He is best known for his attempt to find the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans, during which Baffin became the first European to discover a bay which was subsequently named in his honour.

[2][3] In printing his journals, Samuel Purchas wrote of him as a "learned-unlearned Mariner and Mathematician... wanting art of words" who "really employed himself to those industries, whereof here you see so evident fruits.

[5] Hall's three earlier explorations had been underwritten by Christian IV, the king of Denmark-Norway anxious to reestablish contact with the Norse settlements there.

Hall then successfully interested four English merchants—Thomas Smythe, James Lancaster, William Cockayne, and Richard Ball—in permitting him to continue his work.

[2] Icy conditions precluded exploration to the north, but Baffin examined a "considerable portion" of Spitzbergen's coast, returning to London on 4 October.

[2] The fleet – under the command of Captain Martin Pring – reached Saldanha Bay in South Africa on 21 June and Surat in British India in September.

Baffin's ship then performed separate service on runs to Mocha in Yemen and other ports of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

[2] A year later, the East India Company agreed to join the Persian assaults on the Portuguese fortresses on the islands of Qeshm and Hormuz in exchange for certain trade concessions.

At Qeshm off Bandar Abbas, he was sent ashore on 23 January 1622 to take measurements of the height and distance of the walls of Fort Queixome to assist the fleet's gunners.