Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson - A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic

FATAL JOURNEY: THE FINAL EXPEDITION OF HENRY HUDSON is a pick for both general lending libraries strong in popular history surveys and for college-level history collections. It tells of Arctic mutiny and murder and narrows the focus to the final voyage he made on his small ship. From his quest for a water route across North America to the truth of what happened between Hudson and his men as they became icebound in the far North, this is a riveting story.

I saw this book discussed on The Daily Show, and thought it would be interesting to learn more about Hudson, so I decided I'd check it out. It was so-so - definitely interesting, and I did learn a lot, but man, there were parts that were seriously dry. Snoozeworthy. Good bedtime reading. You get the picture. I liked the background chapters on the macro-view - ie the spice trade, where exploration was in the early 17th century, etc. That was a very good read. And I enjoyed reading the descriptions of what other sailors who had to winter in the area several years later had to go through. The thing that really bugged me, though, were that there kept being these tantalizing teasers that made you think that maybe there was new evidence that he was about to uncover showing that Hudson wound up living quite happily for years and years, or something showing new evidence of some definite things that happened to him. He kept talking about other explorers who unknowingly found hints of what had happened to him. And when it comes down to it, it was all speculation anyway. And that bothered me. (I felt like Ralphie in The Christmas Story when he got his Little Orphan Annie decoder and the secret message turned out to be a commercial). I got to the end and I was like, "that's it? Seriously? That's really it?" and I paged around through the notes thinking maybe there was some secret passage with more information for the people who really wanted it, but none was found. I was left with essentially the same thing that I got in two paragraphs in my 6th grade history book. That sounds harsh, and I do respect the author's interest in the topic and explaining it in more detail. And the story of what happened to Hudson with the mutiny is definitely fascinating. I suppose it's because there is really so little evidence, but I didn't get any real sense of what any of the characters were going through, or any real personality of them. Still, it has good background information and I don't regret reading it. Oh, one final note, there seriously needed to be more maps. He kept talking about places that I'm sure were familiar to him after years and years of research, but seriously, I was having to go to google maps all the time to look up places because they weren't on the one modern map in the front of the book.

With 20009 the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's landmark third voyage, it is understandable there is interest in his accomplishments. If Americans recall Hudson at all, it is for this particular voyage for the Dutch that led to the discovery and exploration of Chesapeake Bay and the river in modern-day New York that bears his name. Typically though Hudson is somewhat lost in the array of explorers who mapped the Americas. While his name lives on, few Americans are familiar with his ill-fated fourth and final voyage of 1610 and 1611; "Fatal Journey" seeks to redress this. Canadians in particular are well acquainted with Hudson's fourth voyage as it gave the name to present day Hudson Bay, the site of Hudson's demise. From today's perspective it is hard to grasp the dangers Hudson and his crew faced. The Americas were uncharted unmapped wilderness, fraught with the potential for disaster, and Hudson was sailing with no back up, no support network, no Plan B if things took a turn for the worse. And turn for the worse things did. Rather than returning to England as winter draws near, Hudson opts to hunker down so he can resume exploration in the spring. But Hudson has no idea what Canada's winter's are like. His ship becomes trapped in the ice. In the remote wilderness, far from anyone who could help Hudson and his crew begin to run low on provisions. Eventually his crew becomes so desperate to eat they try and chase down polar bears for food. When spring comes Hudson announces his intention to resume exploring rather than return to England the crew mutinies. The Elizabethan social code of conduct begins to break down as the crew questions the leadership of Hudson, their senior officer and leader. Mancall explores the psychology of the crew and what lead them to mutiny and the somewhat delusional beliefs they held about how they could explain what had happened once they returned to England. Some felt the investors would be glad the ship and most of her crew returned. Others felt justified in removing Hudson and felt if they had a chance to explain their side the courts would take pity on them. Others wanted to spin various explanations to desperately avoid the hangman's noose. As you read how the surviving crew came to a decision on how to explain their actions you come to realize that even in the vast wilderness of North America it was hard to cover up your own misdeeds. In the end the crew dispatches Hudson, Hudson's son John, and seven other crew members into a small boat to fend for themselves. Mancall doesn't spend much time pondering the fate of Hudson and his fellow castaways; they likely survived a month at most before perishing. Instead "Fatal Journey" seeks to add flesh and blood to the Age of Exploration rather than having it remain a series of names, dates and places we learned by rote in school. Explorers didn't always succeed and there was a true cost to be paid, as in Hudson's case, when things went horribly w

A fascinating and in-depth look at a largely forgotten but still haunting tale from the early days of European global navigation. Reads like a thriller!

Henry Hudson is a man mostly forgotten by the history books. People know his Bay and his River, but how many know the man himself disappeared during one of his voyages to find the Northwest Passage. The search for the Passage has sparked many mysteries, the foremost being John Franklin. Almost two hundred years before Franklin, Hudson sought the Passage. This account of what happened to Hudson is an interesting look into the world of sailing in the early 1600s. At times the book moves slowly, in fact, I skipped a chapter which didn't seem to make much of a difference to the story. It's hard to write an entire book, I imagine, about a man who is most famous for his death and disappearence and about which almost nothing else is known.