Michael Lok had this map produced touting what he claimed to be the discovery of the Northwest Passage and showing an island named for him , 1582 .
Courtesy of the Osher Map Library , University of Southern Maine
But Frobisher had returned to London in October 1576 — at least a year earlier than expected — with little to show for his exploits . Although he swore he had sighted the entrance to the Northwest Passage ( and he very well might have ), his crew had threatened mutiny after one of the ships had been lost in heavy weather , and they refused to sail any deeper into the strait . Frobisher did capture an Inuit native , however , as proof of the fleet ’ s westward progress , and he also brought back a few black stones — a friable shale — picked up on one of the islands north of Newfoundland .
Lok saw Frobisher ’ s voyage as an encouraging first step in what he believed would be a difficult , but ultimately rewarding , venture . So he began preparations for a second , more ambitious voyage . To assemble a fleet of larger , more capable vessels , Lok budgeted for a total expense of £ 4,500 . By March of 1577 , he had managed to raise more than £ 3,000 and had scored a major coup when he enticed Queen Elizabeth I — usually not an active investor in New World ventures — to give her blessing and support to the enterprise . She even went so far as to lend her flagship , the Ayde , to the cause .
Even so , Lok found himself in a precarious financial situation . He was at risk of losing his entire investment in the first voyage , nearly £ 1,000 , if the second one did not produce results . And he was reluctant to dispatch the second fleet with just £ 3,000 in funding — especially since much of it was in the form of pledges , not cash or goods . No wonder he was beginning to feel great concern .
That ’ s when the miracle happened .
As the story goes ( the details are uncertain ), pieces of the souvenir rocks had been distributed to a few of the investors . For some reason , perhaps because such shale was known to burn well as fuel , the wife of one of the merchant adventurers , possibly Lok ’ s own wife , tossed a chunk into a fire burning at the hearth . After a time , someone glanced toward the flames and noticed that the rock had begun to “ glister ” with a golden sparkle .
Lok or one of his friends , intrigued , extracted it from the fire . It was then “ quenched ” with a bit of vinegar , a 17thcentury makeshift method of homemade assaying . To Lok , at least , the quick evaluation made it seem quite likely that the rock contained gold .
The possibility that Frobisher had
14 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2018 | www . MoAF . org