William Baffin
British explorer · Historical Figures · Lived 1584 to 1622 · aged 38
William Baffin is read about 57 times a day, in 50 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 16 September 2026
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Something wrong?He sailed into Arctic waters hunting the passage that would cut weeks off the trip to Asia, and instead found a bay so vast it now carries his name - though for two centuries after, mapmakers thought his measurements were lies.
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About this person
Born around 1584, Baffin learned navigation on merchant and whaling ships before turning his attention to the great geographic puzzle of his age: whether a northwest route through the ice could link the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1616 he pushed farther north than any European before him, charting coasts and recording observations with such precision that later explorers doubted them possible. The expedition failed to break through to open water, and Baffin turned to other work - sailing east to the Persian Gulf, where he died during a skirmish in January 1622. The bay he discovered remained on maps, waiting for his name.
Historical Figures born in the 1580s 6
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