In 1631, with the help of the Trinity House, Luke Foxe, full of intense eagerness, secured his heart’s desire. He was allowed to have H.M.S. Charles, an old gunboat of 70 or 80 tons, which had seen much service, and had been ordered to be sold. The Master, whose name is never given, and the mate Yourin or Hurin, were not of his choosing, having been appointed by the Trinity House. Of the Master, Foxe says he was “the most arrogant bull calf that ever went or came as Master and the most faint-heartedest man.” The crew consisted of 20 men and 3 boys, and the ship was provisioned for 18 months. Foxe was against the use of tobacco as “a thing good for nothing,” but all the men smoked.
The Charles sailed from Deptford on the 5th of May, 1631, going north about, instead of down channel.
Another expedition had sailed from Bristol nearly at the same time and with the same object, under the command of Captain James. He sighted Greenland encompassed about with ice, and worked continually to keep clear of it. Passing down Hudson Strait and between Nottingham Island and Cape Digges, Captain James, as we shall see, met the Charles in Hudson’s Bay on the 29th August.
Foxe first came to Lumley Inlet on the west coast of Davis Strait, really Frobisher Strait, which Davis did not realise. Davis named it after Lord Lumley who had “built the pier of that distressful poor fisher town Hartlepool at a cost of £2000, and was a great favourer of Davis.” In Hudson Strait the progress of the Charles was much impeded by ice from the 23rd June to the 4th July. Foxe describes the ice and also mentions the use of log and line for registering the ship’s run[93].
Captain Thomas James.
In the middle of July Foxe tried to sail between Nottingham and Salisbury Islands, but he was stopped by the ice in his attempt to go to the north-west, as others had been before him. He therefore turned to the south and made his way along the south coast of Southampton Island, sighting Mansel Island and Cary’s Swan’s Nest, named by Button. Foxe then discovered the wide opening between the west side of Southampton Island and the main land, without finding the narrow strait at the northern end. Supposing it to be a deep bay, he named it after his patron, “Sir Thomas Roe’s Welcome.” An island was named “Briggs his Mathematics” on the 31st July, after the great mathematician to whom we owe the use of logarithms, who had died a few months before Foxe sailed on his voyage of discovery. Our explorer then visited the winter quarters of Button and Munk, finding the remains of their ships, but, convinced that there was no passage on the west side of Hudson’s Bay, he resolved to return to the east side of Southampton Island and make another attempt by the north-west.
In crossing Hudson’s Bay the Charles came in sight of another vessel, which proved to be the Henrietta Maria, commanded by Captain James. The two exploring ships stopped to communicate and Captain James entertained Captain Foxe at dinner, the ships then proceeding on their respective ways on the 1st September. Captain James wintered at Charlton Island in the extreme south-east angle of Hudson’s Bay. The party underwent the most terrible suffering, but the ship arrived safely in England in the autumn of 1632[94].
On the 7th September the Charles was off the south point of Southampton Island. Much hampered by ice Foxe reached Mill Island of Baffin, and then stood over to the north main land at a point he called King’s Cape. He was now in the locality where Baffin turned back, judging from the indications that there was only a large bay ahead. All beyond would, therefore, be new discovery. He had reached what we now know as Fox Channel. Sailing onwards, he passed two promontories, 20 leagues apart, which he named Lord Weston’s Portland and Cape Dorchester; then, on the 22nd, in 66° 47′ N., he reached his furthest point, which he rather pompously called “North-West Foxe his furthest.” He was on his way to a north-west passage or rather to one lane by which the two oceans unite, for it could never be a passage. The discovery was completed in after years by Parry, Ross, Rae, and M’Clintock.
