Munk, Jens ___ 1579-1628 ___ Danish ___ explorer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Munk grew up in Arendal, Fredrikstad and Danish Ålborg, but left for a life at sea when only 12. His father died in prison a few years after his son had left home. Passing by England and Portugal, Jens arrived in Brazil, where he stayed for six years. He returned to Denmark in 1598, by which time he had developed into a successful seafaring tradesman. In the 1610s, he seems to have been commissioned on various exploratory and military missions by the Danish-Norwegian king, Christian IV. On one of these, in 1615, he captured Jan Mendoza - the most notorious pirate of his times - off the northern coast of Russia. In 1619, Munk embarked on a mission to find the Northwest Passage. However, he could not locate the Hudson Strait, and got stuck in ice, having to overwinter at Munkhaven, the mouth of the current Churchill River. There was an outbreak of scurvy and only Munk and three of the crew survived; between them, though, they managed to sail back to Norway. It seems, Munk was imprisoned at Bergen for a short while in 1620, but was released on order of the king, and returned to Copenhagen. He continued to serve both as a polar explorer and Danish diplomat. In 1623, for example, he served as admiral of a naval assault force that retaliated for a Russian attack on Danish traders.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Nobody to dig the graves

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1619-1620 ___ maritime exploration health Canada

WEB TEXT LINKS
a little about
googlebooks
 

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
The Royal Library, Denmark

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Journal of Jens Munk 1619-1620
North West to Hudson Bay : The Life and Times of Jens Munk
 

November 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.