Frobisher Martin

(1535 or 1539 - 11.11.1594)

English navigator and marque.

Born in the family of Bernard and Margaret Frobisher, in Altofts (Yorkshire). On the father’s line, the Frobisher genus dates back to the Scottish knight John Frobisher, who distinguished himself during the wars of the English king Edward I (1272-1307) in Wales. Mother came from a family of the famous London merchant and shipowner John York.

After the death of his father in 1542, Martin was sent to London, under the supervision of a guardian - the brother of his mother, John York. Sir John York noticed early in his nephew "a strong character, desperately daring bravery and a very strong body by nature".

In 1553, Frobisher took part in Thomas Thindham's corsair-slave expedition financed by York to the shores of Guinea. During the next expedition to West Africa in 1554, he voluntarily became a hostage of one of the local African leaders. Soon he was captured by the Portuguese, but managed to free himself. Between 1559 and 1562 he made a new expedition to get slaves to Guinea.

Returning to Yorkshire, Frobisher got a job as a captain on one of three privateers equipped for action against the French. In May 1563, along with his brother John Frobisher, he brought five captured French ships to Plymouth harbor, and in 1567 intercepted the ship Catherine in the English Channel, carrying tapestries to Spain for King Philip II, for which he was imprisoned for a while.

In 1565, Frobisher cruised in the British waters on the ship “Mary Flower”, capturing several merchant ships. Having procured from the leaders of the French Huguenots, Prince de Conde and Admiral Coligny, letters of marque, for several years he hunted the ships of French Catholics in a squadron of five corsair ships.

In 1569, having received the letter of marque, signed by Prince William of Orange, Frobisher began tracking down the Spanish merchant ships. Suspected of piracy, he was taken into custody again in August 1569, spent almost a year in a London prison, but was released at the request of Lady Elizabeth Clinton, the wife of Lord Admiral of England.

In 1572, having entered the royal service, Frobisher patrolled the coast of Ireland, capturing one German and several French ships.

In the 1560s, he was interested in the opportunity to find the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in order to reach China and India. Enlisting the support of Queen Elizabeth I, Frobisher obtained a license to search for the Northwest Passage. During 1576-1578 He made three voyages to the Arctic shores of North America.

The first expedition consisting of the barges "Gabriel" and "Michael" and light pinas with a total number of crews of 35 people sailed from Ratcliffe on June 7, 1576. Queen Elizabeth I herself waved to them and wished them a happy journey.

On June 26, 1576, the expedition reached the Shetland Islands, from where it went across the Atlantic to the west. July 11, the British saw the coast of Greenland, but the snow and fog prevented landing on the shore. During a heavy storm, Pinass died and the barque Michael disappeared, the captain of which deserted.

Despite this, Frobisher on the battered barge "Gabriel" with a team of 23 people continued to search for the Northwest Passage. Moving from Greenland to the west-north-west, on July 28, 1576, we saw an unfamiliar island, and on August 18 - Baffin Land. Two days later they landed on the island of Locks Land, then entered a narrow bay, which Frobisher took for a long-awaited strait and called it his own name.

In the Gulf, members of the expedition found the natives, "similar to Tatars, with long black hair, wide faces and flat noses, dressed in sealskin" ... These were Inuit Eskimos, which Frobisher took for Asians. When samples of black stone with yellow splashes were delivered to the ship; the British decided it was gold. In late August, taking with them one Eskimo, the “Gabriel” team set off on their way back and arrived in London on 9 October.

Frobisher handed over samples of "gold ore" to specialists; three researchers decided that it was pyrite, and the fourth stated that he was still able to extract three grains of gold from the ore.

May 31, 1577 launched the second expedition of Frobisher. Elizabeth I contributed the largest share in the £ 1,000 and outfitted the 200-ton "Aid" ship at public expense; In addition, Frobisher received two barge - "Gabriel" and "Michael" and a few pinnacles. The number of the team was about 150 people. Like Christopher Columbus, Frobisher was appointed "the chief admiral of all seas, lakes, lands and islands, countries and places newly discovered".

Having rounded Scotland, on 4 July they reached Greenland, but the accumulations of ice again prevented them from landing on the shore. On July 17, the ships approached Hall Island near Frobisher Bay. Announcing the newly discovered country as the possession of the British crown, the British began to search for gold ore, while occasionally engaging in clashes with the Eskimos. Finally, having loaded about 200 tons of “precious cargo” aboard the Aide and seizing three Eskimos (a man and a woman with a child), on August 23, Frobisher ordered to return to England.

On September 23, 1577, "Aid" arrived at the English port of Milford (Gabriel and Michael came later - one to Bristol, the other to Yarmouth). Elizabeth I received Frobisher in Windsor Palace. Alchemist scholars carefully investigated the ore mined by the expedition and said that it did contain some gold.

May 31, 1578 the third expedition consisting of 15 ships under the command of Frobisher went out to sea from Harwich. The expedition was to establish a permanent settlement in the newly discovered country, equip mines there and load 2,000 tons of "gold ore" on board the ships.

On June 20, 1578 the flotilla reached the coastal waters of Greenland, and on July 2, Frobisher Bay. During a blizzard, the 100-tonne Dennis barque collided with an iceberg and sank; another ship deserted, heading for England. The rest of the ships were scattered and thrown south to the eastern part of the Hudson Strait. Returning to the Gulf of his name, Frobisher abandoned the base of the colony, hastily repaired 13 vessels, loaded 1300 tons of “gold ore” on their board, and at the end of August set off on the return journey. He returned to England at the beginning of October 1578.

Here, after a final study of the stones brought by the expedition, it was established that they do not contain a single gram of gold. Although Frobisher never opened the Northwest Passage, and the “gold ore” he found turned out to be pyrite, the exploration of the nature of icebergs should be attributed to the navigator's merits; it was observed that when melting icebergs give fresh water. From this it was concluded that they originate on land, and then slide into the sea.

Having forever renounced northern enterprises, Frobisher, in the fall of 1578, took part in suppressing the anti-British uprising in Ireland. In 1580, he commanded the ship "Forsyth", which cruised off the coast of Munster (Ireland) during the suppression of the anti-British uprising.

Two years later, Frobisher developed a project for an expedition to China around the Cape of Good Hope, but this idea was never implemented.

In September 1585, he sailed from Plymouth aboard the Primrose as part of the guardian flotilla of Francis Drake. The flotilla consisted of 21 ships, and Frobisher was appointed her vice-admiral. Having robbed the port of Vigo in Spain, the British visited the Canary Islands, then the islands of Cape Verde, where they ravaged the city of Santiago in November, and, after making a transatlantic transition, arrived in the West Indies. On January 1, 1586, the pirates was stormed, plundered and burned the capital of Hispaniola (modern Haiti) Santo Domingo.

In February 1586, Frobisher distinguished himself during the attack on Cartagena, and in March at the settlement of San Augustin (modern St. Augustine) on the Florida peninsula. In July 1586, the expedition returned to Plymouth, bringing production to 60 thousand pounds sterling.

In 1587, Frobisher participated in a naval expedition, trying in vain to capture Sluys, and in 1588 commanded the Triomf galleon, which was part of Lord Admiral Charles Howard’s fleet. Along with Howard, Drake, Hawkins and Fenner, he was a member of the Military Council and took part in all clashes with the Spanish Armada: at Plymouth, near Portland, at the Isle of Wight, near Calais and at Gravelin.

After the battle at the Isle of Wight, he and five other best captains of the fleet were knighted for merits in military operations against the Spaniards.

In the winter of 1588-1589, Frobisher commanded a squadron guarding the shores of England, and in the autumn of 1589 he made a marque expedition to the region of the Azores.

In 1594, his last expedition took place to the shores of the Brittany peninsula to protect Brest from the Spanish forces that landed in France. During the last assault on the fort, he was wounded and, returning to Plymouth, died.

His internal organs were buried in the church of St. Andrew in Plymouth, and the body was transported to London and buried in the Anglican Church of St. Giles-Wyout-Cripplegate (City).

Bay in the south of Baffin Land. Opened and named by the first expedition of Frobisher in 1576.