Adriaen Courtsen Block (c. 1567 – 27 April 1627) was a Dutch private trader,privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-dayNew Jersey andMassachusetts during four voyages from 1611 to 1614, following the 1609 expedition byHenry Hudson.[1] He is noted for possibly having namedBlock Island,Rhode Island, and establishing early trade with theNative Americans, and for the 1614 map of his last voyage on which many features of the mid-Atlantic region appear for the first time, and on which the termNew Netherland is first applied to the region. He is credited with being the first European to enterLong Island Sound and theConnecticut River, and to determine thatManhattan andLong Island are islands.[2]
Though spending much of his time at sea, Block calledAmsterdam his home. There, on 26 October 1603, he married Neeltje Hendricks van Gelder, with whom he would have five or possibly six children between 1607 and 1615. In 1606 they moved into a house calledDe Twee Bontecraijen ("The Two Hooded Crows") on Amsterdam's Oude Waal street, where his family would live for the remainder of Block's life.[3]
In the 1590s, Block already was active in the shipping trade, transporting wood from Northern Europe to deforested Spain. He is for example mentioned delivering Norwegian timber in April 1596 inBilbao. From there he headed forRibadeo to buy goods forCádiz. In April 1601, he was part of a convoy of ships leaving Amsterdam for theDutch East Indies, at that time probably as far as theMoluccas, returning home in 1603.[3]
In the spring of 1604, after delivering goods inLiguria, Block sailed on toCyprus buying cargo (rice, cotton, nuts, etc.) he hoped to sell inVenice. This trade fell through, and he headed home to Amsterdam. PassingLisbon, he came upon aLübeck-based ship returning from a trip toBrazil. He had written permission from Dutch authorities to capture enemy ships, which he put to use as aprivateer, taking the ship and its load to Amsterdam. Though the ship and some of its goods were returned to its owners, Block made a lot of money, with which he probably bought the house on the Oude Waal.[3]
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Following Hudson's contact with the Native Americans in theHudson Valley in 1609, the Dutch merchants inAmsterdam had deemed the area worth exploring as a potential source of trade forbeaver pelts,[4] which were a lucrative market in Europe at the time.
Cornelis Rijser successfully returned in theSt. Pieter in 1611, and Block and his fellow captainHendrick Christiaensen returned the next year in 1612, bringing back furs and two sons of a nativesachem in theFortuyn and another ship outfitted by a group of Lutheran merchants. It took about ten weeks to sail to New Netherland, sometimes longer. The prospect of successful fur trade prompted theStates General, the governing body of the Dutch Republic, to issue a statement on 27 March 1614, stipulating that the discoverers of new countries, harbors, and passages would be given an exclusive patent good for four voyages undertaken within three years to the territories discovered if the applicant should submit a detailed report within 14 days after his return.
In 1613, Block made a fourth voyage to the lower Hudson in theTyger accompanied by several other ships especially equipped for trading. While moored along southern Manhattan, theTyger was accidentally destroyed by fire.[4] Over thewinter, he and his men, with help from theLenape (La-Na-Pae), built the 44.5-foot (13.6 m) ship 16-tonOnrust (Dutch for "Restless").[5]
In this later ship, he explored theEast River and was the first known European to navigate theHellegat (now calledHell Gate) and to enterLong Island Sound. Traveling along the Sound, he entered theHousatonic River (which he named "River of Red Hills") and theConnecticut River, which he explored at least as far as the site of present-dayHartford, today's capital of the state ofConnecticut, some sixty miles up the river.[6] Leaving Long Island Sound, he chartedBlock Island, which is named for him andNarragansett Bay, where he possibly named "Roode Eylandt" after the red (Dutchrood) color of its soil.[7] OnCape Cod, he rendezvoused with one of the other ships of the expedition and left theOnrust behind before returning to Europe.
Block's exploration would lead to the eventual colonization of Connecticut. The life was hard, as it was settled in the winter as a result of the Connecticut River turning to ice. Block sailed upstream and established the Dutch base that later became Hartford.
He is credited with namingFishers Island (Vischer's Island) after a shipmate. Though it lies physically closer to Connecticut than New York, the island is a part of Long Island'sSuffolk County.
Upon returning, Block compiled a map of his voyage together with known information of the time. The Block map was the first to apply the name "New Netherland" to the area betweenEnglish Virginia andFrench Canada, as well as the first to showLong Island as an island.
On 11 October 1614 Block, together with Christiaensen and a group of twelve other merchants, presented to theStates General a petition to receive exclusive trading privileges for the area. Their company, the newly formedNew Netherland Company, was granted exclusive rights for three years to trade between the40th parallel north and the45th parallel north.[4]
After his return to Amsterdam in July 1614, he would not return to the New World again. In 1615, Block was Commissary-General of three men-of-war and eleven whaleships sent toSpitsbergen by theNoordsche Compagnie.
He remained sailing until his death in 1627. He was buried that year on April 27 in Amsterdam'sOude Kerk in a grave next to his wife, who had predeceased him two years earlier.
A multimillion-dollar redevelopment on the Connecticut River in Hartford, Connecticut is named "Adriaen's Landing" after Block.Adriaen Block has a middle school in Flushing, Queens (NYC) named after him, as is Block Island, off the southern coast of Rhode Island.
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