Martin Frobisher, born in Yorkshire, went to London as a boy to be educated by a relative. He showed no aptitude for book learning, so his kinsman sent him to sea. Before reaching manhood Frobisher had been on two voyages to the Guinea Coast. For a time he engaged in piracy, though he never attacked English ships. By the s England had largely abandoned hope of finding a Northeast Passage to Asia, and thoughts turned to the Northwest.
Frobisher formed a partnership with Michael Lok, a man of some means and learning. Martin Frobisher, like many of his contemporaries, was enamoured with the idea of finding a northwestern route to the Far East by sea. Frobisher campaigned to obtain funding for his expedition and secured financial backing by collaborating with Michael Lok of the Muscovy Company. Frobisher's first expedition left England in June and probably sighted what is now called Resolution Island near Labrador by the end of July.
Factors including poor weather would eventually force Frobisher west, but not before he entered the bay that now carries his name Frobisher Bay — though he believed it was a strait — on present-day Baffin Island. There, he and his crew met the resident Inuit. Frobisher would never recover the men. He then kidnapped an Inuit man, who had kayaked to the European ship to trade, and brought him back that fall to England, where the captive soon died.
Frobisher also brought with him a piece of ore and gave it to Lok, who believed it was valuable; an assayer later claimed that it contained gold. Encouraged by the promise of precious metals, supporters provided the funds necessary to launch a second expedition. Martin Frobisher was appointed high admiral of his fleet and departed with his crew in the late spring of , reaching Baffin Island in mid-July.
He had direct orders from his sponsors to temporarily place his search for the Northwest Passage on hold in favour of gathering gold ore. Attempts to find the five men who had disappeared during the previous expedition were unsuccessful.
Clashes with the Inuit also occurred, resulting in Inuit casualties. Frobisher and his crew would eventually return to England with about tonnes of what they incorrectly believed to be gold ore, along with three Inuit captives, who soon died.
Frobisher was chosen to lead 15 vessels and establish a colony on Baffin Island. During the journey, one of his ships sank, while another abandoned the expedition, returning to England. Attempts to start a settlement were given up, and the remaining 13 ships returned to England at the end of August. In that year the Spanish king sent a force to Brest to assist a faction warring against the king of France. Elizabeth sent a force to support the French. In the course of storming a fort held by the Spanish at Crozon, Sir Martin was shot in the side.
He died of his wound a few days later, on 22 Nov. His first wife, Isabel, evidently died some time after his third arctic voyage; by , he had married Dorothy, the widow of Sir William Widmerpole. He had no children, but named as heir his nephew Peter Frobisher. That the brave admiral was not unloved by those under him appears from the narrative of the sailor Thomas Ellis, and the various poems written by him and others in praise of Frobisher, as well as from the references to his heroism, his feats of strength, his desire to treat the natives kindly, in the various accounts of his voyages by other participants.
Alan Cooke. George Best, A true discourse of the late voyages of discoverie, for the finding of a passage to Cathaya, by the northweast, under the conduct of Martin Frobisher generall. London, ; reprinted in Stefansson ed. Thomas Ellis, A true report of the third and last voyage into Meta incognita: atchieved by the worthie capteine, M. Martine Frobisher, esquire, Anno.
The three voyages of Martin Frobisher in search of a passage to Cathaia and India by the north-west, A. Collinson Hakluyt Soc. The three voyages of Martin Frobisher in search of a passage to Cathay and India by the north-west, A. Vilhjalmur Stefansson 2v.
Oleson, Early voyages , — Sharat K. Taylor, Tudor geography, — London, General Bibliography. The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style 16th edition. OK Cancel.
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