While yesterday’s #stampoftheday focused on the World Trade Center, which was built on landfill in the Hudson River, today’s #stampoftheday focuses on the river itself because on September 12, 1609, explorer Henry Hudson first reached the river that would bear his name. The stamp itself, is a 2-cent stamp, issued in September 1909, as part of the Hudson-Fulton celebration, a two-long extravaganza that celebrated both the 300th anniversary of Hudson’s discovery of the river and the 100th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s first successful commercial application of the paddle steamer. The event’s organizers, who included J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and other wealthy and notable New Yorkers, used it to display and celebrate New York City’s status as a major world city.
Little is known of about the early life of Hudson, who was born in England around 1565. He must have spent many years at sea working his way up to being a captain. In 1607 and again in 1608, he undertook unsuccessful efforts, on behalf of English merchants, to find a rumored Northeast Passage to China via a route above the Arctic Circle. In 1609, Hudson was hired by the Dutch East India Company to search for an eastern passage to Asia. While preparing for his trip, he heard about a northwest route through North America. He departed Amsterdam on April 4 aboard the Halve Maen (Half Moon). Hudson was unable to complete the trip, as he encountered ice, which had also halted his earlier trips. So in mid-May, he turned the ship around to search for the passage through North America, even though that was outside of his orders. Hudson’s party reached the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in early July and landed near LaHave, Nova Scotia later that month. After staying there for some time, they sailed south, reaching Cape Cod in early August. They then sailed south to the Chesapeake Bay before turning back north and finding the Delaware Bay.
On September 3, Hudson reached an estuary of the river that now bears his name (a waterway that is sometimes called the North River, in contrast to the Delaware River, which was known by the Dutch as the South River) and on September 11, sailed into what is now known as New York Bay. While other explorers had gotten this far, Hudson, who believed he had found the Northwest Passage began to do so. He spent 10 days traveling up the river, stopping to claim the land for the Dutch in Haverstraw Bay (near present day Monsey, New York where my family lived in the late 50s and early 60s, before it became a Hasidic enclave). He sailed as far as Albany but, finding that the river wasn’t navigable beyond that point. He concluded that the river wasn’t the Northwest Passage and turned back and headed back to Europe. His explorations, however, set the stage for further Dutch exploration of the area and, ultimately, the establishment of a Dutch trading colony in what became New York City. The first time the river was identified as the Hudson River apparently was in a map created by cartographer John Carwitham in 1740.
As part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration that spurred the issuance of today’s stamp, organizers built replicas of Hudson’s Half Moon (as well as Fulton’s Clermont). Both ships were pictured on the stamp, and both replicas participated in the Celebration’s grand naval parade of American and foreign warships, which emphasized the United States’ naval supremacy in the Western Hemisphere. The Celebration also included public flights by Wilbur Wright, who made a 33-minute flight over the Hudson River to Grant’s Tomb and back, enabling perhaps a million New Yorkers to see their first airplane flight.
As for Hudson, he went on another voyage in 1610, this time for the Virginia Company and the British East India Company. During that trip, they reached the Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay in what is now Canada, which they believed were part of the long-sought Northwest passage to India. When the ship became trapped in the ice, they decided to stay and wait out the winter. By spring, Hudson was ready to get back on the ship and continue searching for the passage. However, his crew, who all wished to return home, mutinied. They reportedly took control of the ship and placed Hudson, his son, and a few others in a small boat, abandoning them in Hudson Bay. Nobody knows what became of them, as they were never seen or heard from again. Others kept seeking the elusive Northwest Passage but it wasn’t until the early 1900s when Norwegian Roald Amundsen made the journey, much of it on ice not in navigable water. However, climate change over the last decade has reduced the amount of Artic Ice, which in turn has made it possible for specially outfitted ships to make the entire journey (though competing sovereignty claims may complicate future shipping.
The Northwest Passage also is the title and subject of a well-known song by Canadian musician Stan Rogers (a song that should not to be confused with the big band tune of the same name by Ralph Burns). Rogers’ song recalls the history of early explorers who were trying to discover a route across Canada to the Pacific Ocean (especially Sir John Franklin, who, like Hudson, lost his life in the quest for the Northwest Passage). Rogers compares these journeys to Rogers’ own journey to and through the same region, particularly in the fourth verse, where he asks: “How then am I so different/From the first men through this way?/Like them, I left a settled life/I threw it all away/To seek a Northwest Passage/At the call of many men/To find there but the road back home again.” The song then ends with its well-known chorus: “Ah, for just one time/I would take the Northwest Passage/To find the hand of Franklin/Reaching for the Beaufort Sea/Tracing one warm line/Through a land so wild and savage/And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.”
Be well, stay safe, “find the road back home again,” fight for justice, and work for peace.