This ECU piece commemorates Willem Barentsz, the Dutch navigator who led three Arctic expeditions in the 1590s searching for a Northeast Passage to Asia. His third voyage in 1596–97 ended with his crew icebound off Novaya Zemlya, forced to overwinter in a shelter built from their wrecked ship's timbers — the first documented European overwintering in the Arctic. Barentsz died on the return journey in June 1597. The Sea of Barents bears his name.
This ECU piece commemorates Willem Barentsz, the Dutch navigator who led three Arctic expeditions in the 1590s searching for a Northeast Passage to Asia. His third voyage in 1596–97 ended with his crew icebound off Novaya Zemlya, forced to overwinter in a shelter built from their wrecked ship's timbers — the first documented European overwintering in the Arctic. Barentsz died on the return journey in June 1597. The Sea of Barents bears his name.