Charles Francis Hall
Charles Francis Hall (c. 1821 – November 8, 1871) was an American Arctic explorer, best known for his collection of Inuit testimony regarding the 1845 Franklin Expedition and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death while leading the American-sponsored Polaris expedition in an attempt to be the first to reach the North Pole. The expedition was marred by insubordination, incompetence, and poor leadership.
Charles Francis Hall | |
|---|---|
The only known photograph of Hall, late 1870 | |
| Born | Unknown date, c. 1821 Rochester, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Died | (aged 50) Thank God Harbor, Greenland |
| Cause of death |
|
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1860–1871 (as explorer) |
| Known for | Death during Polaris expedition |
| Notable work | Life with the Esquimaux (1865) |
| Children | Anna Sophina Hall |
Hall returned to the ship from an exploratory sledging journey, and promptly fell ill. Before he died, he accused members of the crew—the expedition's lead scientist, Emil Bessels, in particular—of having poisoned him. An exhumation of his body in 1968 revealed that he had ingested a large quantity of arsenic in the last two weeks of his life.