Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World

by Douglas Hunter

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159691680X
• ISBN13: 9781596916807
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

half moon

an exceptionally well written book about HENRY hUDSON and his discoveries on the high seas and in america.. one gets a real feel for exploration and discovery in a time well before modern technology.. i am intrigued by the authors presentation of history--he is excited and i am exited by his writing,,

"Half Moon" Is Half Biographical Narrative, Half Maritime Geopolitical History

In Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage that Redrew the Map of the New World, author Douglas Hunter richly details Henry Hudson's third and penultimate voyage of discovery, the 1609 expedition aboard the Half Moon. In the first several chapters, Hunter sets the stage for the Half Moon expedition by describing the explorers, voyages, financiers, and financial interests that shaped the maritime geopolitical landscape in the early 17th century. We come to understand how Hudson, an Englishman, was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to search for and secure a northeast passage to Asia. When this attempt failed (as others previously had, and as Hudson himself supposed it would) near the Arctic islands of Novaya Zemlya to the north of Russia, Hudson reversed course, in breach of his contract, and sailed the Half Moon for North America in search of a northwest passage above Canada or a transcontinental portage route to the Orient. In narrating the voyage, Hunter mostly draws upon the journal of Hudson's first mate, Robert Juet. After a stormy crossing of the Atlantic, the Half Moon spends considerable time probing several North American coastal waterways, including the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, before finally arriving in theretofore uncharted New York Harbor. Along the way, Hunter gives us an appreciation of the art and science that skilled navigators needed to master while exploring uncharted waters - most interestingly to this reader the soundings, wind behaviors, tidal patterns, and water salinities that were observed and recorded throughout the voyage. As we enter New York Harbor about halfway through the book, we discover it as it once was. Hunter admits that a major challenge in deciphering the events of the Half Moon voyage is the fact that the geographic features have changed enormously in four centuries, as shorelines around metropolitan New York have been aggressively re-engineered. Hunter notes the irony that the Dutch, who would launch the development of this mercantile center a little more than a decade after Hudson's voyage, now account for less than 4% of its trade tonnage today. While China on the other hand, the country Hudson was trying to reach by finding a way either through or around North America, now accounts for about one quarter of it! But the heart and soul of this work is the adventure narrative describing Hudson's exploration up and down the great river that today bears his name. I selected this book because I am an avid reader of historical narrative. However, I found it at times to read more like historical reference rather than narrative, particularly in the chapters preceding the Half Moon's arrival in New York Harbor. Although I greatly enjoyed Hunter's work, and appreciate the tremendous amount of time and effort he undoubtedly invested into his research, especially in light of the scarcity of available records, I would recommend it only to a reader with a keen interest in this topic, rather than to

Henry, the Half Moon, and the Hudson - a Tale of New York

I suspect that at the root of it all, Columbus is to blame - not for discovering the New World and beginning the European invasion that push aside whole civilizations - but rather for the confusion over which explorer discovered what, when, and for whom. Of course, this also begs the question of who actually discovered anything since the New World was only new to the Europeans and was very well known to its inhabitants. But Christopher Columbus, who discovered America for Spain, was actually an Italian from Genoa. So it should not come as a great surprise that Henrik Hudson who explored what would be called the Hudson River and secured New Amsterdam for the Dutch was actually an Englishman (and it would be the English who took New Amsterdam and launched it upon the path that would make it New York, New York). Douglas Hunter has presented us with a new account of Henry Hudson's explorations that blends history, biography, and travelogue. His account also makes clear that these expeditions were not purely for science, nor merely for adventure, but were at their foundation the most speculative of business investments. As a journalist and historian, Hunter has written about the financial sector, business, sailing, modern professional sports, and other episodes in the history of exploration. This background is reflected in Hunter's narrative of the decisions made by Henry Hudson, whose voyages were business ventures heading beyond charted waters into the unknown when even his best maps and charts had to be used with care and attention in case by error or by ignorance they turned out to be wrong and perhaps fatally wrong. Hudson's story is also about management and leadership. He had to deal with investors, his mostly Dutch crewmen and the senior subordinates on board ship, Native Americans who displayed at times hostility as well as friendly curiosity, and with various outsiders and even rivals who were also seeking the discovery that would make them wealthy and famous. The author does not hide the foreshadowing in his discussion of these issues, noting that Hudson would disappear in 1611 during a subsequent voyage. His crew would mutiny and place Hudson, his teenage son, and eight crewmen in an open boat and leave them in what is today Hudson's Bay, Canada. The crew was tried and acquitted of murder but the issue of their mutiny was never placed before a judge or jury. As much as I appreciated the discussion of period exploration and of the how, when, and where the knowledge gained in various explorations was distributed and shared, I was most interested in the actual voyage on the Hudson River. This portion of the book is written with an eye on today's New York and its surroundings as well as on Hudson's experiences in and perceptions of the waterways and shoreline that surround the site of the future metropolis. I especially appreciated the charts of the Hudson River that accompany the author's discussion of that part of the story t

Fascinating Read!

Henry Hudson was was hired by the Dutch Trading Company in 1609 to find a northeastern passage around Russia to more easily access China. Hudson started his voyage aboard the Half Moon with a mixture of English and Dutch crewmen. Part way into his voyage, he decided to turn his ship around and go west to America where he would discover the Hudson River and other uncharted territories. Hudson found himself with his hands full, wondering if there was mutiny brewing and also wondering how he would be received by the Dutch when he finally decided to back. When he did go back, he found himself on another mission to find a northwestern passage to China. That was his last voyage. When I closed the book after reading the last paragraph, I had to just sit in thought for a bit. Douglas Hunter, who is a sailor himself, wove such an intricate story of Henry Hudson. The amount of research that went into this book is amazing, and to present it like Hunter did was even more amazing to me. From the start I was drawn in, and felt like I was reading a puzzle with pieces being put together from all different sources, a little at a time, until the picture became clear. Who was Hudson? Where did he come from? Why would he blatantly disregard his orders and sail the opposite way? Since there was no journal of Hudson's to go by, many of the notes about the voyage were taken from Robert Juet's journal. Reading some of the thoughts and feelings of an actual crew member was a real treat and very insightful. I had no idea what exploration was like in the 1500 and 1600's besides the basic textbook "stuff" I received in school. I had no idea of the amount of espionage, threats of mutiny, and pirating that went on. Most of all, I had no idea how much history was re-written for gain, both financially and politically. Hudson ended being a totally different man than the explorer that was captain of the Half Moon. This book was a fascinating read, and now that I'm done, my family will be able to go back to normal dinner banter, instead of listening to me rattle on about what I found was amazing in the book. Both of my teens are now wanting to read Half Moon and I know they'll enjoy it as much as I did!

More relevatory than celebratory; an engaging read!

With 20009 the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's landmark third voyage, it is understandable there is interest in his accomplishments. If Americans recall Hudson at all, it is for this particular voyage for the Dutch that led to the exploration of Chesapeake Bay and of the river in modern-day New York that bears his name. Typically though Hudson is somewhat lost in the array of explorers who mapped the Americas. And while Hudson's demise on his fourth voyage was well chronicled in Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson Douglas Hunter seeks to tell the far more celebratory story of Hudson's third voyage that cemented Dutch claims to present-day New York. From today's perspective it is hard to grasp the dangers Hudson and his crew faced. The Americas were uncharted unmapped wilderness, fraught with the potential for disaster, and Hudson was sailing with no back up, no support network, no Plan B if things took a turn for the worse. "Half Moon" seeks to recapture the desire European nations had for finding a shorter trade route to Asia and the exploration it spurred. Turning to the few available experienced mariners nations were willing to expend treasure and prestige in efforts to find an elusive passage to Asia. From our present age these seem like scattershot trial and error, but there was a method to Hudson's madness as he defies orders and probes methodically for the fabled Northwest Passage. Thanks to Hudson's incessant probing the knowledge of the contours of the New World were greatly expanded and reshaped European thinking of what the Americas were and were not. Hunter painstakingly recreates the course of the voyage and in the process comes up with new discoveries of his own and new insight into Hudson and his crew. Drawing from primary sources such as logbooks and diaries Hunter not only reshapes our thinking of Hudson but gives us greater insight into his character and his motivations and those of his crew. "Half Moon" seeks to add flesh and blood to the Age of Exploration rather than having it remain a series of names, dates and places we learned by rote in school. Explorers didn't always succeed and there was a true cost to be paid, as in Hudson's case, when things went horribly wrong. And while there is always a question of objectivity in original logbooks and diaries Hunter uses them in an objective manner, seeing them for what they are, much in the manner Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney would employ in both Captive Histories: English, French, And Native Narratives of the 1704 Deerfield Raid (Native Americans of the Northeast) and Captors And Captives: The 1704 French And Indian Raid on Deerfield (Native Americans of the Northeast: Culture, History, & the Contemporary). "Half Moon" is less about creating a hagiography of Henry Hudson than it is about challenging what we think we know about Hudson and the Age of Exploration.