Half MoonHalf Moon
Recounts how Henry Hudson defied orders to find an eastern passage to China by redirecting his voyage along the coastline from Spanish Florida to the Grand Banks, an effort that laid a foundation for New York's establishment as a global capital.
Four centuries ago, Henry Hudson discovered the majestic river that bears his name. Douglas Hunter's Half Moon is the first book-length history of the 1609 adventure that would ultimately reshape the New World and lead to the birth of a global capital New York City. This swiftly moving tale re-creates the bubbling mixture of espionage, economics, and politics that drove men to the edges of the known world - and beyond.
Hudson was commissioned by the mighty Dutch East India Company to find an arctic passage north of Russia to the lucrative ports of China. But the inscrutable Hudson, defying his orders, turned the Half Moon around and headed west - far west. Awaiting him was the largely unexplored coastline between Spanish Florida and the Grand Banks and its rumors of a midcontinental passage to the Orient.
Once there, the rogue captain began a seemingly aimless cruise - perhaps, Hunter suggests, to conduct an espionage mission for his native England - but eventually dropped anchor within sight of today's Coney Island. Hudson and his crew were the first Europeans to visit the New York estuary in more than eighty years, and soon went off the map into uncharted waters. All the while, Hudson had to keep an eye on his crew, who were almost as great a threat to Hudson himself as they were to the people they encountered. The journey of discovery would not be free of violence and tragedy.
Drawing on original research, Douglas Hunter offers a fresh perspective on the daring Hudson's motivation and objectives - and even on where he went. Painstakingly plotting the course of the Half Moon from charts, logbooks, and contemporary records, Hunter sketches an entirely new route for Hudson's voyage, revising the accounts in previous histories.
A bold new account of explorer Henry Hudson and the discovery that changed the course of history.
The year 2009 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of Henry Hudson's discovery of the majestic river that bears his name. Just in time for this milestone, Douglas Hunter, sailor, scholar, and storyteller, has written the first book-length history of the 1609 adventure that put New York on the map.
Hudson was commissioned by the mighty Dutch East India Company to find a northeastern passage over Russia to the lucrative ports of China. But the inscrutable Hudson, defying his orders, turned his ship around and instead headed west—far west—to the largely unexplored coastline between Spanish Florida and the Grand Banks.
Once there, Hudson began a seemingly aimless cruise—perhaps to conduct an espionage mission for his native England—but eventually dropped anchor off Coney Island. Hudson and his crew were the first Europeans to visit New York in more than eighty years, and soon went off the map into unexplored waters.
Hudson's discoveries reshaped the history of the new world, and laid the foundation for New York to become a global capital. Hunter has shed new light on this rogue voyage with unprecedented research. Painstakingly reconstructing the course of the Half Moon from logbooks and diaries, Hunter offers an entirely new timeline of Hudson's passage based on innovative forensic navigation, as well as original insights into his motivations.
Half Moon offers a rich narrative of adventure and exploration, filled with international intrigue, backstage business drama, and Hudson's own unstoppable urge to discover. This brisk tale re-creates the espionage, economics, and politics that drove men to the edge of the known world and beyond.
Title availability
About
Details
- New York : Bloomsbury Press, 2009.
From the community