polar regions

What causes a merely modestly successful, married middle class businessman during the American civil war era to suddenly decide to head up an artic rescue mission (and then return yet again for another try). And then later still, successfully campaign to be chosen by Congress to lead the then most ambitious ever official U.S. expedition to the North Pole itself? His character.

Hall took his Christianity very seriously. All of the crew of Franklin's famous expedition of a decade past were lost and Hall decided to dedicate himself to help, even though his limited means meant that he must hitchhike a ride out on a whaling ship, then set himself ashore alone, and live cheaply on the polar wasteland among the Eskimos from whom he meant to learn Franklin's fate.

Indeed Hall, way way out there in icy nowhere land, after learning the Intuit language, did find out valuable clues from conversations from native elders while spending a few winters sharing this people's dangerous way of life, their igloos, their hunger in bad times, and their raw meat diet in better times.

Because he kept a daily diary we get whole amazing story.

Hall managed to learn enough of the truth to allow him to lead a dangerous trek for to collect valuable Franklin expedition artifacts. Upon returning the second time to civilization, his book and lectures were enough for him to win commandership of an official American expedition to hopefully attain the Pole itself, President Grant in enthusiastic support!

Farthest North? Well the tale of Hall's third trip is a very good one and a final mystery is produced for our consideration thanks to the author's own modern day travel up the High North where he takes samples whose later medical analysis yields astonishing results.

As a resident of Barrow, Alaska, the farthest north community in the United States, I share some of the goals and fascinations of Charles Hall, which come out in the book. "The Arctic will get into your blood Earl. You'll be back." That is what one Inupiat Eskimo leader told me back in 1969, during one of my first short visits to Barrow. And I did come back and have lived here full time since the mid 1980s. The Arctic, its extreme environment, and its Native people, can get in one's blood. I feel very fortunate to be able to live here.

When I was in Cincinnati, I talked with a local librarian who said that Charles Hall used to camp outdoors in a local park in a tent in the dead of winter, just to toughen himself up for Arctic exploration.

As noted in the book, Hall should also be remembered for working closely with the Native peoples of the Canadian Arctic, as he searched for traces of the Franklin expedition. Many other Arctic explorers had only fleeting contact with the local people, if that. And Hall had to hitch-hike on various ships during his early exploration. When he finally got a ship of his own, then he died under mysterious circumstances. That is tragic and a dreadful way to end one's lifetime dream.
So read this book, and enjoy its excellent perspective on the Arctic and its people, and the dreams and determination of one man, who did all he could to learn more about our northern lands.

This true accounting about the obsession Charles Francis Hall, a somewhat obscure Cincinatti businessman, had for Arctic exploration and its ultimate personal tragedy is fascinating.

The author Loomis trys to convey the environment of thought that created the appeal the Arctic had for Hall. The sentiment was much more pervasively Christian during the 1860-1870s when Hall made his 3 trips to the north and was able to get farther north than any Westerner had until then. In the Afterword, Loomis describes some of the appeal the vast, unexplored Artic must have had for Westerners. The Artic was both magnificent and terrifying, it was as Byron wrote "All that expands the spirit, yet appals." Loomis explains that the public had an asthetic of the sublime and this went a long way to explain to me the attraction Polar exploration must have had for Hall. But as a modern day mountaineer Fred Beckey said, "Man is not always a welcome visitor in a kingdom he cannot control."

The American explorer Kane, who died at age 36 was so revered by the American public for his exploits, that when his body was brought to New Orleans and then went up the Mississippi to it's ultimate burial location, people lined the river the entire way to bid him farewell. This helps explain the regard the public had for explorers (especially the ones who wrote accessible books).

Hall leads the first two expeditions in search of one of the overriding mysteries of the time, what happened to the members of the British expedition led by Sir John Franklin. The last and fatal voyage was in search of the North Pole. However, because of the funding by the US government of the expedition, the loss of Hall and loss of the ship itself, there was a US Naval inquiry. Because of the quasi-Naval nature of the expedition, there was insufficient discipline on the expedition and the loss of the leader under strange circumstances caused most discipline to evaporate thus dooming the expedition.

Loomis undertook his own mini-expedition 97 years after Hall's death in 1871. He visited Hall's gravesite and performed an autopsy with very interesting results.

The book is well written so that during the narrative when the details might seem tedious, they are not. Exhaustively researched and well presented with essential maps, photographs and a list of the crew on the last voyage.

Read and enjoy.