Nicholas Woodcock
Nicholas Woodcock (c. 1585 - after June 1658?) was a 17th-century English mariner who sailed to
Life
Spitsbergen, 1610–1618
A man of the same name was sent on an expedition to the
In 1610, he served as mate aboard the Muscovy Company ship Amity (60 tons) on a sealing and exploratory voyage to Spitsbergen. In 1611, Purchas (1625) states that it was he who suggested to the
In 1614 Woodcock returned to whaling. He was forced to serve under the Muscovy Company, which had been given a monopoly on the trade the previous year. He sailed as master of the Prosperous, which resorted to Sir Thomas Smith Bay (Forlandsundet) and Cross Road (Ebeltofthamna).[2] In the latter area he established a temporary whaling station. In 1617 Woodcock is mentioned by the Danish as being a master of an English ship in Green Harbor (Grønfjorden).[3] He is last mentioned in Spitsbergen in 1618, when he was master of the interloper Sea Horse.[4]
East India Company, 1621–1623
In 1622, Woodcock was among those present in the Anglo-Persian attack on Kishm (23 January – 1 February) and siege of Ormus (9 February – 23 April), in which he was master of the Whale, vice-admiral of the nine ship English fleet. He was accused of having "gotten an unknown booty at Ormus", which he vehemently denied, but was later found guilty of (November 1624).
A will, dated 3 June 1658, is preserved in the Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury of a certain "Nicholas Woodcocke of King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire", which may or may not belong to the same Nicholas Woodcock.
Legacy
Woodcock is one of the most important figures in the first phase of whaling in Spitsbergen (i.e. bay whaling), as he was not only the one to suggest shipping Basques for the first whaling voyage to Spitsbergen in 1611, but he led the first Basque vessel to Spitsbergen the following year. It was the success of the latter voyage that led to a boom on the trade in Spitsbergen. His suggestion led to the Basques being recruited not only by the English in later years, but by the Dutch, northern French, and Danish, all who relied on Basque experts in the opening years of the Spitsbergen fishery.
Footnotes
- ^ Purchas (1625), p. 16. "Woodcock was evidently released in November 1613" (quote from Senning, 1968, p. 245).
- ^ Markham (1881), p. 83, 85.
- ^ Dalgård (1962), pp. 83–84.
- ^ Conway (1904), pp. 42–43.
- ^ Foster (1908), p. xii.
- ^ Della Valle (1892), pp. 3–7. Woodcock, of course, was preceded by Hudson (1607) and Barentsz (1596). His memory a little faded, Woodcock had actually sailed to Spitsbergen for the first time in 1610, not 1611. The editors of this work, thinking that Della Valle was referring to the real Greenland, put in a note on page 5 that Martin Frobisher had been there in 1576. The English at this time, as well as others, referred to Spitsbergen as Greenland, which the editors were evidently unaware of.
- ^ Coldham (1984), p. 54.
References
- Coldham, Peter Wilson (1984). English adventurers and emigrants, 1609–1660: abstracts of examinations in the High Court of Admiralty with reference to Colonial America. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co.
- Conway, William Martin (1904). Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century. London.
- Conway, William Martin (1906). No Man's Land: A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country. Cambridge, At the University Press.
- Dalgård, Sune (1962). Dansk-Norsk Hvalfangst 1615–1660: En Studie over Danmark-Norges Stilling i Europæisk Merkantil Expansion. G.E.C Gads Forlag.
- Della Valle, Pietro; G. Havers; Edward Grey (1892). The travels of Pietro della Valle in India: from the old English translation of 1664. Hakluyt Society.
- Foster, William (1908). The English Factories in India, 1622–1623; a calendar of documents in the India office and British museum. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Markham, Clements Robert (1881). The Voyages of William Baffin, 1612–1622. Hakluyt Society.
- Purchas, S. 1625. Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes: Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and others. Volumes XIII and XIV (Reprint 1906 J. Maclehose and sons).