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Explorers of Canada, Part VII: William Baffin

© David Newman

Baffin Island is the largest island in Canadian territory, and the fifth largest island in the world. It was named after a man, an explorer, and an Englishman named William Baffin.

Little is known about the early days of William Baffin; his existence was first recorded sometime near his first voyage, but he was probably born around 1584 and the city he was born in was probably London. Anyway, moving along now, Baffin is first known in recorded time as the pilot of the Patience which was to explore Greenland. It did but the commander of the ship, James Hall, was killed in a fight with the natives and so the ship returned to England.

He did little voyages on many ships until 1615 when he joined a company who was looking for the over-hyped Northwest Passage. He became pilot of a ship known as the Discovery, which happened to be the ship of Hudson's final voyage, under the command of captain Robert Bylot.

Baffin examined the southern part of Baffin Island and the Hudson Strait although his discovery of Baffin Bay was long discredited, until more than two centuries later. Returning to England, Baffin declared that the Northwest Passage did not lie through the Hudson Strait but wasn't convinced that the passage itself didn't exist so he went on another trip, this time through Davis Strait.

So in 1616 William Baffin returned on the Discovery with Bylot and went up Davis Stait but discovered there was no Northwest Passage through Davis Strait, and in fact none whatsoever. Much of the points named by Baffin on this trip were made after the financers of the voyage: Smith Sound, Jones Sound, Lancaster Sound, Wolstenholme Sound and Cape Dudley Digges.

Baffin's conclusion that the Northwest Passage didn't exist prompted others to abandon their hopes of finding it and the project was more or less abandoned for a while, say a few centuries.

Distortions made while copying Baffin's map caused the Baffin Bay to grow until the existence of the bay was questioned. It wasn't until 1818 that Baffin's specific and accurate discoveries on the bay were accepted to be true, confirmed by Captain Ross.

Baffin's naval days weren't over, though, and he became master's mate on the Anne Royal, and charted the coast of Persia and the Red Sea in 1618.

The next year he returned to the East on the ship London. The ship engaged in battle with Dutch and Portuguese ships, which led to the eventual death of William Baffin in 1622.

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