The Scottish fishermen and Ivan the Terrible
I had just settled back to the Stuarts when my local Writers’ Group decided the months task would be a letter that changed the World. Naturally I looked over Bonnie Prince Charlie and his antecedents and then remembered John Cabot, on his first voyage, had brought back ore samples that looked like gold. They turned out to be ‘fools gold’, iron pyrites but it did it lead to English interest in North America, I wondered. Further investigation, into his son Sebastian revealed he had tried to find the North West Passage and may even have sailed into Hudson Bay. Following that it came to light that Sebastian had organised a search for a North East Passage. This expedition was undertaken by Willoughby and Chancellor but the pair became separated during a storm near the North Cape in the extreme north of Norway. Willoughby carried on but he and his crews died during the winter East of Murmansk, well known for the Artic convoys of WW2.
Chancellor, having called at a Norwegian port of Vardø, sailed past Murmansk, found the entrance to the White Sea and anchored near the site of Archangel. Ivan the Terrible heard of them and sent for Chancellor, who negotiated a trade deal with Ivan.
How I wish my history teacher had shared this with me instead of Marie Antionette and the guillotine.
The throw away comment is that, at Vardø Chancellor met some Scottish fishermen, who warned him of the dangers ahead. How did I not know that poor Scottish fishermen had been sailing the same route as the Arctic convoys in the 1500’s?
How many stories are in this tale at the time of Henry VIII, his son Edward and Bloody Mary, his daughter, not to mention Ivan the Terrible.