There's a Half Moon Over New York City

The Deep End #15

The man who helped make New York City what it is today froze to death. Have I gotten your attention? Good. Now allow me to explain.

The year was 1609. The Dutch East India Company was eager to find a captain to commandeer a ship that would set sail on a journey to discover a new route to Asia through the east. Their intentions were clear: find a sailing passage north of Russia, through the Arctic Circle, and to the Pacific Ocean that would get them to Asia. This route would save time, money, and (most importantly) prevent any pirates from looting their vessels when on the hazardous journey around Africa.

The Dutch’s choice: Henry Hudson.

It was no wonder why they chose Henry, either. Hudson previously captained two separate voyages for the East India and Muscovy Companies in England. And both voyages had also set sail to find a northeast passage to Asia.

Unsurprisingly, both voyages ended in failure. As the saying goes, third time’s the charm…right? Obviously, the Dutch East India Company truly believed in the old proverb which meant one thing: Hudson was the perfect man for the job.

The Dutch pounced on the Englishman and slapped him aboard the Half Moon (Haelve Maen in Dutch). He assembled his crew and set sail towards Russia.

Shockingly enough, once the Half Moon reached Norway, Hudson and the crew found the passage blocked by ice. For reference, the other two failed voyages he had led had also failed after ice blocked the way through Norway. However, this time was different. This time those massive chunks of ice ended up changing the course of history forever.

Hudson had strict orders from his clog-wearing bosses. Search for a northeast passage. If it was found to be blocked, return to the Netherlands, and resume the status quo of eating bitterballen and perusing the red-light district (or whatever else they do in the Netherlands). Unfortunately for restaurateurs and the nice women in De Wallen, Hudson had other plans.

Disobeying orders, and presumably much to the chagrin of his crew, he decided to reverse course and head west in search of something no one had ever hired him to find: the famed “Northwest Passage.”

This attempt took what the layman today may describe as balls. Have you ever seen videos of huge ships out in the open ocean during a storm? Go ahead, I’ll wait right here. Ready? Okay cool. So now you understand, it’s absolutely terrifying. Besides, the Half Moon compared to a modern-day ocean vessel is like comparing a Tonka Truck to a fire engine. So, yeah, these sailors from back in the day had some serious huevos on them.

Hudson and his crew wound up sailing from Norway to Newfoundland. From Newfie, the ship slowly sailed along the east coast of North America, first arriving at Cape Cod, before finally arriving at an estuary (known today as Upper New York Bay) previously discovered by Giovanni da Verrazzano.

In his 1522 voyage to the New World, Verrazzano had believed this estuary was a large lake. Hudson had found that it to lead to a river, dubbed the “North River” at the time. The Half Moon promptly sailed up this river.

Originally the stretch of land along the river (and the river itself) had been deemed inhospitable. But Hudson found it bountiful—aside from losing one crewman to a Native American arrow. He was able to trade for beaver pelts with several of the native tribes all the way up to Albany. Oh, come on, what’s one sailor’s life compared to getting an exquisite beaver-pelt coat? That’s what I thought.

Anyway. Hudson took note of the lush forests along the river that teemed with life. This information was brought back to the Dutch, who presumably slapped him on the wrist for disobeying orders, thanked him for the furs, and sent his ass back to England.

This set into motion two things:

1) The Dutch decided to make a settlement in this lush island of animals and forestry.  

2) Henry Hudson would go on to captain another ship for the English—this one bound for the New World in another search for the Northwest Passage. But this time was different, sort of. Instead of failing to find the passage and returning home, Hudson’s ship was frozen in ice trapped in Hudson Bay, Canada. This led to his crew mutinying against him, and Henry and his son likely freezing to death stranded in Canada.

So, Hudson froze to death and the Dutch got to work settling what is now Manhattan thanks to his findings. Hurray for the clog wearers!

Now, if New Yorkers are reading this, I’m almost positive you’ve heard of the Hudson River. (It’s the one running along the west side of Manhattan.) Maybe you’ve even heard of the Hudson Valley. Perhaps you’ve seen a few streets with the name littered around the city—no they aren’t named after acclaimed actor Ernie Hudson. They’re named after the hero of today’s story, Henry Hudson!

The “North River” Hudson traversed is known today as the Hudson River. Him trading for all those sweet beaver furs was the catalyst that led the Dutch to settle New Amsterdam on the island of Manhattan.

Of course, New Amsterdam eventually got taken over by the English and turned into New York, which is why the esteemed skateboard brand Zoo York isn’t Zoo Amsterdam (now that’s an idea!). In other words, here we are, reaping the benefits of that beaver-pelt trade all these hundreds of years later.

And that’s the story of how New York became what it is today (sort of). Now you understand the story behind the introduction to this post, which is totally true. Henry Hudson wanted greatness. He wanted immortality. And he achieved it, just not the way he thought he would. Ice and a mutiny ended his quest for the Northwest Passage, but his name is still etched into history thanks to the famous river which bears his name. Also, it’s possible that his corpse is still completely intact, frozen somewhere off the coast of Canada up near Hudson Bay…but we’ll get to that story and the whole mutiny next week on The Deep End.