In 1565 a young captain, Martin Frobisher, came into notice.

At the age of twenty-five he captured in the South Seas the Flying Spirit, a Spanish ship laden with a rich cargo of cochineal.

Four years later, in 1569, he made his first attempt to discover the north-west passage to the Indies, being assisted by Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick.

The ships of Frobisher were three in number, the Gabriel, of from 15 to 20 tons; the Michael, of from 20 to 25 tons, or half the size of a modern fishing-boat; and a pinnace, of from 7 to 10 tons! The aggregate of the crews of the three ships was only thirty-five, men and boys.

Think of the daring of these early navigators in attempting to pass by the North Pole to Cathay through snow, and storm, and ice, in such miserable little cockboats! The pinnace was lost; the Michael, under Owen Griffith, a Welsh-man, deserted; and Martin Frobisher in the Gabriel went alone into the north-western sea! He entered the great bay, since called Hudson's Bay, by Frobisher's Strait.