William baffin explorer biography

BAFFIN, WILLIAM, arctic explorer; b. 1584?; d. 1622.

As with many of the early explorers and navigators, little is known of the life of William Baffin until the voyages upon which his reputation rests.

The 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica gives 1584 as the year of his birth but does not supply the source of that important date. He was probably a native of London or vicinity and a self-educated man of humble origin but great talent, for Purchas speaks of him as “that learned-unlearned Mariner and Mathematician who, wanting art of words, so really employed himself to those industries, whereof here you see so evident fruits.”

In 1612 Baffin was chief pilot with Capt. James Hall’s ship Patience on the expedition when that unfortunate mariner was slain by revengeful Eskimos on the coast of Greenland.

The Patience accompanied by the Heart’s Ease sailed from the Humber on 22 April and returned to Hull, 11 September under the command of And