Richard Hore facts for kids

Richard Hore was an English explorer from the 1500s. He led an early trip to the coast of what is now Newfoundland, Canada. His journey is famous because his crew faced extreme hunger. Some stories say they had to do terrible things to survive. A writer named Richard Hakluyt wrote about this difficult trip. We don't know much else about Richard Hore's life besides this one voyage.

Hore's Journey: What Hakluyt Wrote

Most of what we know about Richard Hore comes from a book by Richard Hakluyt. This book, written in the late 1500s, is called The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Hakluyt described Master Hore as a "man of goodly stature and of great courage." He also said Hore loved studying maps and geography.

Hore managed to get many gentlemen interested in exploring the North American coast. The trip was planned with two ships. One ship was the Trinity, captained by Hore himself. The other was the Minion, which carried men like Armigil Wade. Hakluyt got his information from two people. One was Thomas Butts, who sailed on the Trinity. The other was Oliver Dawbeny, who sailed on the Minion.

Setting Sail and First Discoveries

The ships left Gravesend, England, in April 1536. They sailed for two months without seeing any land. Finally, they reached Cape Breton, which is now part of Canada. From there, they turned northeast. They kept sailing until they found the Island of Penguin.

On this island, the explorers found many native birds. They also saw several bears. The crew hunted and ate a lot of these animals. Oliver Dawbeny said that the English then saw some local people in a canoe. These people quickly left and could not be found again. This meeting was probably with the Beothuk people. It might also have been with the Inuit.

Facing Hardship and Survival

After this, the expedition started to run out of food. The situation became very serious. Dawbeny told a story about one man who was killed and partly eaten by a shipmate. When Captain Hore heard this news, he was very upset. He strongly spoke to the crew about their actions. He asked them to pray for help and for God to relieve their suffering.

Even after Hore's speech, the crew was still desperate for food. They were about to draw lots to decide who would be sacrificed. But then, a French ship arrived unexpectedly. This French ship had plenty of supplies. The English crew quickly took the French ship. They left the French sailors to manage on their own.

The Return Home

The journey back to England took them far north. They even saw large icebergs in the summer. The ships arrived in St. Ives, Cornwall, in October 1536. They stayed for a while at the home of John Luttrell. Then they returned to London.

When Thomas Butts arrived home, he was very thin. His parents almost did not recognize him. They only knew him by a wart on his knee. Some time after the English returned, the French ship they had taken also arrived in England. The French sailors complained to King Henry VIII. The King felt sorry for his own subjects. He did not punish them. Instead, he personally paid the Frenchmen back for their lost ship and supplies.

Looking Closer at the Story

Historians have looked very closely at Richard Hakluyt's story of Hore's voyage. They have found some interesting things that make them question parts of the account.

Different Ships and Legal Troubles

A historian named E. G. R. Taylor found old court records. These records showed a lawsuit against Hore. A merchant named William Dolphyn sued Hore. Dolphyn said Hore broke a contract for a ship he had rented. This lawsuit did not mention any extreme hardships during the voyage.

The court papers also said Hore's second ship was the William of London. Hakluyt had called it the Minion. This might have been a mistake by Hakluyt. Later papers showed Hore had more legal problems. In 1537, he took control of a ship called the Valentine. The next year, he was investigated for possibly kidnapping some Portuguese people. He also owed money to someone named Sir Thomas Spent.

Was There Really Cannibalism?

Other historians have wondered if the crew really ate human flesh. Philip Levy thinks that Hakluyt might have confused Hore's ship, the William, with another ship called the Minion. That other Minion ship had a crew that suffered from hunger in 1568 in the Gulf of Mexico.

Levy also points out problems with the story of man-eating. Hakluyt's account mixes up which of his two sources saw what. Levy suggests that no one directly saw the act of cannibalism. He thinks it might have been a misunderstanding. Perhaps a sailor was caught eating some other kind of meat, and the story got twisted.

In 2021, Joshua Ivinson offered a new idea. He looked at old court files. He believes Hore's only certain trip to Newfoundland was in 1535. He thinks a different fishing trip happened in 1536. This later trip was led by some of Hore's old friends, but not Hore himself.