Baffin, William (1584?-1622), was an English navigator and explorer. In 1612, he went to Greenland with an expedition. In 1615, he led an expedition to find the Northwest Passage to Asia (see Northwest Passage ). His name was given to Baffin Bay, which he explored in 1616, and to Baffin Island. He explored Greenland in 1612 and 1615. In 1616, he became the first European to reach Ellesmere Island. Sir Clements R. Markham edited stories of Baffin’s expeditions and published them as The Voyages of William Baffin (1881). Baffin was killed on Jan. 23, 1622, while serving with the East India Company on the island of Qishm in the Persian Gulf.
