h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always been taught that Willem Barentsz was a Dutch navigator sent by Dutch merchants to find a northern passage around Russia to China. In this article it is suggested that he was a Russian. I realize that this may be an old article but I felt compelled to correct the injustice done to this long dead Dutchman!

I'm talking about this section of the article:

"However, when the *Russian* navigator Barents arrived in 1596, he had, unlike with most of the 'discoveries' that were being made around that time, a genuine claim to having disembarked on empty land. It was, however, full of whales, walruses, seals, polar bears and the other animals that live on the archipelago. After Barents left (to die even further North on a subsequent expedition to Novaya Zemla)"

No, you're right. Don't know why I thought he was Russian...

sprout