The scope of my articles on the life of Sir Martin Frobisher, which can be found on my substack glennjlea.substack.com, has been to write a story of the great explorer’s life as it relates to the founding of Canada. Of course, to achieve that I had to be selective using the limit of about 4,000 per article. I hope I managed to make it interesting and give you a sense of what happened during the three voyages, what exactly was achieved by them and the long term results for Canada.
For the last point, these voyages introduced the world to a people who live and thrive in one of the most inhospitable climates on earth - the Inuit. I tried to show how English prejudices impacted these people but also how the sailors came to respect and even admire them.
Sir Martin Frobisher (from 1620)
From the point of view of Frobisher, interest in a black stone randomly grabbed during a visit to an island in the Arctic led to the main goal of the voyages to be derailed. Frobisher had to forget about finding the Northwest Passage and concentrate on a mining expedition. Both main goal and distraction were loosing propositions. The ore was valueless rock. The search for the passage would have ended in disaster, much like Henry Hudson’s later voyages.
So, for Frobisher, although the voyages were a failure, he secured his place in history. His exploits as a ruthless Admiral in time of war won him the title of Sir Martin Frobisher. He would die not in the high Arctic but on the battlefield. That his legacy has now been revisited by historians is a credit not to English nationalism but to an interest by Canadians (and to some extent Americans) wanting to learn how England became a major player in Canadian history. Additionally, a greater interest in Indigenous peoples before the arrival of Europeans led historians to rediscover Inuit traditions and their incredible talent at keeping their oral history factually accurate, a skill even the great educators of Europe have failed to accomplis.
Of the many writings on the life and activities of Martin Frobisher, the following lists books which I have found most useful. The list is far from comprehensive.
Enjoy.
Primary sources
Christopher Hall, Master and second in command to Frobisher
Throughout his three journeys to the Arctic, Frobisher didn’t think to write a report of each journey, or perhaps he was unable to due to the demands of the voyages. He may have left it to one of his crew members as he was too busy trying to keep everyone alive as he navigated through very dangerous and unknown waters around Greenland, the Labrador Straight and into the Arctic. Thankfully, Master Christopher Hall on board the vessel Gabriel documented the first voyages.
For the writings of Christopher Hall, see the following:
Jones, Rev. Frank. The Life of Martin Frobisher, Knight containing a narrative of the Spanish Armada. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1878. 360 pp. Available from AbeBooks.
Ambrose and Robert Dudley
Ambrose Dudley. Earl of Warwick (1530 - 1590) along with his brother Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532-1588) became the principle investors (patrons) of Frobisher’s 1576 search for the Northwest Passage.
The Earl of Warwick served under Queen Elizabeth I with several appointments including Master of the Ordinance. He was at one point part of the Privy Council. The Earl of Leicester is well known as a potential suitor of Queen Elizabeth.
However, it was the Earl of Warwick that contributed a report of the 1576 voyage as part of his role as investor. Robert, his brother was an investor of the Muscovy Company and the Merchant Adventurers and, therefore, knew Michael Lok, the main investor in Frobisher’s voyages. It may have been Lok who persuaded Ambrose and Robert Dudley to invest.
This may explain Queen Elisabeth’s keen interest in the voyages. It may also have been how Frobisher made the connection to the English Monarch.
George Best
Another key source of information is George Best. He was part of Frobisher’s second and third voyages. On the last voyage he captained the Anne Francis. After the voyages he wrote one of the best sources of information of the voyages. The report of the first voyage is second hand whereas that of the second and third voyage is first hand witness. His writings were included in Richard Hakluyt’s collection of early English explorations.
Collinson, Richard ed. George Best 1578, The three voyages of Martin Frobisher, in search of a passage to Cathaia and India by the north-west, A.D. 1576–8 London: Hakluyt Society 1867.
A not-so-comprehensive bibliography
Online sources
Encyclopedia Britannica Online: Sir Martin Frobisher: English explorer.
Canadian Encyclopedia: Sir Martin Frobisher.
From EBSCO site at Martin Frobisher’s Voyages.
Books
Alsford, Stephen, 1952-; Symons, T. H. B. ed. (Thomas Henry Bull), 1929-; Kitzan, Chris, Meta Incognita, a Discourse of Discovery: Martin Frobisher’s Arctic Expeditions, 1576-1578. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization; Meta Incognita Project Steering Committee.
Fitzhugh, William W., and Jacqueline S. Olin, eds. Archeology of the Frobisher Voyages. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.
Hall, Charles Francis. Life with the Esquimaux. London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, Milton House, Ludgate Hill. 1865.
McDermott, James. Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan Privateer. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. 310 pp. Perhaps the finest and most details book on the life of Sir Martin Frobisher I have found is Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan Privateer. You would be hard pressed to find a better book about Frobisher’s life. This has been my primary source for my articles. Honestly, I never knew how much Frobisher had accomplished in his life. If you are looking for good reading on Frobisher, I cannot highly recommend this book more.
McGhee, Robert. The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher: An Elizabethan Adventure. Ottawa: McGill-Queen’s University Press and Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2001.
Payne, Edward John. Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen: Selected Narratives from the “Principal Navigations” of Hakluyt Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1907. See beginning p. 64 for George Best’s narratives of the three voyages.