CHARLES FRANCIS HALL 245 



After clearing up the Frobisher problem and throwing 

 some light on the Franklin mystery, he started in 1871 

 to go as far north as he could across the reported Polar 

 Sea. To him Henry Grinnell, who did so much for 

 northern discovery, entrusted the American flag which 

 had been to the Antarctic with Wilkes in 1838, to the 

 Arctic with De Haven, with Kane and with Hayes, 

 and was a sort of oriflamme of Polar discovery. His 

 ship was the Polaris, of 387 tons, once the Periwinkle, 

 a name which seemed to be a little too unassuming. 

 Buddington, his sailing-master, was an experienced 

 whaling captain ; his assistant, Tyson, destined for the 

 independent command of an ice-floe, was another 

 whale -fisher. The naturalist was Emil Bessels. On 

 board were also Joe and Hannah of course and 

 William Morton, to show where the sea was, and, 

 picked up at Upernivik, the indispensable Hans 

 Hendrik with his wife and three children. 



The voyage was fortunate so long as Hall lived. 

 The Polaris found the Polar gates open before her. 

 She steamed right up Smith Sound, through Kane Sea, 

 up Kennedy Channel, into Robeson Channel named 

 after the Secretary to the American Navy until she 

 reached the ice, in 82 16', on the 30th of August, 1871, 

 the highest latitude then attained by a ship. Hall 

 would have pressed on into the ice, but Buddington 

 wisely refused, and hardly had the Polaris been headed 

 round when she was beset and carried southwards, to 

 escape in a few days and take refuge for the winter in 

 a harbour on the east of what is now known as Hall 

 Basin, protected at its entrance by a grounded floeberg. 

 The latitude is 81 38', the harbour Hall called Thank 



