Cornelis Nay

Cornelis Corneliszoon Nay was a Dutch navigator and explorer who attempted to discover the Northeast Passage from Europe to the Far East.

In June 1594, he set out from the Dutch island of Texel with a small fleet consisting of three ships and a fishing sloop to discover the Northeast Passage.

A fellow explorer, Willem Barentsz, who commanded the third ship also called Mercurius as well as the fishing boat, followed the coast of Novaya Zemlya, but his progress was halted by ice.

Barentsz wanted to stop for the winter and continue in the spring, but Nay decided that the fleet should return home.

Although Nay and Barentsz failed to find the passage to the East by way of the Arctic Sea, the Dutch journeys of exploration in the Arctic paved the way for large-scale whale and seal fishery which greatly enriched the Netherlands during the Dutch Golden Age.