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Robert Bylot, English seaman (fl. 1610–16). Robert Bylot was a skilled ice-pilot and a capable seaman, but little else is known of his life. Bylot Island, situated at the northeastern corner of Baffin Island, at the entrance to Lancaster Sound, was named after him.
Career Highlights
Robert Bylot was the mate on Henry Hudson's ill-fated voyage of 1611. Bylot was deprived of his rank just prior to the marooning of Henry Hudson in James Bay. He joined the mutineers but was later pardoned, likely for his skill in bringing the ship home. In 1612–13, he sailed with Sir Thomas Button to Hudson Bay.
In 1615 and 1616, with William Baffin as pilot, Bylot made two voyages in the Discovery to the eastern Arctic. In the first, the two men demonstrated that Hudson Strait was not the Northwest Passage. In the second, Smith, Jones and Lancaster sounds were located, and a "farthest north" was reached at 70°45´, a record not broken for 236 years.
