Thomas Marmaduke

Thomas Marmaduke was an English explorer, sealer, and whaler in the early 17th century.

He appears to have been a very energetic and daring man. He was master of one of the two Hull interlopers sent to Bjørnøya in 1609. It was claimed that in this year, sailing in the "Heartsease", he "discovered" Spitsbergen, although there is no evidence for this claim, and the island had already been discovered by the Dutch in 1596. On this claim the merchants of Hull based their rights to fish for whales in Spitsbergen in subsequent decades.

In 1611, Marmaduke was again sent up, this time in the interloper "Hopewell" of Hull. He hunted walrus, or "sea morses" (as they were called). In July, Marmaduke met with two shallops of the "Mary Margaret", a ship sent by the Muscovy Company to hunt whales, in Horn Sound. Their ship had been crushed by ice in or near Cove Comfortless (Engelskbukta), north of Horn Sound. They led him north to the bay in order to salvage their goods. Later, the "Elizabeth", Jonas Poole, master and pilot, sailed into the bay and attempted to shift his cargo to enable him to accommodate the goods of the "Mary Margaret", but in doing so his ship capsized, forcing the crew of both the "Mary Margaret" and the "Elizabeth" to sail home in the "Hopewell". In this year or the next he was claimed to have discovered Jan Mayen and named it "Trinity Island". There is no cartographical or written evidence for this alleged discovery.

The following season (1612) Marmaduke again sailed as master of the "Hopewell", but this time on a whaling voyage. Poole said he reached 82° N, but this seems unlikely. His men did reached as far as Gråhuken (Grey Hook) at the western entrance of Wijdefjorden, where, in early August 1614, Robert Fotherby and William Baffin found a cross engraved with the name Laurence Prestwood, as well as two or three others, dated August 17, 1612. In 1613, he sailed for the Muscovy Company in the "Matthew" (250 tons), vice-admiral of the English whaling fleet. He was said to have discovered Hopen this year, naming it after his former command, the "Hopewell". This supposed discovery is shown on the "Muscovy Company's Map" (1625), where the date 1613 is given beside the island.

He sailed once more for the Company as master of the "Heartsease" the next season (1614), exploring northeastwards over the northwest coast of Spitsbergen at least as far as Gråhuken, where Fotherby and Baffin encountered some of his crew in a shallop. Flemish whalers were said to have met with him at Bear Island in 1617. This same year he was also stated as having been around Hopen. He is mentioned for the last time in 1619, when he was seen in Horn Sound. Nothing more is known of him.

References

*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.

*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).