Willoughby, Sir Hugh

views updated May 29 2018

Willoughby, Sir Hugh (d. 1554). A minor landowner with some military experience, Willoughby was chosen, possibly by Sebastian Cabot, to be captain-general of the fleet sent by London merchants to find the North-East Passage in 1553. The expedition sailed around the north of Norway but Willoughby's lack of navigational skills and maritime experience may account for the disaster which overtook him. One of the other ships took Chancellor into the White Sea, but Willoughby became lost. His journal claimed that he reached as far north as 72 degrees, presumably on Novaya Zemlya, but this is in doubt. It is certain that he and his crew wintered on the Kola Peninsula, were alive in January 1554, but perished later that winter.

Roy C. Bridges