There are no All Blacks amongst my family – that I know
of. No mountain climbers or explorers…or are there ?
Rumour has it that Davis Strait to the north of Canada maybe
misspelt and should be Davys Strait. It is named for Captain John Davis (also
spelt Davys).
He was born about 1550 near Dartmouth in Devon and died off
Bintan Island near Singapore in 1605. He attempted to find the Northwest
passage through the Canadian Arctic to the Pacific. It is in this area where you
can find Davis Strait – near Baffin Bay.
He made three attempts in 1585, 1586 and 1587 after first
proposing the idea to Sir Francis Walsingham, principal secretary to Queen
Elizabeth I in 1583. He was unsuccessful in this exploration but imagine the
sights which he and his crew will have seen. Narwhal, walrus, seals, icebergs,
indigenous peoples.
He is reputed to have commanded the Black Dog against the Spanish Armada in 1588 and sailed with Thomas
Cavendish (leader of the third circumnavigation of the Earth) on his last
voyage in 1591. He discovered the Falkland Islands on 9 August 1592 while
seeking a passage through the Magellan Strait and sailed with Sir Walter
Raleigh to Cadiz and to the Azores in 1596-97. He later accompanied expeditions
to the East Indies in 1598 and 1601. On the third of these voyages on 1605 he
was killed by Japanese pirates.
Davis (Davys) also invented a device call the backstaff or Davis quadrant which was used up until the 18th century to
determine latitude by reading the elevation of the sun. In 1594 he wrote a
treatise on navigation “The Seaman’s Secret”
and his 1595 work “The World’s Hydrographical Description” dealt with the
Northwest Passage.
So Captain John – I wonder if you DO fit in my tree
somewhere ? If not, it is still a pretty good legend to hold on to.
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