Adriaen (Aerjan) Block (c. 1567, Amsterdam – buried April 27, 1627, Amsterdam) was a Dutch private trader and navigator who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four voyages from 1611 to 1614, following the 1609 expedition by Henry Hudson. Amsterdam (pronounced) is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west Events 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland. 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Henry Hudson' (1570 &ndash 1611 was an English Sea explorer and Navigator in the early 17th century He is noted for establishing early trade with the Native Americans, and for the 1614 map of his last voyage on which many features of the mid-Atlantic region appear for the first time, and on which the term New Netherland is first applied to the region. For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. New Netherland (Dutch Nieuw-Nederland, Latin Novum Belgium or Nova Belgica) 1614–1674 is the name of the former Dutch territory on the eastern coast He is credited with being the first European to enter Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River and to determine that Manhattan and Long Island are islands. Long Island Sound is an Estuary of the Atlantic Ocean and various Rivers in the United States that lies between the coast of Connecticut The Connecticut River is the largest River in New England, flowing south from the Connecticut Lakes in northern New Hampshire, along the border Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York
Contents |
Early life
Though spending much of his time on sea, Block called Amsterdam his home his entire life. There, on October 26, 1603, he married Neeltje Hendricks van Gelder, with whom he would baptize five children between 1607 and 1615 (see [1]). Events 740 - An Earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death In 1606 they moved into a house called "De Twee Bontecraijen" (The Two Hooded Crows) on Amsterdam's Oude Waal street, where they would live the rest of their lifes. [1]
In the 1590s, Block already was active in the shipping trade, transporting wood from Northern Europe to deforested Spain. He is for example mentioned delivering Norwegian wood in April 1596 in Bilbao. Bilbao, (also Bilbo) in the North of Spain, is the largest city in the Basque Country and the capital of the province of Biscay (Basque From there he headed for Rivadeo to buy goods for Cadiz. Cádiz ( Spanish:) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a province which is one of eight In April 1601, he was part of a convoy of ships leaving Amsterdam for the Dutch East Indies, at that time probably as far as the Moluccas, returning home in 1603. See http//enwikipediaorg/wiki/WikipediaFootnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the tags and the template below The Maluku Islands (also known as the Moluccas, Moluccan Islands, the Spice Islands or simply Maluku) are an Archipelago [1]
In the spring of 1604, after delivering goods in Liguria, Block sailed on to Cyprus buying goods (rice, cotton, nuts, etc. Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía ) he hoped to sell in Venice. Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the This trade fell through, and he headed home to Amsterdam. Passing Lisbon, he came upon a Lübeck-based ship returning from a trip to Brazil. Lisbon (Lisboa liʒˈboɐ is the Capital and largest city of Portugal. Lübeck ( is the second largest City in Schleswig-Holstein, in Northern Germany, and one of the major |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld He had written permission from Dutch authorities to capture enemy ships, which he put to use, taking the ship and its load to Amsterdam. Though the ship and some of its goods were returned to its owners, Block made a lot of money, with which he probably bought the house on the Oude Waal[1].
Block's New World Expeditions
Early Voyages (1611-1612)
Following Hudson's contact with the Native Americans in the Hudson Valley in 1609, the Dutch merchants in Amsterdam had deemed the area worth exploring as a potential source of trade for beaver pelts, which were a lucrative market in Europe at the time. For the Magazine, see Hudson Valley (magazine Amsterdam (pronounced) is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west The American Beaver ( Castor canadensis) is a large semi-aquatic Rodent native to Canada, much of the United States, and parts of northern
The following year in 1610, a ship from Monnikendam, skipper Symen Lambertsz Mau, perished in the Hudson River and the following year in 1611, at the commission of a group of Lutheran merchants, Block and fellow captain Hendrick Christiaensen revisited the area Hudson had explored, bringing back furs and two sons of a native sachem. The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami Hendrick Christiaensen (died 1616 was a Dutch explorer who was involved in the earlier exploration of what became present day New York City A sachem is a title of leadership historically given to the head of some Native American tribes The prospect of successful fur trade prompted the States General, the Governing body of the Dutch Republic, to issue a statement, on March 27, 1614, stipulating that the discoverers of new countries, harbors, and passages would be given an exclusive patent good for four voyages, to be undertaken within three years, to the territories discovered, if the applicant would submit a detailed report within 14 days after his return. The States-General ( Staten-Generaal) is the Parliament of the Netherlands. Events 196 BC - Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt. 1309 - Pope Clement V excommunicates
The 1614 Expedition
In 1614, he made a fourth voyage to the lower Hudson in the Tyger accompanied by several other ships especially equipped for trading. The Tyger (tiger was the ship used by Dutch captain Adriaen Block during his 1613 voyage to explore the East Coast of North America and the present day Hudson While moored along southern Manhattan, the Tyger was accidentally destroyed by fire. Over the winter, he and his men, with help from the Lenape, built the 42-foot ship 16-ton Onrust (Trouble or Restless). The shannon (later named Delaware Indians by Europeans were in the 17th century organized bands of Native American peoples with shared cultural and linguistic The Onrust (Dutch for "Restless" was a Dutch ship that was built by Adriaen Block and the crew of the Tyger, which had been destroyed by fire
In this latter ship, he explored the East River and was the first known European to navigate the Hellegat (now called Hell Gate) and to enter Long Island Sound. The East River is a tidal Strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end Hell Gate is a narrow tidal Strait in the East River in New York City in the United States. Travelling along Long Island Sound, entered the Housatonic River (which he named "River of Red Hills") and the Connecticut River, which he explored it at least as far as present day Hartford, sixty miles up the river [2]. The Housatonic River is a river approximately 149 mi (240 km long in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United States. Leaving Long Island Sound, he charted Block Island, which is named for him and Narragansett Bay, where he possibly named "Roode Eylandt" after the red (Dutch roode) color of its soil [3]. Block Island is part of the US state of Rhode Island and is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately south of the coast of Rhode Island Narragansett Bay is a Bay and Estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound. Aquidneck Island (or Rhode Island) is the largest island in Narragansett Bay. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname On Cape Cod, he rendezvoused with one of the other ships of the expedition and left the Onrust behind before returning to Europe. Cape Cod (or simply the Cape to most New Englanders is a Peninsula nearly coextensive with Barnstable County Massachusetts and forming the easternmost
Life in the colony
Block set up some colonies in Connecticut; one of the first is present day Windsor. The life was hard, as it was settled in the winter as a result of the Connecticut river turning to ice.
New Netherland Company
Upon returning, Block compiled a map of his voyage together with known information of the time. The Block map was the first to apply the name "New Netherland" to the area between English Virginia and French Canada, as well as the first to show Long Island as an island. New Netherland (Dutch Nieuw-Nederland, Latin Novum Belgium or Nova Belgica) 1614–1674 is the name of the former Dutch territory on the eastern coast The Colony of Virginia (also known frequently as the Virginia Colony and occasionally as the Dominion and Colony of Virginia) was the English colony The Viceroyalty of New France (Nouvelle-France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, USA, its western shores directly across from Manhattan, from which the island stretches
On October 11, 1614, Block, Christiaensen, and a group of twelve other merchants presented to the States General a petition to receive exclusive trading privileges for the area. Events 1138 - A massive earthquake struck Aleppo, Syria. 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli is killed The States-General ( Staten-Generaal) is the Parliament of the Netherlands. Their company, the newly-formed New Netherland Company, was granted exclusive rights for three years to trade between the 40th parallel and the 45th parallel [4]. New Netherland Company (Nieuw-Nederland Compagnie was a Chartered company of Dutch Merchants Following Henry Hudson 's exploration The 40th parallel north is a Circle of latitude that is 40 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane.
Later life
After his return to Amsterdam in July 1614 he would not return to the New World again. In 1615, Block was given command of three men-of-war and eleven whaleships sent to Spitsbergen by the Noordsche Compagnie. Spitsbergen (formerly known as West Spitsbergen, and sometimes misspelled Spitzbergen) is a Norwegian island the largest Island of the He remained sailing until his death in 1627. He was buried in Amsterdam's Oude Kerk in a grave next to his wife. For the Oude Kerk in Delft see Oude Kerk (Delft The Oude Kerk ("old church" is Amsterdam ’s oldest parish church consecrated
Trivia
A multi-million dollar redevelopment on the Connecticut River in Hartford is named Adriaen's Landing after Block. Adriaen Block has a middle school in Flushing, Queens (NYC) named after him.
References
- ^ a b c Tom Andersen This Fine Piece of Water: An Environmental History of Long Island Sound Yale University Press, 2002, p37-40.
See also
External links
- Society of Colonial Wars of the State of Connecticut
- Long Island History
- The First Dutch Settlers
- Univ. of Massachusetts Biography
- Dutch Place Names
- Ships Known to Have Left Netherlands for the New World
- Five Boroughs History: The Coming of the Dutch
- Historic New Amsterdam
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic