[Rarebooks] fs: Really Cold Trip, Really Nutty Commander... 1876

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

Davis, Rear-Admiral C.H. "NARRATIVE OF THE NORTH POLAR EXPEDITION. U.S.
Ship Polaris, Captain Charles Francis Hall Commanding"

Washington; Government Printing Office: 1876.

Charles Francis Hall was outspoken, abrasive, fearless, and somewhat mad.
A New Englander who prepared for his first Arctic expedition by camping
out on a hill behind the Cincinnati Observatory, this Cincinnati newspaper
editor's first expedition was undertaken without a ship, a long list of
specialized equipment or a crew of hand-selected officers. In fact, it
took place without any officers or men at all!

In May, 1860 Hall hitched a ride north on the 'Henry George' and was
landed in Frobisher Bay. Hall planned to learn from the Eskimos, living as
they did, and he succeeded, returning to the States in the Fall of 1862
with several friendly Eskimos in tow -his romantic preconceptions about
"noble savages" shattered, but with a great deal of good, hard experience
under his belt. Upon his return Hall found his country immersed in a Civil
War, which made raising interest for a second expedition difficult, but he
set out again in May of 1863, partially funded by Henry Grinnell, aboard
the 'Monticello'. This second expedition would take Hall and his Eskimo
friends five years, during which time he collected information from the
native Eskimos about the Franklin Expedition. Although he found many
relics from that ill-fated party he did not succeed in unlocking the
secrets of their ultimate fate and, discouraged and depressed, he set sail
for home again, with his Eskimo companions.

Finally, in 1871, Hall got the government backing he had long sought. His
third expedition, the one chronicled here, left Brooklyn in July of 1871
aboard the steamer 'Polaris'. Almost from the start there was friction
between Hall and the scientific contingent, headed by Dr. Emil Bessels.
The ship reached Greenland in the autumn and, on October 24th, after
returning from an exploring trip, Hall fell ill. He recovered, but then
fell ill again and on November 8th he died at the age of 50.

>From there the expedition went steadily downhill and in the summer after
Hall's death a portion of the party was accidentally marooned on an ice
flow, on which they survived for six months, while covering a distance of
1,500 miles. The 'Polaris' itself sank and those who had remained aboard
were taken in by local Eskimos and kept alive until rescue.

There is speculation to this day regarding Charles Francis Hall's
unexpected and premature death. His chief biographer, Chauncey Loomis,
suspected poisoning, and in 1968 Hall's corpse was exhumed and he was
found to have ingested large quantities of arsenic. Bessels, as the doctor
who treated him, remains the main suspect, although much of the evidence
is circumstantial.

Although none of Hall's Arctic expeditions broke new ground in Arctic
exploration nor made any lasting contributions to science, the sheer drama
and mystery surrounding the man and his death, as well as the subsequent
travails of his last expedition, make great Victorian melodrama.
Hardcover. 8.5"x10", 696 pages, plus 2 steel engraved plates, 2
photolithographs, 6 maps, and 30-full page wood-engraved plates; with more
wood engravings in the text; Original gilt-decorated red cloth; covers
with some scuffing and wear, spine head chipped; internally clean and
nice; engraved 19th century bookplate of Henry W. Longfellow. [02760]
$375.00

Illustrations-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/images/th-02760.jpg>

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