Captain Hall and the so-called Survivors of the Franklin Expedition

When Sir Leopold McClintock returned from King William Land in 1859, he stated that none of Sir John Franklin's officers and men could still be living, and the principal Arctic authorities entirely agreed with him. Nevertheless, a dissentient voice was raised in the United States by Captain Charles Francis Hall. Convinced that survivors might still be found, he undertook two Arctic expeditions in search of them. His first expedition, to Frobisher Bay (1860–62), yielded no relevant information, and need not be described. On the other hand, his second expedition, which lasted five years (1864–69), was not in vain. He spent the first winter near Wager River, and the other four winters at Repulse Bay, and made many journeys from his winter quarters. The stories told him by Eskimos convinced him at first that his long-cherished belief was founded on fact, and he informed his friends in the United States that survivors of the Franklin expedition might still be alive. Not until he himself had visited King William Land in 1869 did he realise that he had been too sanguine

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