Overview

William Baffin (c. 1584-1622) was one of many explorers who searched the waters of northern North America for a cross-continental Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Baffin is noted as a highly skilled navigator and ship pilot who discovered Baffin Bay, traveled to the northernmost reaches of the continent, and became the first to determine longitude at sea. Although he never found the passage, he came close by charting the Lancaster Sound. More than two centuries later, explorers identified the sound as an entrance to the Northwest Passage.

Background

By the time of Baffin's voyages in the early 1600s, the Spanish and Portuguese had already found paths to the treasured lands of China and southeast Asia by routes around South America and Africa. Their control of these southern passages left other European nations, including France and England...