John Cabot is credited for the Old World's discovery of continental North America, with his journey in 1497 along the continent's coast. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed north along the Atlantic seaboard and into New York Harbor, however he left the harbor shortly thereafter, without navigating into the Hudson River. In 1598, Dutch men employed by the Greenland Company wintered in New York Bay. Eleven years later, the Dutch East India Company financed English navigator Henry Hudson in his search for the Northwest Passage. During the search, Hudson decided to sail his ship up the river that would later be named after him. His travel up the ever-widening river led him to Haverstraw Bay, leading him to believe he had successfully reached the Northwest Passage. He landed on the western shore of the bay and claimed the territory for the Netherlands. He then proceeded upstream as far as present-day Troy before concluding that no such strait existed there.