William Baffin (c. 1584 – 23 January 1622) was an English navigator, explorer and cartographer. He is primarily known for his attempt to find a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, during the course of which he was the first European to discover Baffin Bay situated between Canada and Greenland. He was also responsible for exceptional surveys of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf on behalf of the East India Company.
Life
Nothing is known about Baffin's early life[1] (an estimated year of birth, 1584, originated in the Encyclopædia Britannica in the 19th century, but without known documentary support).[2] It has been conjectured that he was born to a humble station in London and gradually raised himself through his diligence and perseverance.[2][3] In printing his journals, Samuel Purchas wrote of him as a "learned-unlearned Mariner and Mathematician... wanting art of words" who "really employed himself to those industries, whereof here you see so evident fruits."[4]
His earliest mention occurs in 1612, when he was chief pilot on Captain
Norse settlements there. It was still unknown that they had been overrun by the Inuit centuries before, but after the third failed expedition, Christian abandoned the project. Hall then successfully interested four English merchants—Thomas Smythe, James Lancaster, William Cockayne, and Richard Ball—in permitting him to continue his work. Baffin and Hall sailed from the Humber aboard Patience on 22 April,[a] accompanied by Heart's Ease.[6][2] During this voyage, Captain Hall was killed by the Inuit on the west coast of Greenland but Baffin successfully returned to Hull on 9/11 under the new captain Andrew Barker.[2]
Over the next two years, Baffin served in the
Spitzbergen.[3] During the 1613 season, he served under Captain Benjamin Joseph as pilot of Tiger, the flagship of the 7-vessel whaling fleet;[2] in 1614, he and Joseph served on Thomasine, amid a fleet of 11 ships and 2 pinnaces.[2] Icy conditions precluded exploration to the north, but Baffin examined a "considerable portion" of Spitzbergen's coast, returning to London on 4 October.[2]
In 1615, he entered the service of the "Company of Merchants of London, Discoverers of the North-West Passage", which had been established in 1612. Its first governor was Thomas Smythe,[7] one of the underwriters of Hall's fourth voyage.[b][c] Baffin served as pilot of Discovery, which left England under Captain Robert Bylot on 15 March.[2] It carefully explored Hudson Strait in search of a Northwest Passage from the North Atlantic to the Far East. The accuracy of Baffin's tidal and astronomical observations on this voyage was confirmed when William Edward Parry passed over the same ground in 1821.[3][2]
William Baffin's chart of the Hudson Strait.
Baffin again sailed as pilot of
furthest north (about 77° 45′ N) remained unsurpassed in North America until the Royal Navy officer Edward Augustus Inglefield
reached 78° 28′ N in the same area in 1852.
Map of a voyage undertaken by Thomas James, with Baffin Bay based on Baffin's charts. Baffin's cartography appears accurate, and clearly identifies the shape of the bay.
With the abandonment of projects for the Northwest Passage, Baffin took service with the
Mocha in Yemen and other ports of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Upon his return to London in September, 1619,[2] the company granted him special recognition for the valuable charts he had made during the course of his voyage.[3]
Map of northern India attributed to Baffin; published after his death (1625). This map was drawn after intelligence from the Mughal court was passed to Sir Thomas Roe, the current ambassador, who then passed the intelligence on to Baffin in 1619.
In 1620, he sailed east again as master of London on the special recommendation of Capt. Shilling, the commander of the expedition.[8][2] Baffin left the Downs on 25 March and reached Suvali Beach near Surat in India on 9 November. Hearing of a joint Portuguese and Dutch fleet searching for them, Shilling went in search of them: he was wounded in battle in the Gulf of Oman on 28 December and died on 6 January.[2] A year later, the East India Company agreed to join the Persian assaults on the Portuguese fortresses on Qeshm and Hormuz islands in exchange for certain trade concessions. At Qeshm off Bandar Abbas, he was sent ashore on 23 January 1622 to take measurements of the height and distance of the walls of Fort Queixome to assist the fleet's gunners. One of his contemporaries described his death:
Master Baffin went on shoare with his Geometricall Instruments, for the taking of the height and distance of the Castle wall, for the better levelling of his peece to make his shot; but, as he was about the same, he received a small shot from the Castle into his belly, wherewith he gave three leapes, and died immediately.
conquest of Ormuz, opening Persia to direct trade.[11]
His wife – reckoned a "troublesome, impatient woman"[12] – forced the East India Company into court over her husband's wages and other claims. Three years later, a settlement of £500 was agreed upon.[2]
Legacy
A William Baffin rose
John Ross, who led an expedition in 1818 that confirmed Baffin's account in almost all particulars.[14]
Besides his geographical discoveries, Baffin is celebrated for the scrupulous accuracy of his many scientific and magnetic observations.[3] His reckoning of longitude at sea by lunar distances on 26 April 1615 is the first of its kind on record.[3][2]
He is also the namesake of the William Baffin rose.[15]
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