colossal Hudson Bay, which just dominates 00:00:24.850 --> 00:00:27.050 the map of Canada. Then, of course, the Hudson 00:00:27.050 --> 00:00:29.609 Strait, Hudson County, the Henry Hudson Bridge. 00:00:29.969 --> 00:00:32.649 His name is everywhere. It's like it's literally 00:00:32.649 --> 00:00:35.210 carved into the bedrock of the continent. It 00:00:35.210 --> 00:00:37.950 is. You can't navigate the geography or the history 00:00:37.950 --> 00:00:40.369 of the Western Hemisphere without tripping over 00:00:40.369 --> 00:00:42.549 his name. But this is where the story gets... 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.920 Incredibly strange. Yeah. And honestly, it's 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:50.439 a little unsettling. The man himself. He's a 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:52.899 ghost. A complete ghost. It's one of the most 00:00:52.899 --> 00:00:55.240 profound ironies in the history of exploration. 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:56.960 I mean, we're talking about a figure who is just 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.780 monumental. Yeah. Geographically, commercially. 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:02.579 Culturally. Absolutely. And yet, if you try to 00:01:02.579 --> 00:01:05.280 find Henry Hudson, the person, you know, what 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.040 drove him, his background, even what he looked 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:09.599 like, he just evaporates. We have no portrait 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:11.159 of him. We don't really know where he was born. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.099 And the ending of his story. See? It's not the 00:01:14.099 --> 00:01:16.859 typical hero returns home to a parade narrative, 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.480 to put it mildly. No, this is a mystery. It's 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:21.879 a story about obsession. And ultimately, it's 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:24.159 this terrifying story about a very cold, very 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:27.640 lonely end. It really is. It's the story of this 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:31.659 brilliant, maybe obsessive navigator who is cast 00:01:31.659 --> 00:01:35.299 adrift by his own men. In a tiny open boat. In 00:01:35.299 --> 00:01:37.219 the middle of the frozen Arctic, never to be 00:01:37.219 --> 00:01:40.180 seen by Europeans again. That image, just the 00:01:40.180 --> 00:01:42.680 sheer silence of it, has always stuck with me. 00:01:43.339 --> 00:01:45.680 So our mission for this deep dive is to try and 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:48.159 track down this lost navigator. We're going to 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:50.040 look at how his obsession with the Northwest 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:53.079 Passage, and the Northeast Passage for that matter, 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:56.019 how it accidentally redrew the map of the world. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:57.859 And we're going to have to dig into the ship 00:01:57.859 --> 00:02:00.260 laws, the court testimonies, and all the modern 00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:02.819 analysis to figure it out. Not just what he found, 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:06.140 but maybe why he lost everything. And we have 00:02:06.140 --> 00:02:07.680 to be really careful with those sources, right? 00:02:07.739 --> 00:02:09.379 Because as we'll see, the people telling this 00:02:09.379 --> 00:02:13.300 story had a... a very vested interest in making 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:15.699 Henry Hudson look bad. Or at least, you know, 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:18.460 deserving of his fate. Exactly. History is written 00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:20.819 by the survivors, even if the survivors are mutineers. 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.180 So let's start at the beginning. Or I guess the 00:02:24.180 --> 00:02:27.560 lack of a beginning. You said he's a ghost. What 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:31.379 do we actually know about Hudson before he steps 00:02:31.379 --> 00:02:35.250 onto a ship in 1607? Almost nothing. It is genuinely 00:02:35.250 --> 00:02:37.610 bizarre. I mean, usually with figures of this 00:02:37.610 --> 00:02:40.009 magnitude, think Drake or Raleigh or Columbus. 00:02:40.250 --> 00:02:42.590 We have birth records. We have family letters, 00:02:42.669 --> 00:02:44.610 something. Right. There's a paper trail. There 00:02:44.610 --> 00:02:47.169 is. With Hudson, he enters the historical record 00:02:47.169 --> 00:02:50.770 in 1607 as a fully formed middle -aged man. He's 00:02:50.770 --> 00:02:52.270 already a captain. He's already experienced. 00:02:52.490 --> 00:02:55.039 He just pops into existence at age 40. Essentially, 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:57.219 yes. Historians speculate he was born around 00:02:57.219 --> 00:03:00.539 1565, probably in London. There's this persistent 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:02.780 theory that his father might have been a wealthy 00:03:02.780 --> 00:03:05.800 alderman, a founding member of the Muscovy Company. 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:08.120 Ah, which would explain the connections. It would 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:11.120 explain a lot. But it's all circumstantial. We 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:13.219 don't know his education. We don't know where 00:03:13.219 --> 00:03:15.319 he learned to sail. But he must have had some 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:17.580 serious credentials. I mean, you don't just walk 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:20.000 up to a major trading conglomerate like the Muscovy 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:22.620 Company and say, hey, give me a ship. I want 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:25.659 to go sail to the North Pole. Precisely. When 00:03:25.659 --> 00:03:28.460 he first appears, he's being hired by the Muscovy 00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:31.340 Company of London. And this was, you know, one 00:03:31.340 --> 00:03:33.840 of the most powerful joint start companies in 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:36.080 the world. They wouldn't trust a novice with 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:38.199 that kind of capital. So what was the mission? 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:40.460 Because this is the part of the research that 00:03:40.460 --> 00:03:43.159 really stopped me in my tracks. The plan wasn't 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:46.039 just go explore north. No, it was much more specific. 00:03:47.170 --> 00:03:49.750 frankly, scientifically wild. They wanted to 00:03:49.750 --> 00:03:52.370 sail right over the top of the world. Yes. The 00:03:52.370 --> 00:03:55.629 goal was to reach Catheso, China, and the Spice 00:03:55.629 --> 00:03:58.409 Islands by sailing directly across the North 00:03:58.409 --> 00:04:01.030 Pole. Now, to a modern listener, that sounds 00:04:01.030 --> 00:04:04.030 insane. We know the North Pole is, or at least 00:04:04.030 --> 00:04:06.770 it was, a permanent ice cap. Why on earth did 00:04:06.770 --> 00:04:08.870 a group of wealthy, educated London merchants 00:04:08.870 --> 00:04:11.030 think you could sail a wooden ship across it? 00:04:11.229 --> 00:04:13.090 Well, this is where we have to kind of get into 00:04:13.090 --> 00:04:16.399 the headspace of 17th century science. They weren't 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:18.600 stupid. They just had a different understanding 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:22.019 of physics. Okay. There was a prevailing theory 00:04:22.019 --> 00:04:25.319 championed by cartographers like Robert Thorne 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:28.420 that the Arctic was only frozen at the edges. 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:32.199 Like a ring of ice. Exactly. And the logic was 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:34.889 based on the midnight sun. They knew that during 00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:37.509 the Arctic summer, the sun doesn't set for months. 00:04:37.629 --> 00:04:41.209 It's shining 24 hours a day. Right. So they theorized 00:04:41.209 --> 00:04:43.889 that this constant solar energy would generate 00:04:43.889 --> 00:04:47.089 enough heat to melt the ice at the high latitudes. 00:04:47.149 --> 00:04:49.110 So they thought if you could just punch through 00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:51.490 that outer rim of ice, you'd sail into a warm, 00:04:51.529 --> 00:04:54.709 maybe even tropical polar sea. That was the dream. 00:04:54.829 --> 00:04:57.930 A polinia, an open polar sea. They believed the 00:04:57.930 --> 00:04:59.970 constant friction of the ocean currents and the 00:04:59.970 --> 00:05:02.209 relentless sun would keep the top of the world 00:05:02.209 --> 00:05:04.829 open. can see why it was so seductive. Oh, absolutely. 00:05:05.069 --> 00:05:07.550 A direct route to China, shaving off thousands 00:05:07.550 --> 00:05:09.569 of miles. A straight line north. It would change 00:05:09.569 --> 00:05:11.750 the world economy overnight. It's a beautiful 00:05:11.750 --> 00:05:15.610 theory. Logically sound, if you just ignore thermodynamics. 00:05:15.850 --> 00:05:18.629 Right. So Hudson buys into this. He takes a ship, 00:05:18.730 --> 00:05:21.529 the Hopewell. Which was not a large vessel. Oh, 00:05:21.670 --> 00:05:25.149 tiny. About 80 tons. He takes a crew of 10 men 00:05:25.149 --> 00:05:29.209 and one boy, his own son, John. And on May 1st, 00:05:29.209 --> 00:05:33.029 1607, they set sail to test this open polar sea 00:05:33.029 --> 00:05:35.170 theory. They head straight for the ice. They 00:05:35.170 --> 00:05:37.810 reach the coast of Greenland in mid -May. And 00:05:37.810 --> 00:05:39.910 this is where we start to see Hudson the Explorer 00:05:39.910 --> 00:05:42.990 at work. He's meticulous. He's mapping. He's 00:05:42.990 --> 00:05:46.209 naming things. He names a Young's Cape and a 00:05:46.209 --> 00:05:49.089 Mount of God's Mercy. Mount of God's Mercy sounds 00:05:49.089 --> 00:05:50.730 like the name you come up with when you're already 00:05:50.730 --> 00:05:52.649 in serious trouble. It really does. It implies 00:05:52.649 --> 00:05:54.449 they were navigating through some pretty dangerous 00:05:54.449 --> 00:05:56.680 waters. For sure. They pushed further north, 00:05:56.779 --> 00:05:59.180 reaching what they called Newland, which we now 00:05:59.180 --> 00:06:01.680 know is Spitsbergen or Small Bard. They made 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:04.420 it incredibly far north. He even named a spot 00:06:04.420 --> 00:06:08.100 Hold With Hope. Hold With Hope. Wow. The names 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:10.019 alone really tell the psychological story of 00:06:10.019 --> 00:06:12.139 the crew. They do, and they managed to reach 00:06:12.139 --> 00:06:15.480 roughly 80 degrees north latitude. Hudson himself 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:18.100 estimated they went even higher, maybe 82 degrees. 00:06:18.379 --> 00:06:20.759 Which was probably a bit of an exaggeration. 00:06:20.970 --> 00:06:23.550 Modern analysis suggests he was slightly off, 00:06:23.649 --> 00:06:26.069 you know, due to the primitive instruments. But 00:06:26.069 --> 00:06:28.329 it doesn't matter. Getting an 80 -ton wooden 00:06:28.329 --> 00:06:31.529 boat to 80 degrees north is an incredible feat 00:06:31.529 --> 00:06:33.889 of seamanship. You have to imagine the conditions. 00:06:34.310 --> 00:06:37.389 Fog, shifting pack ice, the rigging freezing 00:06:37.389 --> 00:06:41.009 solid. It's terrifying. But the theory, the big 00:06:41.009 --> 00:06:43.730 beautiful theory, was just wrong. Completely 00:06:43.730 --> 00:06:46.939 wrong. As they pushed north, the ice... didn't 00:06:46.939 --> 00:06:49.399 thin out. It got thicker. They finally hit the 00:06:49.399 --> 00:06:52.180 polar ice pack. There was no warm sea. There 00:06:52.180 --> 00:06:54.779 was just a wall of white. So the mission to cross 00:06:54.779 --> 00:06:57.779 the pole is a failure. But this voyage isn't 00:06:57.779 --> 00:07:00.779 a total loss, is it? Because in his logs, Hudson 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:02.839 mentioned something else, something he saw in 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:05.279 the water. Yes. While he's dodging all these 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:07.860 icebergs, he notes that the waters around Spitsbergen 00:07:07.860 --> 00:07:10.660 are teeming with whales. Great numbers of whales 00:07:10.660 --> 00:07:12.779 is how he puts it in the log. And that one little 00:07:12.779 --> 00:07:15.220 sentence basically launches an economic gold 00:07:15.220 --> 00:07:18.769 rush. It does. Hudson didn't find spices, but 00:07:18.769 --> 00:07:21.689 he found oil. His report, and the credit is sometimes 00:07:21.689 --> 00:07:23.930 debated between him and another explorer, a guy 00:07:23.930 --> 00:07:26.149 named Jonas Poole, but his report effectively 00:07:26.149 --> 00:07:28.720 kickstarts the Arctic whaling industry. Within 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.519 a few years, the Dutch, the English, the French, 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:34.800 the Spanish, they're all swarming those waters. 00:07:35.060 --> 00:07:37.920 They nearly hunt the bowhead whale to extinction 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:40.759 in that region. It's the law of unintended consequences. 00:07:41.139 --> 00:07:43.620 He goes looking for a shortcut to silk and spices, 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.160 and instead he lights up the street lamps of 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:48.819 London with whale oil. Exactly. And that brings 00:07:48.819 --> 00:07:52.040 us to the end of the 1607 voyage. He returns 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:54.240 to England, having failed to find the passage, 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:56.819 but having proven he could navigate the ice better 00:07:56.819 --> 00:07:58.879 than almost anyone else alive at the time. Which 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:02.639 buys him another shot. So 1608, he's back in 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:05.160 the same ship, the Hopewell. Right. And the Muscovy 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:06.660 Company is still backing him, but they've kind 00:08:06.660 --> 00:08:10.339 of cooled on the whole North Pole idea. I'd imagine 00:08:10.339 --> 00:08:13.110 so. The over -the -top theory is busted. So they 00:08:13.110 --> 00:08:15.889 pivot. They pivot to the Northeast Passage. The 00:08:15.889 --> 00:08:19.269 idea is to sail east, over the top of Scandinavia 00:08:19.269 --> 00:08:21.350 and Russia, and then come down into the Pacific 00:08:21.350 --> 00:08:24.230 that way. Which, spoiler alert, is also incredibly 00:08:24.230 --> 00:08:26.930 difficult. It's the Northern Sea Route. Even 00:08:26.930 --> 00:08:29.610 today, with nuclear icebreakers, it's not exactly 00:08:29.610 --> 00:08:32.370 a leisure cruise. And in a wooden sailing ship. 00:08:32.750 --> 00:08:35.350 It was brutal. Hudson made it to Novaya Zemlya, 00:08:35.549 --> 00:08:38.330 which is a long archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, 00:08:38.450 --> 00:08:40.830 just north of Russia. But just like the year 00:08:40.830 --> 00:08:43.809 before, they hit the ice. I feel like a pattern 00:08:43.809 --> 00:08:46.610 is emerging here. Hudson is a very capable, technical 00:08:46.610 --> 00:08:49.429 sailor. He gets the ship to the very edge of 00:08:49.429 --> 00:08:52.029 the known world. But he keeps running into the 00:08:52.029 --> 00:08:54.570 physical reality that the world is much, much 00:08:54.570 --> 00:08:56.850 colder than the investors in London think it 00:08:56.850 --> 00:08:59.840 is. The ice always wins in this era. He tried 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:02.019 everything. He tried to ram the ice. He tried 00:09:02.019 --> 00:09:05.059 to sail along the edge of it. But by July, it 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:07.679 was clear there was no way through. He had to 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:09.659 turn back. Now, there's a weird footnote about 00:09:09.659 --> 00:09:12.200 this 1608 voyage. You see it in some older history 00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:14.980 books. This claim that Hudson discovered Jan 00:09:14.980 --> 00:09:17.299 Mayen Island. Right. You'll see references to 00:09:17.299 --> 00:09:19.320 a place called Hudson's Touches. But this is 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:21.309 almost certainly a myth. Why do you say that? 00:09:21.429 --> 00:09:23.830 Well, if you actually plot his course from the 00:09:23.830 --> 00:09:26.850 1608 logs, hitting Yan Mayan would have required 00:09:26.850 --> 00:09:29.669 a massive, completely illogical detour that he 00:09:29.669 --> 00:09:32.389 just didn't have time for. Plus, his own journal 00:09:32.389 --> 00:09:34.149 doesn't mention it at all. So it's just people 00:09:34.149 --> 00:09:35.750 wanting to credit him with everything they could. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.879 I think so. He was becoming a celebrity explorer. 00:09:39.340 --> 00:09:42.159 It's like how every witty quote gets attributed 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:45.019 to Mark Twain or Winston Churchill. Every island 00:09:45.019 --> 00:09:47.600 in the north got attributed to Hudson for a while. 00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:50.039 So 1608 is another bust. He comes back to London 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:53.759 and the Muscovy Company, I'm guessing they're 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:55.620 done right. They've spent a lot of money for 00:09:55.620 --> 00:09:57.759 two trips that went nowhere. They lose faith. 00:09:57.899 --> 00:09:59.539 They basically tell him, look, Henry, you're 00:09:59.539 --> 00:10:01.639 a great sailor, but this just isn't working. 00:10:02.090 --> 00:10:04.149 They cut his funding. But Hudson isn't the kind 00:10:04.149 --> 00:10:06.629 of guy who just retires to a cottage. He's obsessed. 00:10:07.389 --> 00:10:10.509 And this leads to what I think is the most fascinating 00:10:10.509 --> 00:10:14.509 pivot in his career. The 1609 voyage. The rogue 00:10:14.509 --> 00:10:17.389 voyage. Exactly. Because he doesn't sail for 00:10:17.389 --> 00:10:19.889 England this time. No. He crosses the channel. 00:10:20.070 --> 00:10:23.250 He goes to the rivals. He gets hired by the VOC, 00:10:23.330 --> 00:10:25.690 the Dutch East India Company. And we really need 00:10:25.690 --> 00:10:28.029 to contextualize the VOC for a second. This isn't 00:10:28.029 --> 00:10:30.769 just a company. This is like Google, Amazon and 00:10:30.769 --> 00:10:32.909 the U .S. Navy all rolled into one. They were 00:10:32.909 --> 00:10:35.149 the first global megacorporation. They had their 00:10:35.149 --> 00:10:37.590 own army, their own currency, the power to wage 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:40.269 war. And they were in a fierce trade war with 00:10:40.269 --> 00:10:43.149 England. So for Hudson and Englishmen to go work 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:45.879 for them. It was borderline craziness. It certainly 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.200 wasn't looked upon kindly back in London. But 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:50.820 the Dutch hire him. They give him a new ship, 00:10:50.940 --> 00:10:54.779 the famous half -mean, the half -moon. And what 00:10:54.779 --> 00:10:56.820 are his orders? This is critical. His contract 00:10:56.820 --> 00:11:00.259 was very, very specific. The VOC directors in 00:11:00.259 --> 00:11:03.779 Amsterdam were conservative. They told him, try 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:05.919 the Northeast Passage again. Go back to the place 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:07.879 where you just failed last time. Essentially, 00:11:08.039 --> 00:11:11.460 yes. Go back to Novaya Zemlya. Try to find the 00:11:11.460 --> 00:11:14.039 route over Russia. So Hudson sets off in April 00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:17.059 1609. He gets near the North Cape of Norway, 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:20.519 and surprise, surprise, he hits ice. Heavy storms. 00:11:21.059 --> 00:11:23.600 The crew, which was a mix of Dutch and English 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:25.419 sailors who couldn't even understand each other, 00:11:25.559 --> 00:11:28.440 they start getting mutinous. So most captains 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:31.320 in this situation have two choices. Go home and 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:33.139 face the music or keep banging their head against 00:11:33.139 --> 00:11:36.320 the ice. But Hudson takes option C. He goes rogue. 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:39.419 He commits what is essentially grand larceny 00:11:39.419 --> 00:11:41.879 and corporate disobedience. He ignores his orders. 00:11:42.019 --> 00:11:44.559 He proposes a new plan to the crew. He turns 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:46.539 the half moon around. But instead of heading 00:11:46.539 --> 00:11:50.019 back to Amsterdam, he points the ship west. Across 00:11:50.019 --> 00:11:53.019 the Atlantic. Right. Towards North America. He 00:11:53.019 --> 00:11:56.080 just decides to freelance. He had been corresponding 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.620 with his friend Captain John Smith. Yes, the 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:02.379 John Smith from Jamestown. No way. Yes. And Smith 00:12:02.379 --> 00:12:04.179 had sent him a map and some rumors that there 00:12:04.179 --> 00:12:06.159 was a passage through the North American continent 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:09.460 somewhere around 40 degrees latitude. So he bets 00:12:09.460 --> 00:12:12.399 his life, his crew, and a stolen Dutch ship. 00:12:12.730 --> 00:12:14.990 on a rumor from John Smith. It was a massive 00:12:14.990 --> 00:12:17.649 gamble. If he found the passage to Asia, the 00:12:17.649 --> 00:12:19.909 Dutch would forgive him. He'd be a hero. If he 00:12:19.909 --> 00:12:23.289 failed, well, he'd be a mutineer who stole a 00:12:23.289 --> 00:12:25.090 company asset. So they crossed the Atlantic. 00:12:25.129 --> 00:12:26.990 They reached the Grand Banks of Newfoundland 00:12:26.990 --> 00:12:29.690 in July. And this is where we need to talk about 00:12:29.690 --> 00:12:31.929 Hudson's leadership style, especially with the 00:12:31.929 --> 00:12:33.649 indigenous people they meet, because the logs 00:12:33.649 --> 00:12:35.679 came to a pretty disturbing picture. They do, 00:12:35.820 --> 00:12:37.899 and it often gets glossed over in the heroic 00:12:37.899 --> 00:12:41.899 explorer narrative. They land near what is now 00:12:41.899 --> 00:12:45.440 Le Havre in Nova Scotia to repair a broken mast. 00:12:45.740 --> 00:12:48.820 The indigenous people there, likely the Mi 'kmaq, 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:50.740 were actually quite accustomed to Europeans. 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:53.000 They had been trading with French fishermen for 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:55.779 decades. So they came out to the ship ready to 00:12:55.779 --> 00:12:58.419 trade beaver pelts. So this wasn't a hostile 00:12:58.419 --> 00:13:00.759 first contact. It was a business opportunity. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:03.720 It started that way. But Hudson's crew was on 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:07.110 edge. And on July 25th, the log records a really 00:13:07.110 --> 00:13:10.190 shocking escalation. Hudson's mate writes that 00:13:10.190 --> 00:13:12.809 they took the ship's boat, loaded it with 12 00:13:12.809 --> 00:13:15.470 men armed with muskets and a murderer. Which 00:13:15.470 --> 00:13:17.470 is type of small cannon, right? A small cannon, 00:13:17.610 --> 00:13:20.629 yes. And they went ashore. They assaulted the 00:13:20.629 --> 00:13:22.490 village, drove the people into the woods and 00:13:22.490 --> 00:13:24.769 stole their boat and all their goods. That is 00:13:24.769 --> 00:13:27.370 just straight up piracy. Why? Why did they do 00:13:27.370 --> 00:13:29.929 that? The log is vague. It suggests they feared 00:13:29.929 --> 00:13:31.730 the natives were stealing from them. But the 00:13:31.730 --> 00:13:34.389 response is so disproportionate. It really shows 00:13:34.389 --> 00:13:36.509 that Hudson either had very little control over 00:13:36.509 --> 00:13:38.789 his men or he condoned this kind of violence. 00:13:39.049 --> 00:13:42.110 And that lack of discipline that's going to come 00:13:42.110 --> 00:13:44.350 back to haunt him. Big time. So they loot the 00:13:44.350 --> 00:13:47.159 village and they flee south. They cruise down 00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:49.860 the coast past Cape Cod all the way to the Chesapeake 00:13:49.860 --> 00:13:52.899 Bay. And then they turn back north looking for 00:13:52.899 --> 00:13:56.039 this magical passage Smith told him about. And 00:13:56.039 --> 00:14:00.159 on September 3rd, 1609, they find it. A massive 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:02.659 break in the coastline. A huge river estuary. 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:05.960 The Hudson. The Hudson. Now, he wasn't the first 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:08.279 European to see it. Verrazzano spotted it in 00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:11.659 1524. But Hudson is the one who actually sails 00:14:11.659 --> 00:14:13.779 into it. And you can see why he got so excited. 00:14:13.860 --> 00:14:17.120 Oh, yeah. The river is wide. The water's salty. 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:19.720 The tides are strong. Well, it looks like a straight. 00:14:19.820 --> 00:14:21.500 It looks like the way to the Pacific. But again, 00:14:21.580 --> 00:14:24.379 the violence follows them. Just days after arriving, 00:14:24.460 --> 00:14:25.960 they have a skirmish with the Lenape people. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:28.379 Yes, a small boat crew was returning to the half 00:14:28.379 --> 00:14:30.700 moon when they were attacked. A sailor named 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:32.940 John Coleman was shot in the neck with an arrow 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:35.179 and died. Which should have been a sign to maybe, 00:14:35.340 --> 00:14:38.759 you know, leave. You'd think. But Hudson presses 00:14:38.759 --> 00:14:41.980 on. And strangely, the relations with the local 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:45.049 people fluctuate wildly. One day they are shooting 00:14:45.049 --> 00:14:47.330 at each other. The next day, Hudson is going 00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:49.750 ashore, drinking with the chiefs, trading knives 00:14:49.750 --> 00:14:52.669 for oysters and beans. It sounds completely chaotic. 00:14:52.909 --> 00:14:56.070 Yeah. But they keep sailing upriver, past Manhattan, 00:14:56.289 --> 00:14:58.970 past the Palisades, all the way up to where Albany 00:14:58.970 --> 00:15:01.789 is today. And this is the heartbreak moment of 00:15:01.789 --> 00:15:05.409 the 1609 voyage. As they sail north, the river 00:15:05.409 --> 00:15:08.029 starts to narrow. The water, which was salty 00:15:08.029 --> 00:15:10.889 at Manhattan, turns brackish, and then it turns 00:15:10.889 --> 00:15:13.110 fresh. And fresh water means? It means it's a 00:15:13.110 --> 00:15:16.000 river. It's draining a continent, not cutting 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.320 through it. It's a dead end. Wow. Imagine the 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:20.299 mood on that ship. They've risked everything. 00:15:20.679 --> 00:15:22.840 Crossed an ocean, fought battles, sailed 150 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:25.519 miles inland, only to realize they were in Albany, 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:27.820 not China. It must have been crushing. On September 00:15:27.820 --> 00:15:30.360 23rd, they turn around. Hudson has failed to 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:33.019 find the passage again. But this is the key for 00:15:33.019 --> 00:15:34.840 the listener. Even though he considered it a 00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:38.179 failure, this voyage changed the world. Absolutely. 00:15:38.580 --> 00:15:41.799 Hudson noted the rich land, the timber, and most 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:46.120 importantly, the furs. The beaver pelts. When 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:48.320 the Dutch finally got his logs, they didn't care 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:50.200 about the route to China anymore. They saw a 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:52.820 commercial empire. Exactly. Because of Hudson's 00:15:52.820 --> 00:15:55.820 failure, we get New Netherland, we get New Amsterdam, 00:15:55.879 --> 00:15:58.779 and eventually we get New York City. History 00:15:58.779 --> 00:16:02.460 is so weird. He fails to do what he wanted, but 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:04.559 he accidentally founds the capital of the modern 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:08.100 world. It's failing up on a geopolitical scale. 00:16:08.299 --> 00:16:11.159 So he sails back. But he doesn't go back to Amsterdam, 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:13.759 does he? No, and this is a bit suspicious. He 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.779 lands in Dartmouth, England. Some historians 00:16:16.779 --> 00:16:19.100 think the English sailors on the crew forced 00:16:19.100 --> 00:16:21.720 him to land there. Others think Hudson was just 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:23.779 done with the Dutch. Either way, the English 00:16:23.779 --> 00:16:25.820 authorities immediately detain him. They ground 00:16:25.820 --> 00:16:27.960 him. They say, you are an Englishman. You should 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:30.779 not be sailing for foreign powers. They forbade 00:16:30.779 --> 00:16:32.980 him from leaving the country. But his maps and 00:16:32.980 --> 00:16:34.899 logs still made their way back to the Dutch. 00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:38.480 they did which secured their claim but now hudson 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:41.259 is back in london and the english merchants the 00:16:41.259 --> 00:16:43.419 virginia company the british east india company 00:16:43.419 --> 00:16:46.840 they look at his logs and they think okay he 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:50.679 failed but he found something interesting they're 00:16:50.679 --> 00:16:52.600 ready to roll the dice one more time and this 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:55.980 sets the stage for the final act the fatal journey 00:16:55.980 --> 00:17:00.240 of 1610 they give him a ship The Discovery. The 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:02.340 Discovery. It's a small ship, right? Very small. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:06.920 About 55 tons. And he assembles a crew. But this 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:09.900 crew, there are some bad apples in the barrel 00:17:09.900 --> 00:17:12.720 right from day one. Who are the key players we 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:14.799 need to know about? Well, there's Robert Jewett, 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:16.759 the elderly mate who had been with him on the 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:19.519 half moon. He was cynical, bitter, and had already 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:22.160 shown signs of being insubordinate. Okay. And 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.640 then there's Henry Green. Green is a character 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:26.819 straight out of a Dickens novel. He was a young 00:17:26.819 --> 00:17:28.759 man from a good family, but he was a bit of a 00:17:28.759 --> 00:17:31.400 scoundrel. Hudson apparently knew his family 00:17:31.400 --> 00:17:34.579 or had taken pity on him. Green wasn't a sailor. 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:37.299 He was more of a clerk or a guest on the ship. 00:17:37.420 --> 00:17:39.940 And Hudson protected him. He did. Gave him a 00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:42.990 good bunk. Treated him almost like a son. Which 00:17:42.990 --> 00:17:45.789 makes his eventual betrayal even more hideous. 00:17:45.890 --> 00:17:49.289 So they sail in April 1610. They head northwest. 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:52.130 They round the tip of Greenland and enter the 00:17:52.130 --> 00:17:54.309 furious waters of what we now call the Hudson 00:17:54.309 --> 00:17:56.829 Strait. And this is a nightmare stretch of water. 00:17:56.950 --> 00:17:59.410 It's narrow, the currents are violent, and it's 00:17:59.410 --> 00:18:02.049 just choked with ice. Most captains would have 00:18:02.049 --> 00:18:04.609 turned back. But not Hudson. Hudson forced the 00:18:04.609 --> 00:18:07.009 discovery through. He was absolutely relentless. 00:18:07.609 --> 00:18:10.259 And then... The breakthrough. On August 2nd, 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:12.640 the ship bursts out of the strait and into this 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:16.099 vast, open body of water. To the west, the horizon 00:18:16.099 --> 00:18:18.200 is just water. They must have thought, this is 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:20.859 it. The Pacific Ocean. They were ecstatic. They 00:18:20.859 --> 00:18:23.579 turned south, sailing into this massive inland 00:18:23.579 --> 00:18:26.519 sea. They spent months exploring the eastern 00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:29.259 shore, expecting to find palm trees or a route 00:18:29.259 --> 00:18:31.740 to Japan any day. But it wasn't the Pacific. 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:36.359 It was Hudson Bay. A giant cul -de -sac. The 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:39.440 biggest dead end in the world. And as they sailed 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:42.059 south into what's now James Bay, the days got 00:18:42.059 --> 00:18:43.759 shorter. The temperature just plummeted. They 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:45.700 were running out of time. And in November, the 00:18:45.700 --> 00:18:48.359 trap snapped shut. The ice formed around the 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:50.660 ship. They were frozen in. They had to haul the 00:18:50.660 --> 00:18:53.420 discovery onto the shore or risk it being crushed 00:18:53.420 --> 00:18:56.000 by the ice. They were stranded in the Canadian 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.319 subarctic for the winter. We have to talk about 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:00.720 the psychology of this. It's dark for months. 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:04.339 It's 40 degrees below zero. They're living in 00:19:04.339 --> 00:19:07.710 a wooden hut. covered in moss what happens to 00:19:07.710 --> 00:19:10.849 the minds of these men he turns toxic scurvy 00:19:10.849 --> 00:19:13.190 sets in their teeth are falling out their joints 00:19:13.190 --> 00:19:15.470 are swelling they're running out of food and 00:19:15.470 --> 00:19:17.670 they start to blame hudson for everything and 00:19:17.670 --> 00:19:20.410 hudson doesn't handle it well no he hoards some 00:19:20.410 --> 00:19:23.309 of the food he accuses men of stealing he demotes 00:19:23.309 --> 00:19:25.609 his loyal officers and promotes the troublemakers 00:19:25.609 --> 00:19:29.049 he just completely loses control and splits the 00:19:29.049 --> 00:19:31.130 crew into factions and loses the room completely 00:19:31.130 --> 00:19:33.950 and as spring finally approaches the big question 00:19:33.950 --> 00:19:36.660 becomes What do we do when the ice melts and 00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:38.480 the crew just wants to survive? They want to 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:41.440 go home. We ardently desire to return, as the 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:44.529 record says. But Hudson. Hudson is still chasing 00:19:44.529 --> 00:19:46.970 the ghost. He still believes that if they just 00:19:46.970 --> 00:19:48.869 sail a little further west, they'll find the 00:19:48.869 --> 00:19:51.690 passage. He starts talking about restocking supplies 00:19:51.690 --> 00:19:54.230 and continuing the search. And for the crew, 00:19:54.410 --> 00:19:57.009 that's a death sentence. It is. They look at 00:19:57.009 --> 00:19:59.829 this man who has led them into this frozen hell, 00:19:59.990 --> 00:20:02.789 and they decide he is going to kill every last 00:20:02.789 --> 00:20:06.049 one of them if they don't stop him. So, June 00:20:06.049 --> 00:20:10.650 1611. The ice breaks up. The ship is afloat again. 00:20:11.309 --> 00:20:14.309 And the whispers start. The plot is hatched by 00:20:14.309 --> 00:20:17.049 Henry Green, the young man Hudson had saved from 00:20:17.049 --> 00:20:19.529 the streets, and Robert Jewett, the bitter old 00:20:19.529 --> 00:20:22.329 mate. The betrayal. How did it actually go down? 00:20:22.569 --> 00:20:24.470 It was early in the morning. Hudson comes out 00:20:24.470 --> 00:20:27.009 of his cabin. And the mutineers grab him immediately. 00:20:27.250 --> 00:20:29.410 They bind his arms behind his back. Did anyone 00:20:29.410 --> 00:20:32.299 try to fight for him? A few did. The ship's carpenter, 00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:35.160 a man named Philip Staff, is the real hero of 00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:37.619 this story. He wasn't on the mutineers list to 00:20:37.619 --> 00:20:39.420 be marooned, but he looked at them and basically 00:20:39.420 --> 00:20:41.440 said, I'd rather go down with the captain than 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:44.160 live with you lot. Wow. He voluntarily got into 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:46.380 the boat with Hudson. That is just incredible 00:20:46.380 --> 00:20:50.319 integrity. So they lower the small open boat. 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:52.579 into the water and they throw in hudson they 00:20:52.579 --> 00:20:55.400 throw in his teenage son john and then they throw 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:57.920 in the sick men the ones suffering from scurvy 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:00.799 who were useless to the crew a truly brutal move 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:03.099 what did they give them I mean, do they just 00:21:03.099 --> 00:21:05.180 toss them out there with nothing at all? It was 00:21:05.180 --> 00:21:08.500 a weirdly specific inventory. Prickett, the survivor 00:21:08.500 --> 00:21:11.019 who wrote the only journal we have, says they 00:21:11.019 --> 00:21:13.259 gave them a fouling piece, like a shotgun, some 00:21:13.259 --> 00:21:16.319 powder, and shot a few pikes and an iron pot. 00:21:16.460 --> 00:21:19.099 The iron pot. That detail always gets me. It's 00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:21.619 such a domestic, mundane object. Like, here, 00:21:21.740 --> 00:21:23.220 you can boil some water while you freeze to death. 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:25.259 It's a gesture that feels like it's born from 00:21:25.259 --> 00:21:28.200 kilt. See? We aren't murdering you, we're giving 00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:31.210 you a chance. But it was murder. So the Discovery 00:21:31.210 --> 00:21:34.130 pulls up its anchor, and the shallop is in the 00:21:34.130 --> 00:21:36.390 water. And this is the most chilling part of 00:21:36.390 --> 00:21:38.890 the entire account. The men in the shallop, they 00:21:38.890 --> 00:21:41.029 start rowing. They try to keep up with the big 00:21:41.029 --> 00:21:44.170 ship. They are literally chasing their only hope 00:21:44.170 --> 00:21:46.990 of survival. But the mutineers don't wait. No. 00:21:47.430 --> 00:21:50.450 They unfurl the topsails. The Discovery catches 00:21:50.450 --> 00:21:53.470 the wind and just pulls away. Prickett writes 00:21:53.470 --> 00:21:56.130 that they watched the shallop until it was just 00:21:56.130 --> 00:21:58.650 a speck on the horizon, and then it was gone. 00:21:58.829 --> 00:22:02.089 And... That is the last time Henry Hudson was 00:22:02.089 --> 00:22:04.869 ever seen by a European. Silence just returns 00:22:04.869 --> 00:22:07.210 to the bay. Okay, now we need to put on our detective 00:22:07.210 --> 00:22:10.009 hats. Because everything we just described, the 00:22:10.009 --> 00:22:12.369 mutiny, the items in the boat, their final chase, 00:22:12.609 --> 00:22:16.430 it all comes from one main source. A backup Prickett's 00:22:16.430 --> 00:22:18.809 journal. And Prickett is not an unbiased observer. 00:22:19.170 --> 00:22:21.390 Not even close. He's a guy who is trying to save 00:22:21.390 --> 00:22:23.519 his own neck. Right. You have to remember the 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:26.220 legal context here. Mutiny is a capital offense. 00:22:26.700 --> 00:22:29.359 In England, you hang for it. So when the Discovery 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:31.920 finally limped back to London, crude, by just 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:35.000 a handful of starving skeletons, they knew they 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:37.599 were walking into a trial for their lives. So 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:39.859 Prickett writes a journal that conveniently blames 00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:41.819 everything on the two guys who are already dead. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:44.079 It's the perfect defense. Oh, it was Henry Green 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:46.619 and Robert Jewett. They were the ringleaders. 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:48.900 They forced us to do it. And where were Green 00:22:48.900 --> 00:22:52.180 and Jewett? Dead. Green was killed in a fight 00:22:52.180 --> 00:22:54.400 with Inuit further north on the journey home. 00:22:54.920 --> 00:22:58.160 And Jewett died of starvation just days before 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:00.960 they reached Ireland. How convenient. Incredibly 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:02.900 convenient. The ringleaders are dead, so the 00:23:02.900 --> 00:23:05.900 survivors can all say we were just innocent bystanders. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:08.740 And it worked. They were put on trial, but no 00:23:08.740 --> 00:23:10.940 one was ever executed for the mutiny. No one. 00:23:11.140 --> 00:23:14.519 Why? Was it just a lack of evidence? Partly. 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:17.220 But frankly, the London merchants were pragmatic. 00:23:17.960 --> 00:23:19.900 These men had just been to the Hudson Bay. They 00:23:19.900 --> 00:23:21.759 knew the route. They knew where the furs were. 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:24.059 Executing them would mean losing that intellectual 00:23:24.059 --> 00:23:27.039 property. They were too valuable to hang. It's 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:29.839 cynical, but it's practical. But this leaves 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:32.220 us with the big question. Prickett says they 00:23:32.220 --> 00:23:34.799 left them and they just vanished. But are there 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:37.539 other clues? Clues that the story didn't end 00:23:37.539 --> 00:23:39.960 right there in the bay? There are. And this is 00:23:39.960 --> 00:23:41.599 where we get into the realm of speculation, but 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:44.599 it's fascinating. There is the captive scone. 00:23:45.049 --> 00:23:46.849 Tell me about this stone. It was found in the 00:23:46.849 --> 00:23:49.849 1950s by a road crew near Deep River, Ontario, 00:23:50.130 --> 00:23:52.609 which is about 600 kilometers south of where 00:23:52.609 --> 00:23:54.890 Hudson was marooned. That's a long way. It's 00:23:54.890 --> 00:23:57.609 a huge distance. And it's this massive slab of 00:23:57.609 --> 00:24:00.250 rock with crude carvings on it. What does it 00:24:00.250 --> 00:24:03.710 say? It has the initials HH. Year 1612 and the 00:24:03.710 --> 00:24:06.930 single word captive. 1612. That's a full year 00:24:06.930 --> 00:24:09.630 after the mutiny. And captive suggests he wasn't 00:24:09.630 --> 00:24:12.009 free. Now, I have to be the skepticism police 00:24:12.009 --> 00:24:14.329 here. Of course. The authenticity of this stone 00:24:14.329 --> 00:24:17.710 is heavily, heavily debated. The Geological Survey 00:24:17.710 --> 00:24:20.470 of Canada analyzed it. And while the weathering 00:24:20.470 --> 00:24:23.670 looks consistent with age, there's no way to 00:24:23.670 --> 00:24:26.740 carbon date a chisel mark. It could be a very 00:24:26.740 --> 00:24:29.440 elaborate hoax. But if it's real? If it's real, 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:31.279 it implies Hudson, or at least someone from that 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:33.819 boat, survived the winter, traveled hundreds 00:24:33.819 --> 00:24:36.319 of miles south down the river systems, and was 00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:38.640 being held by a local tribe. It paints a picture 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:40.880 of a desperate struggle for survival that lasted 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:43.019 much longer than we think. And there's another 00:24:43.019 --> 00:24:44.819 source, isn't there? One that's maybe even more 00:24:44.819 --> 00:24:48.339 compelling. The Inuit oral history. Yes. This 00:24:48.339 --> 00:24:51.799 is, to me, just incredible. In the 1990s, a researcher 00:24:51.799 --> 00:24:54.779 named Dorothy Harley Eber interviewed Inuit elders 00:24:54.779 --> 00:24:57.059 in the region, and they shared stories that had 00:24:57.059 --> 00:24:59.880 been passed down for nearly 400 years. What was 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:02.700 the story they told? They spoke of a small boat 00:25:02.700 --> 00:25:05.339 arriving with strange men, and specifically, 00:25:05.480 --> 00:25:08.079 they describe an old man with a long white beard 00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:10.339 and a young boy. That has to be Hudson and his 00:25:10.339 --> 00:25:14.259 son, John. The description is uncanny. The Inuit 00:25:14.259 --> 00:25:17.319 had never seen white men before? The story goes 00:25:17.319 --> 00:25:20.380 that the men were starving. The Inuit took them 00:25:20.380 --> 00:25:22.980 in. They fed them. So they didn't die immediately 00:25:22.980 --> 00:25:25.140 on the water. According to this oral history, 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:28.420 no. But the ending. It's tragic in a whole different 00:25:28.420 --> 00:25:31.000 way. The story says the old man eventually died 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:34.619 of illness or exhaustion. And the boy. What happened 00:25:34.619 --> 00:25:37.519 to the boy? The Inuit adopted him, but they were 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:39.440 afraid he would try to run away and die in the 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:41.799 snow. So what did they do? The story says they 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:45.150 tethered him to the lodge. Like a pet or... Or 00:25:45.150 --> 00:25:47.150 a precious object they didn't want to lose? That 00:25:47.150 --> 00:25:50.410 is. That's haunting. A teenage English boy, alone 00:25:50.410 --> 00:25:52.849 at the end of the world, tied to a post while 00:25:52.849 --> 00:25:55.490 his father lies dead nearby. It's a heartbreaking 00:25:55.490 --> 00:25:58.690 image, and while we can't prove it 100%, it aligns 00:25:58.690 --> 00:26:00.950 with the timeline and the location better than 00:26:00.950 --> 00:26:03.390 any other theory we have. What a heavy legacy. 00:26:03.609 --> 00:26:06.710 The man appears from absolutely nowhere, and 00:26:06.710 --> 00:26:09.430 he disappears into the snow, leaving only these 00:26:09.430 --> 00:26:13.210 faint, tragic echoes. And a map. Right. Let's 00:26:13.210 --> 00:26:16.440 zoom out for the takeaway. Hudson failed, right? 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:19.400 By every metric his employers set for him, he 00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:22.299 was a disaster. He lost ships. He alienated crews. 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:25.359 He never found the passage to Asia. A perfect 00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:28.400 record of failure. And yet, he is arguably one 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:31.180 of the most consequential explorers of the millennium. 00:26:31.180 --> 00:26:33.890 Because he opened the door. His failure in New 00:26:33.890 --> 00:26:36.490 York created the Dutch foothold that became the 00:26:36.490 --> 00:26:39.230 economic engine of America. His failure in the 00:26:39.230 --> 00:26:41.569 North opened up Hudson Bay, which led directly 00:26:41.569 --> 00:26:43.549 to the Hudson's Bay Company. And that company 00:26:43.549 --> 00:26:45.809 dominated the fur trade for two centuries and 00:26:45.809 --> 00:26:47.950 effectively drew the borders of modern Canada. 00:26:48.170 --> 00:26:50.109 He was the ultimate disruptor. He broke everything 00:26:50.109 --> 00:26:52.869 he touched, but the pieces landed in a way that 00:26:52.869 --> 00:26:55.430 built the modern world. He died searching for 00:26:55.430 --> 00:26:58.029 a shortcut, completely unaware that his name 00:26:58.029 --> 00:26:59.930 would be immortalized on the maps of two nations. 00:27:00.509 --> 00:27:03.269 He wanted to find China. Instead, he found New 00:27:03.269 --> 00:27:05.150 York and Canada. I want to leave the listener 00:27:05.150 --> 00:27:08.210 with that final image. The discovery sailing 00:27:08.210 --> 00:27:11.710 away. The sails filling with wind. The distance 00:27:11.710 --> 00:27:14.309 growing between the big ship and that tiny, tiny 00:27:14.309 --> 00:27:16.670 shallop. And the question of what was said in 00:27:16.670 --> 00:27:18.910 those final moments. If Prickett was lying to 00:27:18.910 --> 00:27:21.849 save his own neck. If the true didn't just sail 00:27:21.849 --> 00:27:25.750 away cleanly. What really happened on that deck? 00:27:26.049 --> 00:27:29.349 Was there a fight? Did Hudson beg? Or did he 00:27:29.349 --> 00:27:31.630 just sit there, stern and silent, watching his 00:27:31.630 --> 00:27:34.089 command, his son, and his entire world disappear 00:27:34.089 --> 00:27:36.309 over the horizon? That is the secret the ice 00:27:36.309 --> 00:27:38.990 keeps. Indeed. Thanks for diving deep with us 00:27:38.990 --> 00:27:40.730 today. This has been The Deep Dive. Catch you 00:27:40.730 --> 00:27:41.190 on the next one.