CH. VIII] 
William Burrough 
65 
Both the brothers, Stephen and William, became 
distinguished officers, showing what an admirable training 
Arctic service is for the navy, both in its executive and 
scientific branches. Stephen Burrough induced Richard 
Eden to translate the Arte de Navegar of Martin Cortes, 
then the best book on navigation, thus securing the 
means whereby our seamen could obtain instruction. In 
1563 he became Chief Pilot in the Medway, with the duty 
of instructing and examining officers in the art of naviga- 
tion. He died in July, 1584, and was buried at Chatham. 
His brother William continued to serve the Muscovy 
Company in voyages to the White Sea, and in 1570 he 
commanded a fleet bound to Narva in the Baltic. Both 
brothers were very attentive in observing the variation 
of the compass during the voyage to Waigatz, and in 
158 1 William Burrough published his Discourse of the 
Variation of the Needle. He became Comptroller of the 
Navy in 1583, and commanded the fleet which conveyed 
the Earl of Leicester from Harwich to Flushing in 1585. 
He constructed charts and prepared sailing directions, 
besides serving with Drake at Cadiz, and under Lord 
Howard against the Spanish Armada. His chart of the 
mouth of the Thames was the best until the first trigono- 
metrical survey was made by Murdoch Mackenzie in 
1790 1 . He died in 1599. For such valuable services 
as these, the Arctic expeditions which trained the 
Burroughs to observe and to act promptly and judiciously 
are doubtless not a little to be thanked. 
For more than 20 years after the return of the 
Searchthrifi the northern voyages were devoted to the 
promotion of Russian trade and not to discovery, but 
in 1580 Sir George Barne, a prominent citizen of London, 
with his colleague, Sir Rowland Hayward, resolved to 
fit out a small expedition with the object of continuing 
the discoveries made by Stephen Burrough. They equipped 
two small vessels, the George of London, 40 tons, and the 
William of London, 20 tons. Arthur Pet of Ratcliffe, 
who had been a seaman in the Edward Bonaventure, 
received command of the George with a crew of nine men 
and a boy, including Hugh Smith, an intelligent person 
who wrote an account of the voyage. The William was 
1 I believe this is now in Lord Salisbury's collection at Hatfield. 
M. J. 
5 
