Thomas James (sea captain)
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Captain Thomas James (1593 – 1635) was an English sea captain, notable as a navigator and explorer who set out to discover the northwest passage, the hoped for ocean route around the top of North America to Asia.
Capt. James set out on his two-year voyage in 1631 with a single vessel, the Henrietta Maria. James explored Hudson Bay, of which the southern part of the bay, James Bay, is named for him. He wintered on Charlton Island in present day Nunavut, Canada, before continuing his voyage in the Arctic Ocean in the summer of 1632.
James' harrowing experiences during his voyage, in which he repeatedly came close to death in the ice of the Arctic Ocean are recounted in his published account of the voyage, The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captaine Thomas James, published in 1633.
Some critics have opined that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's work The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was inspired by James' experience in the Arctic. "Some critics think that Coleridge drew upon James’s account of hardship and lamentation in writing The rime of the ancient mariner."[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Cooke, Alan (2000). Thomas James. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved on March 5, 2007.
