WILLEM

BARENTS (d. 1597)  , Dutch navigator, was born about the middle of the 16th century . In 1594 he left Amsterdam with two ships to search for a north-east passage to eastern Asia . He reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, and followed it northward, being finally forced to turn back when near its northern extremity . In the following year he commanded another expedition of seven ships, which made for the strait between the Asiatic coast and Vaygach Island, but was too late to find open water;° while his third journey equally failed of its object and resulted in his death . On this occasion he had two ships, and on the outward journey sighted Bear Island and Spitsbergen, where the ships separated . Barents' vessel, after rounding the north of Novaya Zemlya, was beset by ice and he was compelled to winter in the north; and as his ship was not released early in 1597, his party left her in two open boats on the 13th of June and most of its members escaped . Barents himself, however, died on the 3oth of June 1599 . In 1871 the house in which he wintered was discovered, with many relics, which are preserved at the Hague, and in 1875 part of his journal was found . See The Three Voyages of Barents, by Gerrit de Veer, translated by the Hakluyt Society (1876) from de Veer's text (Amsterdam, 1598) .