Jonas Poole (bap. 1566 – 1612)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). was an early 17th-century English
explorer
Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians.
Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
history of whaling
This article discusses the history of whaling from prehistoric times up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. Whaling has been an important subsistence and economic activity ...
.
Voyages to Bear Island, 1604-1609
He served aboard vessels sent by the
Muscovy Company
The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company russian: Московская компания, Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint s ...
on sealing voyages to Bear Island in 1604, 1605, 1606, 1608, and 1609. In 1607 he was among the sailors sent to the New World to establish Jamestown, in particular being one of the two dozen colonists led by Captain Christopher Newport that explored the upper James River in a
pinnace
Pinnace may refer to:
* Pinnace (ship's boat), a small vessel used as a tender to larger vessels among other things
* Full-rigged pinnace
The full-rigged pinnace was the larger of two types of vessel called a pinnace in use from the sixteenth c ...
as far as the falls near present-day
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
in late May of that year. In 1606 he was given command of a 20-ton pinnace. In 1608 he piloted the ship ''Paul'', and in 1609 he was master of the ship ''Lioness''.Purchas, S. 1625. ''Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes: Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and others''. Volumes XIII and XIV (Reprint 1906 J. Maclehose and sons).
Voyages to Spitsbergen, 1610-1612
1610
In 1610 Poole was again sent to Bear Island to hunt
walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...
, as well as search for a passage towards the
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...
. He was given command of the 70-ton ''Amity'', with a crew of fourteen men and a boy. He bypassed Bear Island altogether, sailing straight for Spitsbergen. While Barentsz had only spent a few weeks exploring Spitsbergen and Hudson less than a month, Poole spent nearly three months (May–August) exploring the west coast and hunting walrus, polar bear, and
reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...
there. On 6 May he came within sight of a mountain on the south coast of Spitsbergen, which he named ''Muscovy Company’s Mount'' (modern Hornsundtind). He sailed north and sent a skiff into a small fjord. They returned with a piece of reindeer horn, resulting in Poole giving the fjord the name ''Horn Sound'' (
Hornsund
Hornsund is a fjord on the western side of the southernmost tip of Spitsbergen island.
The fjord's mouth faces west to the Greenland Sea, and is wide. The length is , the mean depth is , and the maximal depth is . Hornsund cuts different geol ...
).
Conway, W. M. 1906. ''No Man's Land: A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country''. Cambridge: At the University Press.
During this voyage, he also named ''Ice Point'' (Ispynten), ''Bell Point'' (for a nearby bell-shaped mountain, now called Kapp Lyell), ''Bell Sound'' (
Bellsund
Bellsund is a long sound on the west coast of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. It is separated from Van Mijenfjorden by the islands of Akseløya and Mariaholmen. Bellsund is located south of Nordenskiöld Land and north ...
Van Mijenfjorden
Van Mijenfjorden is the third-longest fjord in Norway's Svalbard archipelago. It lies in the southern portion of Spitsbergen island, south of Nordenskiöld Land and north of Nathorst Land. The fjord is long, being separated from Bellsund further ...
Grønfjorden
Grønfjorden (English: Green Fjord or Green Harbour) is a 16 km long fjord, separated from Isfjorden to the north by Festningsodden in the west and Heerodden in the east. It lies within the western portion of Nordenskiöld Land. On its eas ...
), ''Osborne Inlet'' ( St. Jonsfjorden), ''Black Point'' (Salpynten), ''Black Point Isle'' (
Prins Karls Forland
Prins Karls Forland or Forlandet, occasionally anglicized as Prince Charles Foreland, is an island off the west coast of Oscar II Land on Spitsbergen in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. The entire island and the surrounding sea area c ...
), ''Foul Sound'' (
Forlandsundet
Forlandsundet is an 88 km long sound separating Prins Karls Forland and Spitsbergen. Its northern limits are Fuglehuken to the west and Kvadehuken to the east. Its southern limits are Salpynten to the west and Daudmannsodden to the east.
Refer ...
), ''Cape Cold'' (Kaldneset), ''Fair Foreland'' (
Fuglehuken
Fuglehuken ( en, bird hook) is a headland at the northern end of Prins Karls Forland, Svalbard
Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is abo ...
), ''Deer Sound'' (
Kongsfjorden
Kongsfjorden as seen from Blomstrandhalvøya
Kongsfjorden (Kongs Fjord or Kings Bay) is an inlet on the west coast of Spitsbergen, an island which is part of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The inlet is long and ranges in width ...
), ''Close Cove'' (
Krossfjorden
Krossfjorden (English: Cross Fjord) is a 30 km long fjord on the west coast of Spitsbergen, which is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. To the north, the fjord branches into Lillehöö ...
), ''Cross Road'' (Ebeltofthamna), and Fairhaven (Smeerenburgfjorden).Norwegian Polar Institut Place Names of Svalbard Database
Poole also obtained "fins" (baleen) and blubber from Bowhead whales that had stranded along the coast, but did not attempt to catch any of the "great store of whales" he saw in these waters, "for the Basques were then the only people who understood whaling."
1611
His report of the number of whales found around Spitsbergen led the Muscovy Company to send two ships there the following year, 1611. One, the 60-ton bark ''Elizabeth'', was sent to accompany the 150-ton ''Mary Margaret'', under Stephen Bennet, on a whaling expedition to the island. Poole was sent as master of the ''Elizabeth'', and was to pilot both vessels. Aboard the ''Mary Margaret'' was
Thomas Edge
Thomas Edge (1587/88 – 29 December 1624) was an English merchant, whaler, and sealer who worked for the Muscovy Company in the first quarter of the 17th century. The son of Ellis Edge, Thomas Edge was born in the parish of Blackburn in Lancash ...
, who was to be in charge of the cargoes of both vessels. Among the crew were six expert
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
whalemen from
Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Saint-Jean-de-Luz (; eu, Donibane Lohitzune,Donibane Lohitzune Blackwall in April, but in 65° N the two ships were separated by "contrary winds and foul weather." They found each other again in mid-May, sailing together to Cross Road, where they anchored in late May. The ''Mary Margaret'' spent the month of June hunting whales and walruses, while Poole explored to the southwest, searching for Henry Hudson's elusive ''Hold with Hope''. After sighting this land (probably eastern
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
) around 74°, he sailed northward for Bear Island, where he anchored on 29 June.
In late July, while riding at anchor on the north side of the island, Poole came into contact with three sailors sent by Edge and Bennet. They related to him the loss of the ''Mary Margaret'' in Foul Sound, which had been driven ashore by ice. He was told that there were thirty men who had landed on the south side of the island in three boats, while two other boats carrying nine men had parted company with them off Horn Sound.
Poole sailed to the south side of the island, picked up the men, and sailed north to Spitsbergen. Coming to Foul Sound he found the ''Mary Margaret's'' other men, who had been carried there by an interloper from Hull, the ''Hopewell'', under Thomas Marmaduke. Here, on 7 August, while transferring the cargo of the stricken ''Mary Margaret'', the ''Elizabeth'', not having enough in her hold to ballast herself, was capsized, nearly taking Poole with her. Poole was in the hold when the accident occurred, and twice while trying to climb through the hatches barrels of beer and "diverse other things" knocked him down. By "swimming and crawling" he was able to get out of the bark and to the surface where a boat rescued him. Poole said his "head asbroke to the skull, and my brow that one might see the bare bones, and by mine ear I had a sore wound, likewise the ribs on my right side were all broken and sore bruised, and the collar bone of my left shoulder is broken, besides my back was so sore, that I could not suffer any man to touch it."
Climbing into three boats, the men rowed to the ''Hopewell'', asking Marmaduke for help, but he refused, reportedly arming his men with pikes and lances to keep Poole and his men from boarding. Edge and other men finally convinced Marmaduke to carry them home, but only after agreeing to pay him.
1612
In 1612 Jonas Poole again sailed to Spitsbergen on a whaling expedition. Two ships were sent, the 160-ton ''Whale'', under John Russell, and the 180-ton ''Sea Horse'', under Thomas Edge. Poole served aboard the latter, probably as pilot.
The expedition left in early April, arriving at Bear Island in early May. On 25 May they came into Foul Sound. The next day two ships came into the sound. One was a ship sent from
Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
, which they had met with earlier off Bear Island. The other was an interloper from
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, the ''Diana'', of
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, under Thomas Bustion of
Wapping Wall
Wapping Wall is a street located in the East End of London at Wapping. It runs parallel to the northern bank of the River Thames, with many converted warehouses facing the river.
On this street is the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, built in ...
. Both sailed away the following day. In early June Poole met with another interloper, the ''Hopewell'' of Hull, again under Thomas Marmaduke, which may have been fitted out this year to hunt for whales.
By early June the Basque whalemen—probably recruited from St. Jean de Luz—had already caught several whales. In late June Poole said there were so many whales in the sound that he could not count them. On 30 June he reported that "there lay abundance of huge Whales in the harbour about our ships." "All this day whales lay so thick about the ship, that some ran against our Cables, some against the Ship, and one against the Rudder. One lay under our beakhead and slept there a long while." The ships returned to London later that year with 180 tons of oil from the capture of seventeen bowhead whales and two walruses.
At the end of the voyage, Poole was reportedly "miserably and basely murdered" between
Ratcliff
Ratcliff or Ratcliffe is a locality in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames between Limehouse (to the east), and Shadwell (to the west). The place name is no longer commonly used.
History
Etymolog ...
and London.
Legacy
Many of the names that Jonas Poole gave to features on the west coast of Spitsbergen, most importantly Hornsund, Bellsund, and Isfjorden, still retain their name. The names of other features, through modern blunders in map-making and for other reasons, have been changed or altogether forgotten. Poolepynten (Poole Point), on the southeastern coast of
Prins Karls Forland
Prins Karls Forland or Forlandet, occasionally anglicized as Prince Charles Foreland, is an island off the west coast of Oscar II Land on Spitsbergen in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. The entire island and the surrounding sea area c ...
(Prince Charles Foreland), was named in his honor.