Charles Francis Hall
Encyclopedia
Charles Francis Hall was an American Arctic
explorer
. Little is known of Hall's early life. He was born in the state of Vermont
, but while he was still a child his family moved to Rochester, New Hampshire
, where, as a boy, he was apprenticed
to a blacksmith
. In the 1840s he married and drifted westward, arriving in Cincinnati, Ohio
, in 1849. There he went into business making seals
and engraving
plates, and later began to publish a two small newspapers, The Cincinnati Occasional and The Daily Press.
Around 1857, Hall became interested in the Arctic
and spent the next few years studying the reports of previous explorers and trying to raise money for an expedition, primarily intended to learn the fate of Sir John Franklin's
lost expedition
.
In 1860, Hall began his first expedition (1860–63), gaining passage out of New Bedford
on the whaler
George Henry under Captain Sidney O. Budington, whose uncle James Budington had salvaged Edward Belcher
's exploration ship HMS Resolute, also on the "George Henry". He got as far as Baffin Island
, where the George Henry was forced to winter over. The Inuit
told Hall of surviving relics from Martin Frobisher
's mining venture at Frobisher Bay
on Baffin Island
. Hall soon travelled there to see them first-hand, drawing upon the inestimable assistance of his newly-found Inuit guide
s Ebierbing ("Joe") and Tookoolito
("Hannah").
Hall also learned what he interpreted as evidence that some members of Franklin's lost expedition might still be alive. On his return to New York, Hall arranged for Harper Brothers to publish his account of the expedition Arctic Researches and Life Amongst the Esquimaux. It was edited by a British mariner and writer William Parker Snow
, who was also obsessed with the fate of Franklin. The two men eventually fell out (largely because Parker Snow was very slow editing the manuscript), and amongst other things Parker Snow later claimed Hall had used his ideas for the search for Franklin without giving him due credit.
schooner
Active was abandoned, probably due to lack of finances caused by the American Civil War
and the failed relationship with his intended second in command Parker Snow. Finally, in July 1864 a very much smaller expedition departed in the whaler Monticello.
During this second expedition (1864–69) to King William Island
, he found remains and artifacts from the Franklin expedition, and made more inquiries about their fate from natives living there. Hall eventually realized that the stories of survivors had become garbled and unreliable, either by the Inuit or his own readiness to give them overly optimistic interpretations. He also became disillusioned with the Inuit by the discovery that the remnants of Franklin's expedition had deliberately been left to starve
. He failed to consider that it would have been impossible for the local population to support such a large group of supernumeraries.
Hall's third expedition was of an entirely different character. He received a grant of $50,000 from the U.S. Congress
to command an expedition to the North Pole
in the ship Polaris. The party of 25 also included Hall's old friend Budington as sailing master, George Tyson as navigator, and Dr. Emil Bessels
, a German physician
and naturalist
, as chief of the scientific staff. The expedition was troubled from the start as the party split into rival factions. Hall's authority over the expedition was resented by a large portion of the party, and discipline broke down.
Polaris sailed into Thank God Harbor (now called Hall Bay) on September 10, 1871 and settled in for the winter on the shore of northern Greenland
. That fall, upon returning to the ship from a sledging expedition with an Inuit guide, Hall suddenly fell ill after drinking a cup of coffee
. He collapsed in what was described as a fit. For the next week he suffered from vomiting
and delirium
, then seemed to improve for a few days. At that time, he accused several of the ship's company, including Dr. Bessels, of having poison
ed him. Shortly after, Hall began suffering the same symptoms, and finally died on November 8. Hall was taken ashore and given a formal burial
.
Command of the expedition devolved on Budington, who dispatched an expedition to try for the Pole in June 1872. This was unsuccessful and Polaris turned south. On October 12, the ship was beset by ice in Smith Sound
and was on the verge of being crushed. Nineteen of the crew and Eskimo
guides abandoned ship for the surrounding ice and fourteen crew remained on the ship. Polaris was run aground near Etah
and crushed on October 24. After wintering ashore, the crew sailed south in two boats and were rescued by a whaler, returning home via Scotland
.
The following year, the remainder of the party attempted to extricate Polaris from the pack and head south. A group, including Tyson, became separated as the pack broke up violently and threatened to crush the ship in the fall of 1872. The group of 19 drifted on an ice floe for the next six months over 1500 miles (2,414 km) before being rescued off the coast of Newfoundland by the sealer Tigress
on April 30, 1873, and probably would have all perished had the group not included several Inuit who were able to hunt for the party.
. However, in 1968, Hall's biographer Chauncey C. Loomis
, a professor at Dartmouth College
, made an expedition to Greenland
to exhume Hall's body. Because of the permafrost
, Hall's body, flag shroud, clothing and coffin
were remarkably well preserved. Tests on tissue samples of bone, fingernails and hair showed that Hall died of poisoning from large doses of arsenic
in the last two weeks of his life. This diagnosis is consistent with the symptoms party members reported. It is possible that Hall dosed himself with the poison, as arsenic was a common ingredient of quack medicines
of the time. But it is considered possible that he was murder
ed by one of the other members of the expedition, possibly Dr. Bessels. No charges were ever filed.
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
explorer
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
. Little is known of Hall's early life. He was born in the state of Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, but while he was still a child his family moved to Rochester, New Hampshire
Rochester, New Hampshire
Rochester is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 29,752. The city includes the villages of East Rochester and Gonic. Rochester is home to Skyhaven Airport and the annual Rochester Fair....
, where, as a boy, he was apprenticed
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
to a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
. In the 1840s he married and drifted westward, arriving in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, in 1849. There he went into business making seals
Seal (device)
A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...
and engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
plates, and later began to publish a two small newspapers, The Cincinnati Occasional and The Daily Press.
First Arctic Expedition
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
and spent the next few years studying the reports of previous explorers and trying to raise money for an expedition, primarily intended to learn the fate of Sir John Franklin's
John Franklin
Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic...
lost expedition
Franklin's lost expedition
Franklin's lost expedition was a doomed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer...
.
In 1860, Hall began his first expedition (1860–63), gaining passage out of New Bedford
New Bedford
-Places:*New Bedford, Illinois*New Bedford, Massachusetts, the most populous New Bedford**New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park*New Bedford, New Jersey *New Bedford, Ohio*New Bedford, Pennsylvania...
on the whaler
Whaler
A whaler is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching and/or processing of whales. The former included the whale catcher, a steam or diesel-driven vessel with a harpoon gun mounted at its bows. The latter included such vessels as the sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early...
George Henry under Captain Sidney O. Budington, whose uncle James Budington had salvaged Edward Belcher
Edward Belcher
Admiral Sir Edward Belcher, KCB , was a British naval officer and explorer. He was the great-grandson of Governor Jonathan Belcher. His wife, Diana Jolliffe, was the stepdaughter of Captain Peter Heywood.-Early life:...
's exploration ship HMS Resolute, also on the "George Henry". He got as far as Baffin Island
Baffin Island
Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the largest island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is and its population is about 11,000...
, where the George Henry was forced to winter over. The Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
told Hall of surviving relics from Martin Frobisher
Martin Frobisher
Sir Martin Frobisher was an English seaman who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage...
's mining venture at Frobisher Bay
Frobisher Bay
Frobisher Bay is a relatively large inlet of the Labrador Sea in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located in the southeastern corner of Baffin Island...
on Baffin Island
Baffin Island
Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the largest island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is and its population is about 11,000...
. Hall soon travelled there to see them first-hand, drawing upon the inestimable assistance of his newly-found Inuit guide
Guide
A guide is a person who leads anyone through unknown or unmapped country. This includes a guide of the real world , as well as a person who leads someone to more abstract places .-Guide - meanings related to travel and recreational pursuits:There are many variants of...
s Ebierbing ("Joe") and Tookoolito
Tookoolito
Tookoolito known as "Hannah" among whalers of Cumberland Sound, was an Inuk woman who served as translator and guide to Charles Francis Hall, an Arctic explorer involved in the search for Franklin's lost expedition in the 1860s and 1870's...
("Hannah").
Hall also learned what he interpreted as evidence that some members of Franklin's lost expedition might still be alive. On his return to New York, Hall arranged for Harper Brothers to publish his account of the expedition Arctic Researches and Life Amongst the Esquimaux. It was edited by a British mariner and writer William Parker Snow
William Parker Snow
-Early life:William Parker Snow was born at Poole, England on 27 November 1817, the eldest son of Lieutenant William John Snow , a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812,and Harriet nee Parker...
, who was also obsessed with the fate of Franklin. The two men eventually fell out (largely because Parker Snow was very slow editing the manuscript), and amongst other things Parker Snow later claimed Hall had used his ideas for the search for Franklin without giving him due credit.
Second Arctic Expedition
During 1863 Hall planned a second expedition to seek more clues on the fate of Franklin, including efforts to find any of the rumoured survivors or their written records. The first attempt using the 95-tonTon
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
Active was abandoned, probably due to lack of finances caused by the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and the failed relationship with his intended second in command Parker Snow. Finally, in July 1864 a very much smaller expedition departed in the whaler Monticello.
During this second expedition (1864–69) to King William Island
King William Island
King William Island is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and forms part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between and making it the 61st largest island in the world and Canada's 15th largest island...
, he found remains and artifacts from the Franklin expedition, and made more inquiries about their fate from natives living there. Hall eventually realized that the stories of survivors had become garbled and unreliable, either by the Inuit or his own readiness to give them overly optimistic interpretations. He also became disillusioned with the Inuit by the discovery that the remnants of Franklin's expedition had deliberately been left to starve
Starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...
. He failed to consider that it would have been impossible for the local population to support such a large group of supernumeraries.
Polaris expedition
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
to command an expedition to the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
in the ship Polaris. The party of 25 also included Hall's old friend Budington as sailing master, George Tyson as navigator, and Dr. Emil Bessels
Emil Bessels
Dr. Emil Bessels was a German Jewish physician and Arctic explorer. Born in Heidelberg, Germany, he studied medicine and natural sciences in his home town and at the university of Jena. Bessels spent much of his scientific career working for the Smithsonian Institution...
, a German physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
, as chief of the scientific staff. The expedition was troubled from the start as the party split into rival factions. Hall's authority over the expedition was resented by a large portion of the party, and discipline broke down.
Polaris sailed into Thank God Harbor (now called Hall Bay) on September 10, 1871 and settled in for the winter on the shore of northern Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. That fall, upon returning to the ship from a sledging expedition with an Inuit guide, Hall suddenly fell ill after drinking a cup of coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
. He collapsed in what was described as a fit. For the next week he suffered from vomiting
Vomiting
Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose...
and delirium
Delirium
Delirium or acute confusional state is a common and severe neuropsychiatric syndrome with core features of acute onset and fluctuating course, attentional deficits and generalized severe disorganization of behavior...
, then seemed to improve for a few days. At that time, he accused several of the ship's company, including Dr. Bessels, of having poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ed him. Shortly after, Hall began suffering the same symptoms, and finally died on November 8. Hall was taken ashore and given a formal burial
Burial
Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
.
Command of the expedition devolved on Budington, who dispatched an expedition to try for the Pole in June 1872. This was unsuccessful and Polaris turned south. On October 12, the ship was beset by ice in Smith Sound
Smith Sound
Smith Sound is an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait....
and was on the verge of being crushed. Nineteen of the crew and Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
guides abandoned ship for the surrounding ice and fourteen crew remained on the ship. Polaris was run aground near Etah
Etah, Greenland
Etah is an abandoned settlement in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northern Greenland. It was a starting point of discovery expeditions to the North Pole, and the landing site of the last migration of the Inuit from the Canadian Arctic.- Geography :...
and crushed on October 24. After wintering ashore, the crew sailed south in two boats and were rescued by a whaler, returning home via Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The following year, the remainder of the party attempted to extricate Polaris from the pack and head south. A group, including Tyson, became separated as the pack broke up violently and threatened to crush the ship in the fall of 1872. The group of 19 drifted on an ice floe for the next six months over 1500 miles (2,414 km) before being rescued off the coast of Newfoundland by the sealer Tigress
USS Tigress (1871)
The third USS Tigress was a screw steamer of the United States Navy, chartered during 1873 to mount an Arctic rescue mission.-Whaler, 1871–1873:...
on April 30, 1873, and probably would have all perished had the group not included several Inuit who were able to hunt for the party.
Investigation
The official investigation that followed ruled that Hall had died from apoplexyApoplexy
Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...
. However, in 1968, Hall's biographer Chauncey C. Loomis
Chauncey C. Loomis
Chauncey Chester Loomis Jr. was a Dartmouth professor of English and American literature, Arctic historian, documentary maker, and author best known for Weird and Tragic Shores: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer , described as “a concise and intelligent introduction to the history of...
, a professor at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, made an expedition to Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
to exhume Hall's body. Because of the permafrost
Permafrost
In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...
, Hall's body, flag shroud, clothing and coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
were remarkably well preserved. Tests on tissue samples of bone, fingernails and hair showed that Hall died of poisoning from large doses of arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
in the last two weeks of his life. This diagnosis is consistent with the symptoms party members reported. It is possible that Hall dosed himself with the poison, as arsenic was a common ingredient of quack medicines
Quackery
Quackery is a derogatory term used to describe the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. Random House Dictionary describes a "quack" as a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or...
of the time. But it is considered possible that he was murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed by one of the other members of the expedition, possibly Dr. Bessels. No charges were ever filed.
Further reading
- Hall, Thomas F. (1917). Has the North Pole Been Discovered? Boston: R.G. Badger
See also
- Hall BeachHall Beach, NunavutHall Beach is an Inuit settlement, Qikiqtaaluk Region in Nunavut, Canada, established in 1957 during the construction of a Distant Early Warning site...
- Hall IslandGallyaHall Island is an island in Franz Josef Land, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia.Hall Island is almost completely glacierized...
- Hans IslandHans IslandHans Island is a small, uninhabited barren knoll measuring , located in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait—the strait that separates Ellesmere Island from northern Greenland and connects Baffin Bay with the Lincoln Sea...