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John Davis (English explorer)
Encyclopedia
John Davis was one of the chief English
navigators and explorers under Elizabeth I
, especially in Polar regions and in the Far East.
around 1550, and baptised at Stoke Gabriel in October 1550. From a boy he was a sailor, and early went on voyages with close neighbour Adrian Gilbert; both the Gilbert and Raleigh
families were Devonians of his own neighbourhood, and through life he seems to have profited by their friendship.
to Francis Walsingham
and John Dee
; various consultations followed; and in 1585 he started on his first north-western expedition. On this he began by encountering the ice-bound east shore of Greenland
, which he followed south to Cape Farewell; then he turned north once more and coasted the west Greenland littoral some way, until, finding the sea free from ice, he shaped a course for China
going north-west. In 66° N he encountered Baffin Island
, and though he pushed some way up Cumberland Sound
, and professed to recognize in this the hoped-for strait, he turned back at the end of August.
He tried again in 1586 and 1587; in the last voyage he pushed through the straits still named after him into Baffin Bay
, coasting west Greenland to 73° N, almost to Upernavik
, and thence making a last effort to find a passage westward along the north of America. Many points in Arctic latitudes (Cumberland Sound, Cape Walsingham, Exeter Sound, etc) retain names given them by Davis, who ranks with William Baffin
and Henry Hudson
as the greatest of early Arctic explorers and, like Martin Frobisher
, narrowly missed the discovery of Hudson Bay
via what he called the "Furious Overfall"
.
; in 1589 he joined the Earl of Cumberland
off the Azores
; and in 1591 he accompanied Thomas Cavendish
on his last voyage, with the special purpose, as he tells us, of searching for that north-west passage "upon the back parts of America" (ie from the western coast). After the rest of Cavendish's expedition returned unsuccessful, he continued to attempt on his own account the passage of the Strait of Magellan
; though defeated here by foul weather, he discovered the Falkland Islands
in August 1592 aboard the vessel Desire
. His crew was forced to kill hundreds of penguins for food while on the Falkland Islands. They stored the penguin meat as well as they could and sailed for home, but the meat spoiled once they reached the tropics. This made the passage home disastrous, and he brought back only fourteen of his seventy-six men.
and the Azores; and in 1598–1600 he accompanied a Dutch expedition to the East Indies
as pilot, sailing from Flushing, returning to Middleburg, and carefully charting and recording geographical details. He narrowly escaped destruction from treachery at Achin in Sumatra
.
had been introduced.
as chief pilot on the first voyage of the British East India Company
; and in December 1604 he sailed again for the same destination as pilot to Sir Edward Michelborne (or Michelbourn). On this journey he was killed by Japanese pirates off the Malay peninsula. The account of Davis' last voyage was written by Michelborne on his return to England
in 1606.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
navigators and explorers under Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, especially in Polar regions and in the Far East.
Early life
Davis (Davys) was born at Sandridge near DartmouthDartmouth, Devon
Dartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...
around 1550, and baptised at Stoke Gabriel in October 1550. From a boy he was a sailor, and early went on voyages with close neighbour Adrian Gilbert; both the Gilbert and Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
families were Devonians of his own neighbourhood, and through life he seems to have profited by their friendship.
Baffin Island
In January 1583 he appears to have broached his design of a Northwest PassageNorthwest Passage
The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
to Francis Walsingham
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 until 1590, and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security...
and John Dee
John Dee (mathematician)
John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy....
; various consultations followed; and in 1585 he started on his first north-western expedition. On this he began by encountering the ice-bound east shore of Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, which he followed south to Cape Farewell; then he turned north once more and coasted the west Greenland littoral some way, until, finding the sea free from ice, he shaped a course for China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
going north-west. In 66° N he encountered Baffin Island
Baffin Island
Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the largest island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is and its population is about 11,000...
, and though he pushed some way up Cumberland Sound
Cumberland Sound
Cumberland Sound is an Arctic waterway in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is a western arm of the Labrador Sea located between Baffin Island's Hall Peninsula and the Cumberland Peninsula...
, and professed to recognize in this the hoped-for strait, he turned back at the end of August.
He tried again in 1586 and 1587; in the last voyage he pushed through the straits still named after him into Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...
, coasting west Greenland to 73° N, almost to Upernavik
Upernavik
Upernavik is a small town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,129 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland. Due to the small size of the settlement, everything is within walking distance...
, and thence making a last effort to find a passage westward along the north of America. Many points in Arctic latitudes (Cumberland Sound, Cape Walsingham, Exeter Sound, etc) retain names given them by Davis, who ranks with William Baffin
William Baffin
William Baffin was an English navigator and explorer. Nothing is known of his early life, but it is conjectured that he was born in London of humble origin, and gradually raised himself by his diligence and perseverance...
and Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
as the greatest of early Arctic explorers and, like Martin Frobisher
Martin Frobisher
Sir Martin Frobisher was an English seaman who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage...
, narrowly missed the discovery of Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...
via what he called the "Furious Overfall"
Hudson Strait
Hudson Strait links the Atlantic Ocean to Hudson Bay in Canada. It lies between Baffin Island and the northern coast of Quebec, its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley and Resolution Island. It is long...
.
Command of the Black Dog
In 1588 he seems to have commanded Black Dog against the Spanish ArmadaSpanish Armada
This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...
; in 1589 he joined the Earl of Cumberland
Earl of Cumberland
The title of Earl of Cumberland was created in the Peerage of England in 1525 for the 11th Baron de Clifford. It became extinct in 1643. See also Duke of Cumberland.The subsidiary title of the first three earls was Baron de Clifford...
off the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
; and in 1591 he accompanied Thomas Cavendish
Thomas Cavendish
Sir Thomas Cavendish was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe...
on his last voyage, with the special purpose, as he tells us, of searching for that north-west passage "upon the back parts of America" (ie from the western coast). After the rest of Cavendish's expedition returned unsuccessful, he continued to attempt on his own account the passage of the Strait of Magellan
Strait of Magellan
The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America and north of Tierra del Fuego...
; though defeated here by foul weather, he discovered the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
in August 1592 aboard the vessel Desire
Desire (ship)
The Desire was the 120 ton flagship Thomas Cavendish built for his highly successful 1586-1588 circumnavigation of the globe. The Desire was only the third ship to circumnavigate the globe after the Victoria of Ferdinand Magellan and the Golden Hind of Francis Drake...
. His crew was forced to kill hundreds of penguins for food while on the Falkland Islands. They stored the penguin meat as well as they could and sailed for home, but the meat spoiled once they reached the tropics. This made the passage home disastrous, and he brought back only fourteen of his seventy-six men.
Later expeditions
In 1596–1597 Davis seems to have sailed with Raleigh (as master of Sir Walter's own ship) to CádizCádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
and the Azores; and in 1598–1600 he accompanied a Dutch expedition to the East Indies
East Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
as pilot, sailing from Flushing, returning to Middleburg, and carefully charting and recording geographical details. He narrowly escaped destruction from treachery at Achin in Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
.
Books
After his return in 1593 he published a valuable treatise on practical navigation in The Seamans Secrets (1594), and a more theoretical work in The World's Hydrographical Description (1595).Inventions
His invention of the backstaff and double quadrant (called the Davis Quadrant after him) remained popular among English seamen until long after Hadley's reflecting quadrantOctant (instrument)
The octant, also called reflecting quadrant, is a measuring instrument used primarily in navigation. It is a type of reflecting instrument.-Etymology:...
had been introduced.
Death
In 1601–1603 he accompanied Sir James LancasterJames Lancaster
Sir James Lancaster was a prominent Elizabethan trader and privateer.Lancaster came from Basingstoke in Hampshire. In his early life, he was a soldier and a trader in Portugal...
as chief pilot on the first voyage of the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
; and in December 1604 he sailed again for the same destination as pilot to Sir Edward Michelborne (or Michelbourn). On this journey he was killed by Japanese pirates off the Malay peninsula. The account of Davis' last voyage was written by Michelborne on his return to England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
in 1606.
External links
- Ray Freeman and Eric Preston. John Davis 1543-1605, The Master Navigator from the Dart, Dartmouth History Research Group Paper 33, ISBN 1-899011-24-2.
- Markham, A.H (1880) The Voyages and Works of John Davis the Navigator. Hakluyt SocietyHakluyt SocietyFounded in 1846, the Hakluyt Society is a registered charity based in London, England, which seeks to advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material...
. Descriptions of the three voyages Davis undertook to discover the Northwest PassageNorthwest PassageThe Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
. (Reissued by Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 2010. ISBN 9781108011501)