Author Description

The novel, "Desire Provoketh" is the story of the Hudson mutiny of June 24, 1611. It is told as experienced first hand from the diaries of Thomas Woodhouse, a young Oxford graduate who had never been to sea before. His story unfolds as he describes their perilous voyage, the winter spent locked in the ice of James Bay and the growing resentment and mutinous mood of the crew. Woodhouse writes daily in his diary as tensions and the spiteful first mate, Robert Juet, slowly divide the crew. After spending the winter of 1610-1611 frozen in the waters of the bay, the crew was near mutiny. When Hudson finally broke free from the ice and entered the larger body of water now known as Hudson's Bay, the entire crew believed they were finally going home. Henry Hudson however, had not given up and ordered the ship's course set due west, still hoping to discover the long sought after route to the Indies. The next morning, on June 24th, 1611, the crew mutinied. Hudson, his son John and seven others were set adrift in the longboat among the ice floes of Hudson's Bay and never seen again. The mutineers returned to England, were later acquitted of any wrongdoing and Hudson was given up for dead. Here, where history ended Hudson's life, the diaries of Woodhouse go on to tell of his heroics getting his men to shore and the life they lived with the Inuits, waiting for the rescue that would bring them home again. Woodhouse never lost faith that the rescue would happen. This is his story.