One of the absolute privileges of traveling aboard National Geographic Explorer is the chance to follow in the wake of the people who first sailed the very waters we find ourselves in. I often wonder about the why, when, and whom of a place name as we travel over the Earth’s oceans and today’s course is a perfect case in point.
After leaving Sisimiut, Greenland late last night we ventured north and west out into the Davis Strait. This body of water lies between southwestern Greenland and southern Baffin Island in Canada and was named for John Davis. Davis was one of the chief English navigators of his time, and served under Elizabeth I. He led several voyages of discovery, starting in 1585 looking for the fabled Northwest Passage.
After a brief stint as commander of the Black Dog against the Spanish Armada in 1588, Davis was back looking for the Northwest Passage in 1591, this time as part of an attempt to find the Northwest Passage from west to east, along with Thomas Cavendish. This attempt also proved unsuccessful, and Davis turned his sights to the south. In 1592 aboard the Desire, John Davis probably discovered the Falkland Islands. His crew was forced to kill and eat hundreds of penguins in the Falklands, but upon the return trip the meat spoiled in the tropics and only 14 of his original 76 men made it home alive. John Davis was killed off Bintan Island near Singapore on December 29, 1605.
Not much is known about the early life of William Baffin, but in 1612 he piloted the Patience in an attempt to follow Henry Hudson’s voyage of 1610-1611. Captain James Hall was in charge of this expedition, but unfortunately was killed in a dispute with native peoples on the western coast of Greenland. Baffin set off in 1614 with Captain Robert Bylot and chartered the south coast of what is now known as Baffin Island. In 1615 and again in 1616 he again set off with Captain Bylot, both times in Discovery. The attempts to find the Northwest Passage again failed and Baffin became convinced that the passage did not exist. So strong was his conviction that further explorations looking for the Northwest Passage were halted for over 200 years.
In 1818 Sir John Ross and Lieutenant William E. Parry commanded the British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition aboard Isabella and Alexander. After examining both Lancaster and Jones Sounds they wrongly concluded that these sounds were only inlets with no chance of being the Northwest Passage. It was Parry who named both Baffin Island and Baffin Bay “out of respect to the memory of that able and enterprising navigator.”
