It was Balthazar de Moucheron, an eminent merchant of Middelburg, who conceived the project of imitating the English adventurers, and sending two vessels to discover a north-east route to China. One was the Swan of Keer in Walcheren, commanded by Cornells Nai of Enkhuizen, the other the Mercury of Enkhuizen under Brant Tetgales. They were to attempt a passage by the Waigat. The merchants of Amsterdam fitted out a vessel also named the Mercury but, acting under the advice of the cosmographer Plancius, they adopted another route, and resolved to attempt a passage round the northern end of Novaya Zemlya. The commander of this second Mercury was Willem Barentsz, a native of the island of Terschelling, an accomplished seaman and pilot. He had translated the sailing directions of Ivar Bardsen the Greenlander[34], and the journal of Arthur Pet; showing the close attention he had paid to the former history of northern enterprise. Barentsz understood the science of navigation, and was an excellent observer.
The three vessels, with Cornelis Nai as Admiral, sailed from the Texel on the 4th June, 1594. On the 29th Barentsz parted company to pursue his more northern route, while Nai and Tetgales shaped a course for Waigatz. It was agreed that, if they had to return, they were to wait for each other until September at Kildin, on the coast of Lapland.
Barentsz came in sight of Novaya Zemlya in 73° 25′ N. on July 4th, and, proceeding northwards along the coast, passed Cape Nassau in 76° 20′ N. on the 10th. Here the land turns nearly due east, with many glaciers, and hills rising to 2000 feet behind them. Off the coast are the two Orange Islands, each about half a mile long, with precipitous sides and flat summits about 100 feet above the sea. Hitherto Barentsz had been in a fairly open sea, but on rounding Cape Nassau he was stopped by floes of ice. He persevered in an attempt to pass through them for some days, but on the 3rd of August he was obliged to begin the homeward voyage. Between Cape Nassau and the Orange Islands Barentsz had put his ship about no less than 81 times, and had sailed over 1546 miles including all the tacks. On the 15th of August he reached Matthew Island on the south coast of Novaya Zemlya, where he met Nai and Tetgales. They had passed through Pet Strait, and had gone for a short distance into the Kara Sea. All three vessels returned to Holland in September. The narrative of his first voyage was written by Barentsz himself.
Novaya Zemlya, showing entrances to Kara Sea.
A well-known traveller and writer, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, sailed with Tetgales in the Enkhuizen ship. Linschoten was born at Haarlem in 1563. At the age of 16 he joined his brothers, who were merchants at Seville. He went thence to Lisbon, and obtaining a place in the suite of the Archbishop of Goa sailed for India in 1583. He remained at Goa until 1589, when he took ship at Cochin to return with his friend Dirk Gerritz, who had been 26 years in the East and had been to China and Japan as gunner of a Portuguese ship. Dirk Gerritz wrote notes upon China and India, and in 1598 he was pilot in the first Dutch voyage through the Straits of Magellan. Linschoten stopped on his homeward voyage at Terceira, one of the Azores, for more than two years, which enabled him to give a full account of the memorable fight of the Revenge. At length he got back to Holland in September 1592 and wrote his Itinerary, which was published in 1596. He was an indefatigable collector of information of all kinds, and his book of travels is most fascinating[35]. But, while busily engaged upon it, Linschoten’s attention was diverted by the project of de Moucheron for the discovery of the North-east Passage, and he sailed with Tetgales as supercargo[36].
It was Linschoten’s sanguine report expressing a full conviction that the northern route to the Indies was discovered which induced the Dutch merchants to undertake a second voyage on a larger scale. Seven vessels were fitted out, two in Zeeland, two from Enkhuizen, two from Amsterdam, and one from Rotterdam. The Griffin and Swan from Zeeland were again under Cornelis Nai, the Hope of Enkhuizen was commanded by Tetgales, and Barentsz had the Greyhound of Amsterdam and was chief pilot. Linschoten, Jacob van Heemskerk, and Jan Cornells Rijp were the supercargos. Linschoten was also a Commissioner on behalf of Prince Maurice of Orange and the States General.
The ships assembled at the Texel and sailed on the 2nd July, 1595. On the 19th August they reached the entrance of Pet Strait which was closed with ice, “most frightful to behold,” writes Linschoten. Parties were sent across Waigatz Island to report on the state of the ice in the Kara Sea. Barentsz himself crossed to the mainland to get information from the Samoyeds, and several efforts were made to pass through the ice, but all in vain. The crews began to murmur. The attempt was accordingly abandoned and the fleet returned to Holland in October[37].
The total failure of this voyage caused great disappointment, and the States General decided that no further attempt should be made at the public expense. Barentsz, however, supported by Plancius, persisted in the opinion that a passage might be effected round the north of Novaya Zemlya, so the merchants of Amsterdam were induced to fit out one more expedition. It consisted of two vessels, one commanded by Jacob van Heemskerk, the other by Jan Cornells Rijp. Barentsz went with Heemskerk as chief pilot.
On the 9th June, 1596, the two ships came to a small steep island north of the Finmarken coast which received the name of Bear Island[38]. It appears that the plan was to keep away from Waigatz Island, where failure had attended the second voyage, and instead to shape a northerly course.