Martin Frobisher by
Cornelis Ketel.
Martin Frobisher (c. 1535 or 1539 – November 22, 1594) was an English seaman (from Wakefield,
Yorkshire) who made three voyages to the New World to look
for the Northwest Passage. All landed in northeastern Canada, around today's Resolution Island and
Frobisher Bay. On his second voyage, Frobisher found what he thought was gold and carried
200 tons of it home on three ships, where initial assaying determined it to be worth a profit of £5 per ton. Encouraged,
Frobisher returned to Canada with an even larger fleet and dug several mines around Frobisher
Bay. He carted 1,350 tons of the ore back where, after years of smelting, it was realised that both that batch of ore and
the earlier one he had taken were worthless. As an English privateer/pirate, he collected riches from French ships. He was later knighted for his service in repelling the
Spanish Armada in 1588.
Early life
At an early age, he was sent to a school in London, where he was placed under the care of a kinsman, Sir John York. In 1553, Sir John sent him to sea with a trading expedition sailing
to the Guinea coast of Africa. The following year on another expedition to Guinea he was held
hostage for several months before being freed..[1] By
1565, he is referred to as Captain Martin Frobisher and in 1571—1572 as being in the public service at sea off the coast of Ireland. Frobisher was charged with piracy at least three times, although the cases never went to trial.[2]
He weighed anchor at Blackwall, and, after having received a good word from Queen
Elizabeth I of England at Greenwich, set sail
on June 7th, 1576, by way of the Shetland Islands.
In a storm, the pinnace was lost, and the Michael was abandoned, but on 28 July, the
Gabriel sighted the coast of Labrador.
Some days later, the mouth of Frobisher Bay was reached, and because ice and wind
prevented further travel north, Frobisher determined to sail westward up this passage (which he conceived to be a strait) to see
"whether he might carry himself through the same into some open sea on the back side."
Baffin Island was reached on the 18 August
1576, where the expedition met some of the local natives. Having made arrangements with one of the
natives to guide them through the region, Frobisher sent five of his men in a ship's boat to return the native to shore, but
instructing them to avoid getting too close to any of the other natives. The boat's crew disobeyed, however, and were apparently
taken captive by the Inuit. After days of searching Frobisher could not recover them, and eventually took hostage the man who had
agreed to guide them to see if an exchange for the missing boat's crew could be arranged. The effort was fruitless, and the men
were never seen again, but Inuit legend tells that the men lived among them for a few years until
they died attempting to leave Baffin Island in a self-made boat. Frobisher turned
homewards, and reached London on 9 October. Among
the things which had been hastily brought away by the men was a "piece of a black stone,". There assayers were unimpressed with
the ore. Only one out of four experts consulted believed the ore to be gold-bearing, and he admitted he "knew how to flatter
nature". Nevertheless, Frobisher's backers, led by Micheal Lok and the Muscovy Company used this assessment to lobby for
investment for another voyage. [3]
The second voyage
The next year, a much bigger expedition than the former was fitted out. The Queen sold the Royal
Navy ship Ayde to the Company of Cathay and provided £1000 towards the expenses of the expedition. The Company of
Cathay was granted a charter from the crown, giving the company the sole right of sailing in every direction but the east.
Frobisher was appointed high admiral of all lands and waters that might be discovered by him.
On 25 May 1577 the expedition, consisting, besides the
Ayde, of the ships Gabriel and Michael, with an aggregate complement of 150 men, including miners, refiners,
gentlemen, and soldiers, left Blackwall, and sailing by the north of Scotland reached Hall's Island at the mouth of Frobisher Bay on
17 July. A few days later the country and
the south side of the bay was solemnly taken possession of in the queen's name.
Several weeks were now spent in collecting ore, but very little was done in the way of discovery, Frobisher being specially
directed by his commission to "defer the further discovery of the passage until another time." There was much parleying and some
skirmishing with the natives, and earnest but futile attempts were made to recover the men captured the previous year.
The return was begun on 23 August, and the Ayde reached Milford Haven on 23 September. The Gabriel and Michael
later arrived separately at Bristol and Yarmouth.
Frobisher was received and thanked by the queen at Windsor. Great preparations were
made and considerable expense incurred for the assaying of the great quantity of "ore" (about 200 tons) brought home. This took
up much time, and led to considerable dispute among the various parties interested.
The third voyage
Meantime, the faith of the queen and others remained strong in the productiveness of the newly discovered territory, which she
herself named Meta Incognita, and it was resolved to send out a larger expedition than ever, with all necessaries for the
establishment of a colony of 100 men. Frobisher was again received by the queen, and Her Majesty threw a fine chain of gold
around his neck.
On the 31 May 1578, the expedition, consisting in all of fifteen
vessels, left Harwich, and sailing by the English
Channel on 20 June reached the south of Greenland,
where Frobisher and some of his men managed to land. On 2 July, the foreland of Frobisher Bay was sighted. Stormy weather and dangerous ice prevented the rendezvous from being gained,
and, besides causing the wreck of the barque Dennis of 100 tons, drove the fleet
unwittingly up a new strait (Hudson). After proceeding about sixty miles up this "mistaken strait," Frobisher with apparent
reluctance turned back, and after many buffetings and separations, the fleet at last came to anchor in Frobisher Bay.
Some attempt was made at founding a settlement, and a large quantity of ore was shipped. Too much dissension and discontent
prevented a successful settlement. On the last day of August, the fleet set out on its return to England, which was reached in
the beginning of October. The ore was taken to a specially constructed smelting plant at Powder Mill Lane in Dartford. Kent. Despite many attempts, the ore
was apparently not worth smelting and was eventually used in Elizabethan road construction. [4] This ended Frobisher's attempts at the Northwest Passage.
Action against the Spaniards, 1580-1588
In 1580, Frobisher was employed as captain of one of the queen's ships in preventing the plans
of Spain to assist the Irish in their resistance of encroaching
English rule, and in the same year obtained a grant of the reversionary title of clerk of the Royal
Navy.
In 1585, he commanded the Primrose, as vice-admiral
to Sir Francis Drake in his expedition to the West
Indies. Soon afterwards, the country was threatened with invasion by the Spanish
Armada, and Frobisher's name was one of four mentioned by the Lord High Admiral
in a letter to the queen of "men of the greatest experience that this realm hath." For his signal services in the Triumph,
in the dispersion of the Armada, Martin Frobisher was knighted. He continued to cruise about in the Channel until
1590, when he was sent in command of a small fleet to the coast of Spain.
Later life
In 1591, he visited his native Altofts, and there married his second wife, a daughter of Lord
Wentworth, becoming at the same time a landed proprietor in Yorkshire and Notts. He found, however, little leisure for a country life, and the following year took charge of the
fleet fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh to the Spanish coast, returning with a rich
prize.
In November 1594, he was engaged with a squadron in the siege and relief of Brest, when he received a gunshot wound at Fort Crozon,[5] a Spanish-held fortress and due to poor medical treatment, died days later
at Plymouth on 15 November. His soft organs were buried at
St Andrew's Church, Plymouth on 22 November. His body was then taken to London and buried at
St Giles-without-Cripplegate.
Legacy
One of the four houses of Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough,
is named after Frobisher, as is one of the four houses at Bishopsgate School in Englefield Green. In addition, the Royal Navy
Hawkins class heavy cruiser HMS
Frobisher was named after him.
References
- Hoffman, A. (1977). Lives of the Tudor Age.
New York: Barnes & Noble.
Notes
- ^ Bumstead, J.M.. The Peoples
of Canada: A Pre-Confederation History. Oxford University Press. pg 55.
- ^ {{cite book|title=The Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation
History|first=J.M.|last=Bumstea
The first voyage in search of the Northwest Passage
As early as 1560 or 1561, Frobisher had formed a resolution to
undertake a voyage in search of a Northwest Passage as a trade-route to India and
China (referred to at that time as Cathay).
It took him 15 years to gain the necessary funding for his project. In 1576 Frobisher managed to
convince the Muscovy Company, an English merchant consortium which had previously sent out several parties searching for the
Northwest Passage, to license his expedition. With the help of Micheal Lok, the Muscovy Company's director, Frobisher was able to
raise enough capital for three barks: the Gabriel and Michael, of about 20-25 tons
each, and a pinnace of ten tons, with a total crew of 35. <ref>{{cite book|title=The
Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation History|first=J.M.|last=Bumstead|publisher=Oxford University Press. pg 55|}} </li>
<li id="wp-_note-2">'''[[#wp-_ref-2|^]]''' {{cite book|title=The Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation
History|first=J.M.|last=Bumstead|publisher=Oxford University Press. pg 56|}} </li> <li
id="wp-_note-3">'''[[#wp-_ref-3|^]]''' {{cite book|title=The Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation
History|first=J.M.|last=Bumstead|publisher=Oxford University Press. pg 56|}} </li> <li
id="wp-_note-4">'''[[#wp-_ref-4|^]]''' {{cite book|title=Hudson, Frobisher and the Early Exploration of Canada: Some Heraldic
Puzzles|first=John J.|last=Kennedy|publisher=Académie internationale d'héraldique}} </li></ol></ref>
External links
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