They Don't Mutiny Like They Used To

Just about every well known thing with "Hudson" in its name is likely named for the explorer Henry Hudson. Here's one exception:

But anyway. You probably learned about Henry Hudson during a social studies class that rattled off a bunch of European explorers, and if not for notable bodies of water such as the Hudson River and Hudson Bay, you probably wouldn't be able to tell Henry Hudson — a guy who knew a few things about the frozen lands near the North Pole — from other explorers with a penchant for fancy facial hair and fancier neck accoutrements, such as Sir Walter Raleigh.

 

They also have very pointy chins.

The little you probably remember about these explorer folks is, well, the stuff they explored. But for many of them, more interesting isn't how they lived, but how they died. In Sir Walter's case, he was imprisoned then beheaded, and my mother smoked Raleigh cigarettes for 20 years.

But Henry Hudson has all the other guys beat. His ship was stuck in ice in James Bay in Canada, forcing his crew to spend what was probably a winter more horrible than any of the winters I spent as a student at SUNY Buffalo. After the thaw, a large portion of the crew was looking forward to returning to their homes, but Henry said, "Hey, instead of going home, let's keep looking for that passage to Asia."

Take a look at the map below to where Hudson's ship was, and image how you'd react if you just spent the winter there and were then told you were going to Asia.

China's just around the corner!

Those who disagreed were like, screw that, so they did the reasonable thing: they set Hudson, his son, and his allies on a small boat before sailing home. Hudson and company were never seen again. The mutineers — those who made it back alive — were acquitted of murder.

But Henry Hudson, wherever he ended up, got the last laugh on those mutineers. No one outside of Wikipedia has ever heard of Abacuk Pricket, while Henry Hudson endures with noble landmarks like this:

Take THAT, Abacuk Pricket!

I'm asking you to send my wife to the North Pole, and I do this knowing that she's not the type of person to cause a mutiny. There are a lot of reasons I want to send her to the North Pole, but none of them want me to maroon her on a boat in the middle of Canada.

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If this convinces you that you should send my wife to the North Pole, please click this text which is in fact a link that will take you to her essay so you can vote for her so she'll have a chance to go to the North Pole. Thank you.