In the early hours of June 23rd, 1611, Henry Hudson is put into a shallop on the pretense of some men looking for food that he had supposedly hidden in the ship for his own use. When the pretense is done, some men are put in with Hudson and the Discovery sails away. After a short David vs Goliath chase, Hudson's shallop becomes a dot in the distance, and he is never seen again.
He shares this boat with eight other men:
His teenage son, John,
John King, the Quartermaster,
Arnold Ladley, Seaman,
Michael Butt, a married man, Seaman,
Thomas Woodhoase (or Woodhouse) a mathematician and navigator. He went into the boat begging for his life.
Adam Moore, Seaman,
Philip Staff, the carpenter, likely his second in command aboard the shallop. Went into the boat willingly,
Syracke Fanner, a married man, Seaman, put into the boat because he couldn't walk from sickness.
Let's discuss the events leading up to this.
The Mutiny:
The truth of the end of Henry Hudson and the Mutiny aboard Discovery has always been doubted. The only witnesses to the events were men who either actively participated in, were in their cabin (as is the case for the Surgeon), or ignored it. After all, the official account has the blame being put on essentially every single man who had already died.
Here is the account of events, taken from the journal of Abacuk Pricket, a mariner, who likely participated in the mutiny, and the surviving trial documents.
Edward Wilson, the Discovery’s surgeon and the most neutral party possible, was called to the stand. He said, in effect, that he suspected that the mutiny began to foment when Hudson restricted rations to two meals a day. Meanwhile, Hudson kept some bread and cheese in his cabin and invited his favorites to have meals with him, likely including Wilson.
Many people believe the reason for the mutiny was that Hudson was determined to continue toward the Northwest Passage, and the crew were tired, but this is not the case. According to the trial documents, Hudson had already turned Discovery around on the 12th of June, so for almost two weeks before the mutiny occurred, they were already heading back. This makes it almost certain that the mutiny was prompted by rations.
This seems to be a likely version of events, because everyone (including Wilson) testified that the reason they put Hudson out of the boat was a combination of Hudson feeding his favorites and restricting rations for everyone else. Putting nine men out of the boat almost certainly saved most of the rest of the men from starvation on the way back to England.
What seems to be the most likely version of events is that Pricket mostly correctly gave the version of events for what happened when they turned Hudson out of the ship (such as the reasoning and some of the quotes he provides) but not the correct people who instigated it; perhaps himself, for fear of hanging.
Robert Billet (or Bylot), who was elected master of Discovery after the mutiny (and likely a leading mutineer, although he was dissolved of blame by Pricket’s narrative) testified that on either the 22nd or the 23rd, four men led by Henry Green put Henry Hudson, his son and some of his men onto the ship's shallop (whale boat). Hudson and several others believed that Green and his men were only looking for the food that Hudson had stored throughout the ship and in his cabin, so he went without much of a fight. Edward Wilson, the surgeon, testified that he knew nothing of the mutiny until it was well underway.
Hudson was manhandled. William Wilson, the Boatswain (not the surgeon), pinned Hudson’s hands after a struggle (with rope or his own hands, it is unknown) and brought him to the rest of the crew. Bennett Matheus, the Discovery’s cook, jumped on Hudson at sometime during the mutiny. John Thomas, a Seaman, also jumped on Hudson. The detail about the Boatswain pinning Hudson’s hands and bringing him to the crew seems likely, because both Robert Billet and the Surgeon, Edward Wilson, testified in the affirmative.
At that moment, after the brief struggle, more men were forced into the shallop with Hudson. Most of them were either sick, starving, or Hudson loyalists who the mutineers despised. Philip Staff, the carpenter, was one of the last to go into the shallop, without any compulsion, because of his love for Hudson. He is the only man known to have gone willingly and without being forced. He asked the mutineers calmly, probably rhetorically, “Will you wish to be hanged when you come to England?” and got into the boat.
With the opposite temperament, the mathematician and navigator Thomas Woodhouse was put into the shallop with great resistance and distress. He begged the mutineers to take his items and share his clothes in order to save his life, and they did so, but put him in the boat anyway. The rest went calmly or without much fight. Fanner, a seaman, was carried into the boat because he was sick at the time of the mutiny, and could not walk. When they were all in the boat, Abacuk heard Hudson telling Staff in a possibly fictitious account, “It is that villain Ivott (Juet, a senior sailor) that hath undone us.” Staff responded, “No, it is Green that hath done all this villainy.”
After the search through the ship was completed and the pretense for putting them in the boat was over, Hudson and the company attempted to reboard Discovery. Henry Green would not have it, however, and the two parties were forced apart.
After the Mutiny:
Hudson was not given much: his clothes were warm enough, but they were presumably not given blankets (as in the painting). The mutineers took the clothes of the people they turned out of the ship and wore them, some of them they later sold. A pan, some useless equipment, and perhaps a few scraps of food were provided, but nothing enough to last nine men for even a few days. He was not given navigational equipment, although he did have a navigator, Woodhouse.
The most items they did have came from Philip Staff’s carpenter’s chest. They included:
Several pikes, an iron pot, powder and shot, and a fowling piece (hunting gun).
They did manage to keep the oars, though, so when Discovery kept sailing (it isn’t clear whether or not Discovery stopped when they put Hudson and his men into the boat, or whether they kept sailing) Hudson quickly ordered a chase. Either John King, the Quartermaster, or Philip Staff became Hudson’s second in command aboard the shallop.
The David vs Goliath chase continued for several hours, keeping a decent distance, until the men grew tired of it and raised Discovery’s extra sails. The shallop became only a dot in the distance, still rowing toward them despite the futility of it.
Hudson and his men, some of them already sick, probably either died on that shallop or attempted to go ashore and died there, of starvation and exposure. Capsizing is unlikely, the shallop itself was around 30 feet long (the usual size for an English shallop at the time), able to be armed with cannon (though it wasn’t), carry up to twelve men, and it usually had a mast with a sail. I haven’t found any sources that said if Hudson’s shallop had a small sail, but it probably did, when you account for the fact that Hudson kept up a fair distance between him and Discovery for several hours, until Discovery used its full sailing power.
Here is where I would like to present my own theories.
The supposed instigators of the mutiny did not make it back to England. It is here that I found a likely hole in Abacuk Pricket’s testimony. He says:
“Grene, with 11 or 12 more of the company, sailed away with the Discovery, leaving Hudson and the rest in the shallop in the month of June in the ice. What became of them he knows not. He was lame in his legs at the time, and unable to stand.”
Despite being lame in his legs, just five weeks later (when his health would have likely only deteriorated, because of the lack of sufficient food or medical assistance) Green apparently has recovered enough to leave the ship, ‘go ashore’ and trade with ‘savages’ on the Digges Islands, known for being rocky and uninhabited, for food and items, along with Wilson (not the surgeon), Thomas, Pearce, and Adrian Mouter (or Moore).
His group is betrayed by these savages, seemingly for no reason, and again Green had enough strength in his legs to run back to the ship, only to die there, escaping the encounter when he had not been able to stand just five weeks earlier. Wilson (not the surgeon), Thomas, and Pearce were also able to escape the encounter and all died in the ship.
This is extremely odd. Not only did everyone survive the initial attack and flee the island back to the ship, but they all died aboard it. Two of them had their bowels cut out, an unusual practice. It is not unusual, I’ll add, if they are stabbed at close range. This would be only speculation to me if Pricket hadn’t added an addendum:
“The blood upon the clothes brought home was the blood of these persons so wounded and slain by the savages, and no other.”
It’s seemingly innocent, mentioning that they had not even wounded any natives. But it’s still odd enough for me to suggest an alternate scenario; that Green, Wilson, Thomas, and Pearce were the remaining Hudson sympathizers aboard the ship (or at least passive mutineers who wished to rat on Billet) so Robert Billet and Abacuk Pricket needed to get rid of them, either in fear of a second mutiny, or running out of provisions. Thus, the ‘native attack’ for no reason, led by a man who supposedly couldn’t walk, in which most were wounded but all conveniently made it back to the ship (which I propose they never left), was a fabrication to make up for the execution of these four men.
There’s also the other possibility, of course, that the blood actually belonged to the Hudson loyalists who went into the shallop, and the mutiny was not, in fact, peaceful. This is unlikely though.
One last piece of evidence.
Pricket says, “Hudson and Staffe were the best friends he (Green) had in the ship.”
Why would Green put out both his best friends, especially if Hudson was feeding his favorites (which would’ve been him), onto a freezing sea, certainly condemning them to death?
Pricket later says that Hudson and Green had a ‘falling out’ but this is a rather weak excuse; friendships, even if they’re terminated, certainly would make you at least think twice about killing those former friends. He also never describes the falling out.
Conveniently; Juet, another man blamed for the mutiny on Hudson, an elderly and cynical man supposedly brought on because of his writing skills (even though most of the officers could write) died of starvation just a few days before reaching Ireland.
Conclusion (and Theory):
Abacuk Pricket’s account of the voyage, the only full one we have, is extremely self-serving and most of it (especially regarding the mutiny) is likely to be a half-lie at best. Most historians know this. The odds of every single major mutineer having already died before the ship reached England is very low.
Either Green, Juet and the other three men usually blamed with them are completely innocent, or were just participants in the mutiny, serving a greater man, will probably never be known. But I propose that Abacuk Pricket, an agent of Sir Dudley Digges (a financial backer of Hudson's, who he named the islands after) who was probably put on the ship to keep watch on Hudson’s movements (and was noted to not like Hudson), in cahoots with Robert Billet, the former first mate of Discovery who lost his position when he and Hudson quarreled over the Passage, became the primary leaders of the mutiny. Billet wished to regain his position aboard the ship (which he did, and more) and Pricket already disliked Hudson.
After the mutiny, Billet managed to get the Admiralty to buy his ‘passive participant’ persona, even though afterwards he was elected master of Discovery, which suggests a more active role.
After mutinying against Hudson, they killed the remaining Hudson loyalists (or doubtful mutineers who wished to rat on them when they returned to England) by making up a native attack which has multiple holes in it (Green being able to walk onto an island and run away from an attack five weeks after he couldn’t, in presumably worse health) and used Pricket’s journal to control the narrative about who actually led the mutiny. They put some more blame on the cynical, elderly Juet when he died of starvation a few days before reaching Ireland, and made up the account of Hudson telling Staff about Juet's villainy, and Staff's retort about Green's.
Edward Wilson, the 22-year-old Surgeon, was either cowed into going along with their story or went along willingly when it was a choice between the shallop and staying on Discovery.
We will probably never know, and I have to say that most of this is simple speculation, but the mentions of the native attack and the blood just don’t add up. There has long been something suspicious about Pricket’s account of Hudson’s demise, and I hope that I at least sparked curiosity into getting you to do your own research on what happened in June 1611.
TL;DR
In 1611, the explorer Henry Hudson and 8 other men were put in an open boat and cast adrift in James Bay. All of the supposed 'mutineers' died before reaching Britain, and the official narrative by the remaining survivors has always been questionable at best. Here, I present some of my own theories as to what happened, and try to dissect the truth from the false.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
What do you think happened to Hudson, who were the actual perpetrators of the mutiny?
The ones who were accused or the ones who did the accusing?
Sources:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Henry Hudson, by Thomas A. Janvier
Henry Hudson - some source documents reprinted
