CAPTAIN HAWKRIDGE

Summary

It has been observed : “It is scarcely known under whose employ, in what ship, or even in what year, Captain Hawkridge sailed”.

Some light appears to be thrown on the subject by the following proceedings in the Court of Committees of the East India Fellowship. It appears from the records, that on the 20th of January 1618–19, Sir John Wolstenholme announced “an intended tryall to be made once againe in discournge the Norwest passage”. As an inducement to the Court to contribute their assistance to this new attempt, he states, it is understood, “that in Botton's Bay, w^ch runneth in 450 leagues from the mouth, a great tyde of floode runnes, and riseth sometimes 17 or 18 feet in height, w^ch is supposed cannott be but by some current in the sea in some other place, w^ch in pbabillitie may proue the desired passage”. Sir John Wolstenholme further states, so satisfied is he of the feasibility of the project, that he intends “to make a good round aduenture in his own pticuler, and to pswade as many friendes as he may, whereby to raise meanes to furnishe forthe two pinnaces, w^ch will cost li. 2,000”. This appeal to the generosity of the worshipful body was no less successful than former applications of the same description had been.