JOHN DAVIS 

John David was born in Sandridge, England around 1550.  Although he died in 1605 while at sea off the coast of Malacca, he lived a life as a successful navigator.  The interesting thing about Davis is that he set off very young and then in 1585, he was given command of an expedition that was to find the Northwest Passage to India.  Starting in Dartmouth in the summer, he took the vessel, Sunshine weighing 50 tons manned by 23 crewmembers along with another vessel, Moonshine weight 35 tons, and with 17 crewmembers, they sailed to the north. 

Soon, the expedition entered a straight, which would one-day be called Davis Straight, and without running into any problems, deemed this the passage of which they were looking.  Because of approaching bad weather, he was forced to return to Dartmouth in September.  Then in May of 1586, Davis again sailed with Sunshine and Moonshine but this time, was accompanied by two other ships, the Mermaid, which was a massive 100-ton vessel and the smaller North Star of 10 tons. 

By the end of July, Mermaid’s crew was restless, deciding to return to England while Sunshine and North Star pushed forward where they reached a point not far from Davis’ first voyage.  However, they returned to England as well in the fall.  Then in May of 1587, Davis left Dartmouth yet again, this time with three ships, Sunshine, Elizabeth, and Ttelen, which was a small vessel.  Taking the same course, he was even more convinced that he had found the Northwest Passage to India. 

Unfortunately, he did not have enough provisions or crew for a long trip so again, he returned to England.  Proud of his discovery of Baffin Bay’s entrance, any future expeditions for the Northwest Passage were put aside for a full 15 years.  Then in 1591, Davis set sail with Cavendish on his second voyage to the south sea, which would prove to be disastrous.  After that trip, Davis would make five more voyages to the East Indies piloting the vessels but in the last one, Davis lost his life while under the command of Sir Edmund Michelbourne as they found with Japan in the Malacca straits.   

History tells us that Davis was the inventory of a quadrant for using the sun’s altitude while out at sea.  This invention preceded Hadley’s sextant.  In fact, Davis published a journal called, “Seaman’s Secrets” that provide valuable information about navigation along with “The World’s Hydrographical Descriptions” that covered disagreements with Sir Humphrey Gilbert whereby he showed how the Northwest Passage to China was probably repeated.