Rut's voyage

Rut's voyage was a 1527–1528 English maritime voyage of exploration to Northern America and the West Indies, led by John Rut, and commissioned by Henry VIII. It is thought to have been the earliest English voyage to the West Indies, and to have resulted in the earliest known English letter sent from North America.

Background
In 1525, Giovanni da Verrazzano, fresh off a 'very successful' French-sponsored expedition to North America the year prior, appeared before Henry VIII's court seeking the sovereign's patronage, and presenting him with a map and globe depicting his discoveries, thereby giving the court access to 'one of the earliest, most accurate representations of North America.' The Verrazzano map, depicting an inland sea which the cartographer argued 'presented the shortest route to Cathay [...] had a dramatic impact on England, shaping much of England's cartographic understanding of North America for the next century.' It is this spark which is thought to have shortly prompted Henry VIII to commission, fund, and organise an expedition in search of the promised passage.

In addition to discovering the Northwest Passage, Rut's voyage is thought to have had further aims, as early rumours of the voyage carried news of 'a significant number of soldiers involved,' a superfluous expense had the object been solely to find the said passage.

Preparations for the expedition were well underway by March or April 1527. The 160 tonne, 3 year old Mary Guildford, Rut master, Albert de Prato pilot, and the Sampson, Grube master, departed London on 10 May, by then 'well manned and vitayled,' and put out to sea from Plymouth on 10 June.

Departure
The ships set off westwards from Plymouth on 10 June, and had fair sailing until 1 July, when they came upon 'a marvailous great storme, and much foule weather,' which resulted in the loss of the Sampson.

North Atlantic leg
The Mary sighted icebergs at 53º N (possibly in the east Greenland or Labrador ice floes) on 3 July. Deeming the northwards journey too treacherous, Rut steered south, reaching 52º N four days later, and made his way into 'Cape de Bas' (possibly Cape St Charles), describing it as having 'a good Harbor, and many small ilands, and a great fresh river going up farre into the mayne Land.'

Having watered and replenished at the Cape for ten days, the men sailed south to Cape Spear (near St John's, Newfoundland), a well-known point which Rut and Grube had designated as their rendezvous in case of separation. Upon arrival on 3 August, Rut encountered 'eleven saile of Normans, and one Brittaine, and two Portugall Barkes' fishing at St John's. Having not found Grube, Rut intended to shortly set sail 'toward parts to that Ilands that we are commanded by the grace of God, as we were commanded at our departing.'

At this point, the expedition 'becomes shrouded in mystery.' Tantalising news is next had, however, of an English ship arriving in the West Indies with a story similar to that of Rut's voyage. These unnamed Englishmen recount that they coasted down from Newfoundland 'for some 400 leagues and more along the coast of the new land where Ayllon took his colony,' whereupon they crossed into the West Indies.

West Indies leg
On 19 November, Gines Navarro, who was loading a caravel with cassava on Mona Island, spotted an English sail on the coast, which he later described as a vessel of 250 tonnes and three maintops. From the English bark was despatched a pinnace towards the island, the Englishmen aboard informing Navarro of their purpose and travels so far. The former was purportedly to find the land of the Great Khan, while the latter was a story similar to that heretofore recounted. When the Spaniard enquired after their purpose Spanish dominions, the men told him they 'wished to examine them in order to give the king of England an account thereof,' adding that 'when they had explored them, they would take a load of brazilwood and return home.' The Englishmen rested a day on the island, and set sail for Hispaniola on 20 November.

The said English vessel sighted the harbour of Santo Domingo on 25 November, whereupon the ship's master and 10–12 crewmen landed to meet with city officials. Now, the men stated their purpose was to 'make a certain exploration toward the north, between Labrador and Newfoundland, in the belief that in that region there was a strait through which to pass to Tartary,' adding that they wished to take in water and provisions at the Spanish port. Being granted permission to enter harbour, Diego Mendez, the high sheriff, and two pilots, Antonio Martina and Pedro Montiel, boarded the English ship to guide it in, but this being precluded by a strong north wind, the ship remained anchored outside that night.

On the morning of 26 November, as crew broke fast over a Spanish meal, a shot was fired from the city fort, landing some twenty fathoms over the poop of the ship. The warden of the Spanish fort, Francisco de Tapia, had heard that an English ship was trying to enter harbour, and having failed to secure direction from city officials and vecinos, had fired a small loaded cannon to take cognisance of the vessel. The English captain was spooked, thinking a plot was afoot to betray them despite Spanish assurances to the contrary, and so weighed anchor and set sail east. Upon arriving at San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Englishmen 'had speech with the people of that town and begged for provisions, complaining of the people of [Santo Domingo,] saying that they came not to annoy but to treat with their money and merchandise, if they would receive them.' The Spanish obliged them without apparent hostility, bartering provisions for pewter and other goods. Fully stocked, the English ship departed homewards.

Return
Rut is next heard of captaining the Mary in the autumn of 1528. If he was indeed the aforementioned English shipmaster in the West Indies, then a mid to late November 1527 departure would have had the Mary reaching England by early to mid March 1528, or sometime during spring or summer that year.

Aftermath
In England, Rut's return sparked little interest or debate, possibly due to 'England's tenuous political relations with the Holy Roman Empire, and thus with Spain.' Rut is thought to have received an annuity of £10 for having lead the expedition, and to have reentered the King's Navy as master of the Mary, which he had first captained in 1526.

In Spain and her colonies, the 'presence of an English ship suddenly in the heart of the Spanish New World created political turmoil,' it seeming an 'obvious violation' yet not (at the time) being explicitly forbidden. Depositions were promptly taken in Santo Domingo and forwarded to Madrid posthaste. On learning of the affair, Charles V chastised the Audiencia of Santo Domingo for having failed to detain the Englishmen 'after they had landed and visited the city, and seen how it lies, and its harbour, inasmuch as they were from a foreign kingdom, and this was a thing not heretofore experienced in those parts,' and further charged them with 'great carelessness and negligence' for having granted the English freedom of movement in Spanish waters. The scandal prompted Spain to forward to her colonies 'clear directives on how to deal with such incursions,' such that when the English returned two decades later, the Audiencia of Santo Domingo 'was able to quote laws to warrant their arrest and laws which clearly allowed for the seizure of their goods.'

Legacy
The identity of the unnamed English ship sighted by Navarro 'has been hotly contested by historians for decades.' FA Kirkpatrick, the first to discuss the Navarro account, argued it was the Mary, as she had returned to England in October 1527, per Hakluyt. Irene Wright, on the other hand, questioned the Hakluyt date of return, instead identifying the mysterious English ship as the Mary. Lydia Towns followed Wright, noting that Hakluyt's account of the voyage 'is sketchy at best,' given he 'only found information [on it] through third hand accounts [...] close to sixty years after the fact, and includes key mistakes.' Like Wright and Towns, and number of historians have also identified the ship in question as the Mary, with David B Quinn noting that the odds 'seem so high that the identification appears fully acceptable.'

Quinn deemed Rut's voyage 'the most important English expedition to North America during the reign of Henry VIII.' In contrast, Samuel E Morison deemed it 'a complete failure,' while James Williamson stated it amounted to 'little more than a pleasure cruise to the West Indies.' Towns noted the voyage, like that of Rastell in 1519 and Hore in 1539, has been 'acknowledged by historians of English exploration and discovery, but ha[s] remained all but forgotten due to the misperception that these voyages are unimportant to the larger narrative because they did not achieve their expressed purpose of permanent settlement, or new cartographic images and geographic discoveries.'

The letter penned by John Rut and forwarded to Henry VIII from St John's, Newfoundland is thought to have been the earliest English letter sent from North America.