Foxe, Luke National Historic Person
Cape Henrietta Maria, Ontario
Luke Foxe, Map of Foxe Basin
© none
Address :
Cape Henrietta Maria, Ontario
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1972-10-19
Life Date:
1586 to 1635
Other Name(s):
-
Foxe, Luke
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
1962-036, 1967-001, 2008-CED-SDC-014, 2008-CED-SDC-015, 2012-CED-SDC-007
Importance:
Arctic explorer, discovered Foxe Basin, wrote "North-West Fox" (1635)
Plaque(s)
No plaque in place, recommended location: Cape Henrietta Maria, Ontario
In 1631 the Yorkshireman Luke Fox led the last of the great 17th century expeditions in search of the Nortn West Passage. He explored the west coast of Hudson Bay from Southampton Island to Cape Henrietta Maria, then sailed north almost to the Arctic Circle in what is now Foxe Basin. This voyage, together with the rival expedition conducted simultaneously by the eccentric Thomas James to James Bay, disproved the theory that the passage lay through Hudson Bay. Fox's book, NorthWest Fox, a compendium of earlier voyages as well as an account of his own, is one of the classics of arctic exploration.