Exploration, adventure and tragedy

Thomas James's expedition was funded by The Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers, who feared that the London merchants funding Foxe’s rival trip would secure a monopoly over any markets or trade he might discover. This concern led to James petitioning Charles I, and an agreement that whatever discoveries either expedition might make, ‘rights and privileges arising’ would be assigned in proportion to each city’s investment in what was now considered a dual venture.

'The Strange and Dangerous Voyage'

Thomas James's expedition, 1631-32 - click to enlarge James’s expedition aboard the Henrietta Maria (named after Charles I’s wife) was fraught with difficulty from beginning to end. In ‘The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captain Thomas James’ published in 1633 he recounts an early ordeal at Cape Farewell at the southernmost tip of Greenland, where the coast is usually surrounded by sea ice, making navigation treacherous:

…we were beset with many extraordinary pieces of ice that came upon us, as it were, with willful violence… In escaping danger, we ran against another great piece, that we doubted whether our ship had not been staved to pieces.

It took the expedition over a month to penetrate Hudson Strait before turning south to explore Hudson Bay. In September James sighted and named Cape Henrietta Maria and in October the expedition anchored off Charlton Island in James Bay where an arduous winter awaited them.

Sinking and raising the Henrietta Maria

Fearing the Henrietta Maria would be ruined through a combination of being stuck in the ice and fierce storms James sank his ship and the crew built cabins on the island. Poor provisions and clothing meant that the crew suffered terribly from cold and malnutrition (most developing scurvy) and four died.
 
The following spring the remaining crew, assailed by plagues of mosquitoes, repaired the damaged hull, pumped out the ship and set sail. Severe ice hampered their return and the ship limped back to England, with a crew who felt every day that she may sink. Some believe the Henrietta Maria’s ordeal was part of the inspiration for Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.

Outcomes

James found no entrance to the North-West Passage and along with the details of his ordeal and Luke Foxe’s own dispiriting analysis the enthusiasm for funding expeditions to find the passage were severely dampened. It was now clear that Hudson Bay could not form any part of a route leading to the Pacific. This didn’t stop trade flourishing in the area with the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay company, but the search for the passage would not be resumed in earnest for over 80 years.

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