Hudson Bay

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Lore & Background

Hudson Bay is named after Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who explored the bay beginning 2 August 1610 on his ship Discovery. On his fourth voyage to North America, Hudson worked around Greenland's west coast and into the bay, mapping much of its eastern coast. Discovery became trapped in ice over the winter, and the crew survived onshore at the southern tip of James Bay. In spring, as ice receded, Hudson wished to continue exploring, but on 22 June 1611 the crew mutinied, leaving Hudson and others adrift in a small boat; their fate remains undetermined. In 1668, the ship Nonsuch reached the bay and traded for beaver pelts, leading to the creation of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). In 1670, the English Crown granted a charter to facilitate fur trading within the Hudson Bay drainage basin. France contested this grant but abandoned its claim in the Treaty of Utrecht (April 1713). The HBC built several factories along the coast, such as Fort Severn, York Factory, Churchill, and the Prince of Wales Fort, which served as trading posts with Indigenous peoples. The HBC's trade monopoly was abolished in 1870, and Rupert's Land was ceded to Canada. Starting in 1913, the bay was extensively charted by the Canadian government's CSS Acadia, leading to the establishment of Churchill, Manitoba, as a deep-sea port for wheat exports in 1929. The Port of Churchill was an important shipping link until its closure in 2016, but was sold to the Arctic Gateway Group in 2018 and resumed operations in 2019.

Reader's Guide

Hudson Bay is significant as the second-largest water body using the term 'bay' in the world, after the Bay of Bengal. It is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 100 m, and is considered an epicontinental sea. The bay is often considered part of the Arctic Ocean, though some authorities include it in the Atlantic due to its greater water budget connection with that ocean. Its drainage basin covers about 3,861,400 km², including parts of several Canadian provinces and U.S. states. The bay's discovery by Henry Hudson in 1610 directly resulted from the search for a western route to Asia, and the subsequent fur trade led to the creation of the Hudson's Bay Company, which shaped the economic and political history of the region. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 confirmed British control over the area. The bay's climate ranges from polar in the north to subarctic and humid continental in the south, with sea ice cover from mid-December to mid-June. A steady increase in regional temperatures over the last 100 years has led to a 19.5% per decade decrease in sea ice extent and a lengthening of the ice-free period.

Did You Know?

• The Eastern Cree name for Hudson and James Bay is Wînipekw (southern dialect) or Wînipâkw (northern dialect), meaning muddy or brackish water.
• Hudson Bay encompasses 1,230,000 km², making it the second-largest water body using the term 'bay' in the world after the Bay of Bengal.
• The average depth of Hudson Bay is about 100 m, compared to 2,600 m in the Bay of Bengal.
• The Hudson Bay drainage basin covers about 3,861,400 km² and includes parts of the U.S. states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana.
• Sea ice in Hudson Bay is about three times the annual river flow into the bay, and its annual freezing and thawing significantly alters the salinity of the surface layer.