Abstract
THE Washington Chronicle of August 26 contains the following interesting account of the progress and position of this important expedition:—“The Navy Department has received later despatches from Captain Hall, by the -way of Tydskland and Copenhagen, completing, his official record up to the moment of final departure from North Greenland. These despatches, which are quite full, bear date off Tossak, Tussuissuk, N. lat. 73° 21′, W. long. 56° 5′, August 24, 1871, and are, therefore, only four days later than Hall's Upper Navik despatch, August 20, 1 1871, which reached the department within three months l by the way of Copenhagen. The explanation of this long delay in transitu is that there is no regular communication between Denmark and these far-off colonies but once a year. Hall's Upper Navik despatches were timed to reach the Danish brig just then sailing, and this present letter sent back by native pilots, as he notes in concluding, may have had near a year's detention in Disco. It seems to have reached the American Minister at Copenhagen about July 30. Although thus divested of any special value as news, the present despatch is of much intrinsic interest. All on board the Polaris, officers, scientific corps, and men, were well and in excellent spirits. The seagoing qualities of the vessel had been tested and found admirable; the engines and machinery were in perfect working order, coal and rosin in good supply, and the ship's crew abundantly provisioned. For the long Arctic night before them they had books, games, instrumental music, &c.—in a word, everything that the thoughtful care of the department could supply, or letters of credit at Newfoundland and in Greenland furnish, had been laid in to complete their outfit, and of all this Captain Hall makes characteristic and thankful acknowledgments. Governor Elberg, of the Navik district, had accompanied the Polaris as far as Tossak, the extremest northerly limits of Danish jurisdiction as well as of civilised life, and was to the last moment assiduous in his exertions to further the interests of the expedition. Mainly through his co-operation Hail was fortunate enough at Tossak to make up his complement of Esquimaux dogs—sixty strong, healthy animals—a matter of almost vital importance. He likewise laid in a large supply of dog food, and considerably augmented his stock of reindeer-furs, sealskins, &c., for the adventurous voyage. At Upper Navik the expedition had shipped Hans Christian, a famous native hunter and dog-driver, with his wife and three children. Jensen, the Dane, who was under promise to join the expedition at Tossak, backed out at the last moment. Governor Elherg, of whose many kindnesses Hall speaks with full heart, awaited at Tossak the return of the native pilots, bearing this despatch to him, and it closes with the prow of the Polaris northward in the early morning of August 24, with a complete roster of all on board, thirty-three souls, and a fervent, hopeful prayer for success. It will be remembered that Captain Hall's previous despatches speak of his good fortune in meeting at Holsteinburg the returning Swedish expedition, and that the commander, Baron van Otter, kindly furnished him copies of log, deep-sea soundings, &c., assuring him that the season was more than usually favourable, and extremely wide iceberg-channels, &c. Of the same purport was the information received of Governor Rodolph, thirty years resident in North Greenland, who declared the year to be more favourable for any northern voyage than many years agone or to come. Acting on this information, and under discretionary power vested in him by the Navy Department, Captain Hall had abandoned the Jones's Sound route, and had decided before he left Upper Navik that after stopping at Tossak he would cross Melville Bay to Cape Dudley Digges, and from that point steam direct to Smith's Sound, thence make all possible attempts to find a passage on the west side of the Sound from Cape Isabella up to Kennedy Channels, wintering there probably in about the same latitude or a little higher than Kane's winter quarters, and thence on and up to the North Pole. The letter published in the New York Times, April 25, purporting to narrate a disaster to the Polaris and her return last February to Disco, was a canard. Not one word of it has ever been credited at the Navy Department. It is not believed that any disaster has overtaken the Expedition, orjthat any ground for apprehension exists.”
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Captain Hall's Arctic Expedition . Nature 6, 415 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/006415a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/006415a0