Saturday, May 30, 2009

Henry Hudson: Dreams and Obsession

by Corey Sandler

The surviving records of Henry Hudson's four voyages of 1607-10 are apparently scant but provided enough information to be used in a previous history of his explorations (Donald Johnson's Charting the Sea of Darkness, 1992). Sandler, author of dozens of travel guides, converts the Hudson documentation into a travelogue to several of Hudson's haunts. He traveled somewhat more comfortably than Hudson did, embarking on a cruise ship to Spitzbergen, driving up the Hudson River Valley, and flying to Hudson Bay. Healthily quoting the mariner's logbooks to contrast travel then and now, Sandler also avails himself of the four centuries of history these places have experienced since Hudson sailed by, integrating nuggets of fact with what people have to say about Hudson. Some are quite loquacious on the subject, such as the captain of a replica of Hudson's ship Half Moon.

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