Who was Davys?

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John Davys, 1550-1605

Davys was born at Sandridge near Dartmouth around 1550. From a boy he was a sailor, and early went on voyages with both the Gilbert and Ralegh families who were Devonians of his own neighbourhood, and through life he seems to have profited by their friendship.

In January 1583 Davys proposed an expedition to find the route of the Northwest Passage. In 1585 he embarked on this expedition, it took him past the ice-bound east shore of Greenland, which he followed south to Cape Farewell; then he turned north once more and coasted the west Greenland littoral some way, until, finding the sea free from ice, he shaped a course for China going north-west. In 66° N, however, he encountered Baffin Island, and though he pushed some way up Cumberland Sound, and professed to recognize in this the hoped strait. Bad weather forced him to turn back.

Further expeditions in 1586 and 1587 followed; in the last voyage he pushed through the straits still named after him into Baffin Bay, coasting west Greenland to 73° N, almost to Upernavik, and thence making a last effort to find a passage westward along the north of America, but the weather once again halted his progress.

In 1588 he commanded Black Dog against the Spanish Armada, contributing to the defeat of the Spanish.

He discovered the Falkland Islands in August 1592 aboard the vessel Desire. His crew was forced to kill around 125,000 penguins for food while on the Falkland Islands. They stored the penguin meat as well as they could and sailed for home, but the meat spoiled once they reached the tropics. This made the passage home disastrous, and he brought back only fourteen of his seventy-six men.

Davys was also responsible for the invention of the ‘backstaff’ and double quadrant (called the Davys Quadrant after him). This was a navigational tool that came to be used widely during the 16th Century.

 His expeditions continued to far-flung destinations into the early 17th Century, until being murdered by pirates off the coast of Sumatra in 1605.