Henry who?

In our history class we got to know an important explorer from England, named Henry Hudson. He went on four different voyages to find the Northwest Passage, but his crew returned without him from the last voyage. The traveling conditions were very brutal and this was toll taking on the crews. Despite having a lot of experience from his prior trips in search of the passage, it is believed that his crew lost faith in him. Hudson, his son, and other sick and dying crew members we put into a small boat as the remaining crew sailed back to England.

After gaining some background knowledge about Hudson, our class proceeded to role play being the crew on those final days before leaving behind our captain. We were all dealt cards for our current condition on the ship. I “had” a dislocated shoulder our first round, 2 we pronounced dead, and we only had 4 healthy members left in our crew.  On our second round of I ended up with frost bite on both feet, we had another death, and not one crew member was healthy.

Our “conditions” led to a series of topics to discuss. What would I still be able do to help the crew? Should the crew be required to do the manual labor for me? What were the conditions like that would leave my feet frost bitten? Understanding that a fire couldn’t be started on board to keep us warm was a new thought let alone not having any form of heating.  

This started to help us understand why Hudson and the sick were left behind. The crew was doing what they had to in hopes of survival.

Hudson and his son, with the sick crew members as they are left behind.