James Lancaster

James Lancaster, since 1603 Sir James Lancaster, (* 1554 in Basingstoke, Hampshire, † June 6, 1618 in London ) was an English navigator, politician and pioneer of British efforts to the later British India.

Life

At the beginning of 1591 James Lancaster began with three ships of Plymouth from his first East India trip. This expedition was the first British mission in these sea areas at all. The expedition reached Table Bay near present-day Cape Town on August 1, lost on September 12, a ship that ran in February 1592 in the harbor of Zanzibar, the southern tip of India ( Kanyakumari ) circumnavigated in May and reached the Malay Peninsula in June. Later the expedition Ceylon, where the crew was able to put the home explored. The ride home was disastrous and Lancaster was able to bring in 1594 only 25 men back to England. In the same year Lancaster led a military expedition without much success to Pernambuco in Brazil today.

In 1600 he was entrusted with the command of the first fleet of the British East India Company. The fleet began their mission in late April 1601. Ua John Davis took the helm at the driving part. Lancaster was appointed by Queen Elizabeth as the official negotiator with the East Indian rulers. The fleet reached on November 1, the Cape of Good Hope, in April 1602, the Nicobar Islands and later Aceh and other areas of Sumatra, Bantam and the Moluccas. In September 1603, the fleet returned home. The trip was extremely successful both in diplomatic as well as economic terms. Lancaster was beaten for his contributions to this mission in October 1603 knight.

Until his death in 1618, Lancaster was an influential leader of the company. Under his leadership, more important expeditions were carried out both in India as well as in the search for the Northwest Passage.

William Baffin in 1616 named the Lancaster Sound in northwestern Baffin Bay to him.

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