Martin Frobisher

Sir Martin Frobisher (from 1620) In my series of articles on Martin Frobisher in my Substack Beyond Brant and Brock, I provide an overview of the life of Sir Martin Frobisher as it relates to the founding of Canada. To achieve that I had to be selective. 22: Preparing to journey to the Artic: Martin Frobisher becomes a Privateer by Glenn J Lea The Englishman Martin Frobisher is credited with first venturing into the Artic to the west of Greenland in search of the Northwest Passage. The idea for the expedition didn't come out of nowhere. ...

Frobisher leads a successful assault on El Leon, a key Spanish fort in Brittany, with the help of French troops among whom was a young Samuel de Champlain. Northern coast of Brittany Sometimes, as the saying goes, facts are more fascinating than fiction. In this, the last chapter of Sir Martin Frobisher, historians could not write a better ending for the great Privateer’s life. Frobisher exited history on the same peninsula that Samuel de Champlain entered history.1 ...

“The singular achievement of this new expedition was not so much that it met most of its objectives, but that it did so in the face of many strong reasons to abandon the voyage entirely. If this untypical commitment and cohesion was an occasion for praise, a great part was due to Frobisher himself.” Locations of Frobisher's Final Voyage Frobisher prepares for his final voyage to the Arctic When Martin Frobisher returned from his second voyage in 1576 with 200 tons of mined ore, he was at the zenith of his reputation1. Up and down England he was hailed as a hero and great explorer in the same class that Sir Francis Drake or Sir Walter Raleigh would be. But unlike these explorers, Frobisher’s peak veneration would not last. His financially disastrous third voyage in 1578 would lead to the ruin of the “Company of Cathay” investors. It would also result in a debacle of failed attempts at extracting gold from the 800 or so tons of ore extracted from the Arctic. ...