Luke Foxe


Foxe, Luke

 

(also Fox). Born Oct. 20, 1586, in Hull; died 1635 in Whitby. English navigator.

Having received a commission to search for the Northwest Passage, Foxe set sail on the King Charles in 1631. He reached the northwestern corner of Hudson Bay before turning south. He discovered Roes Welcome Sound, established that Southampton was an island, and explored the western and southern shores of the Hudson Bay to 55°10′ N lat. He then sailed north along the strait between Baffin Island and the mainland until he reached 66°35′ N lat. A channel and a basin in the Canadian Arctic archipelago have been named after Foxe, as well as a peninsula and a cape on Baffin Island.

WORKS

Voyages of Captain Luke Foxe of Hull and Captain Thomas James of Bristol in Search of a North West Passage, vols. 1–2. London, 1894. (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, vols. 88–89.)

REFERENCE

Magidovich, I. P. Istoriia otkryliia i issledovaniia Severnoi Ameriki. Moscow, 1962.