John Gatonbe
was a Britain with unknown life dates. He is believed to have been on James Hall‘s fourth and last Greenland expedition in 1612, as Quartermaster on the „Patience“, which was undertaken in 1612 at the behest of Merchant Adventurers London in search of silver, in a further attempt to prove the findings of Martin Frobisher (1577-8). Captain Hall was killed by the Inuit on the west coast of Greenland during the voyage, probably in revenge for having carried off or slain some natives on a previous voyage. That voyage was the first recorded voyage of William Baffin who served as a chief pilot of the „Patience“.
Map Details
The copper engraved, untitled and very scarce map is from John Gatonbe, „A Voyage into the North-West Passage. Undertaken Anno 1612“. Extracted from: Churchill. A Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. VI, p. 241 – 256. London 1732. (In the upper right corner „VI. p. 245 Gatonbe“ is written.) The map was first printed in 1732 but according to islandskort.is the map is usually dated from the year 1612 although „it is not impossible that it was done something later than that“.
It is on a sheet of squared paper showing Ireland, England, Scotland, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, Fair Isle, the Faroe Islands („Faray“), Iceland, Greenland and the east coast of Canada („America“, „Labrador“, „Newfoundland“I. There are also two mysterious islands: „Friesland“ and „Busjus“. Special emphasis is placed on Martin Frobisher: the „Streights“ in a fjord of Greenland and „Fishing“ near the east coast.
Iceland has a very strange shape, especially the Reykjanes Peninsula. „Iceland“ is written across the interior of the island, depicted without any place-names. There are only two in the ocean south of Iceland: „Westmony“ (Westman Islands“) and “Whales back“ (?).