The name: Henry Hudson.

This is the story of his last tragic voyage, as nearly as we are able -- or ever, probably, will be able -- to determine:

The sailing in the spring of 1610 was Hudson's fourth in four years. Each time his objective had been the same -- a direct water passage from Western Europe to the Far East. In 1607 and 1608, the English Muscovy Company had sent him northward to look for a route over the North Pole or across the top of Russia. Twice he had failed, and the Muscovy Company indicated it would not back him again.

In 1609, the Dutch East India Company hired Hudson, gave him two learned geographers, fitted him out with a ship called the Half Moon, and supplied him with Dutch sailors. This time he turned westward, to the middle Atlantic coast of North America. His chief discovery was important -- the Great North (later, the Hudson) River -- but it produced no northwest passage.

When the Half Moon put in at Dartmouth, England, in the fall of 1609, word of Hudson's findings leaked out, and English interest in him revived. The government forbade Hudson to return to Amsterdam with his ship. He thereupon went to London and spent the winter talking to men of wealth. By springtime, he was supported by a rich merchant syndicate under the patronage of Henry, Prince of Wales. He had obtained and provisioned a veteran ship called the Discovery and had recruited a crew of twenty-one, the largest he had ever commanded.