- published: 28 Apr 2015
- views: 2653
Jens Munk (3 June or July 1579 – 28 June 1628) was a Dano-Norwegian navigator and explorer who was born in Norway where his father, Erik Munk, had received several fiefs for his achievements in the Northern Seven Years' War. He returned to Denmark at the age of eight. He entered into the service of King Christian IV and is most noted for his attempts to find the Northwest Passage to India.
Jens Munk was born on his father's estate Barbu at Arendal in the county of Aust-Agder. The father had an infamous reputation for his brutal rule over his estates which led to several trials, and in 1585 he was deposed and imprisoned at Dragsholm Castle. After that, at the age of eight, Jens Munk travelled to Aalborg in Denmark with his mother who became a housekeeper in the home of her husband's sister who was married to the city's mayor.
In 1591, at the age of twelve, Munk went to Oporto in Portugal where he worked for the shipping magnat Duart Duez. The following year he sailed with a Dutch convoy to Bahia in Brazil. Off the Brazilian coast the convoy was attacked by French pirates. Munk was among the seven survivors. Munk lived in Bahia (today's Salvador) for six years, where he was in the service of Duart Duez' brother, Miguel. Under dramatic circumstances Munk returned to Europe and Copenhagen in 1599, where the Danish magnat and Lord Chancellor Henrik Ramel hired him as ship clerk.