Martin Frobisher: The Pirate-Explorer

Second Voyage
May 31, 1577 - September 1577

Frobisher was excited at the chance that he might have found gold. He went on a new expedition, this time with an extra ship, Aid. They went back to the place he had found the stone, near the entrance to Frobisher Bay. They mined 200 tons of ore and returned to England before the winter ice could trap them.

The Mysterious Fate of Frobisher's Men
Frobisher found European clothing at an abandoned village and suspected that they belonged to the five men from his crew who were murdered on his first voyage.

Hoping to get information, he captured three Inuit -- a man, woman and child. He learned nothing and brought them back to England where they died a month later.

Five Alive?
According to Inuit stories passed down through the years, the five men whom Frobisher thought the Inuit had killed, spent the winter at a village site, built a boat and sailed away.

When Charles Francis Hall, an explorer, came along later, he was told of legends that spoke of five men building a boat out of the expeditions' scraps, but who died of starvation before they could use it.