After Congress authorized $50,000 for an expedition to the North Pole, an explorer named Charles Francis Hall was chosen to lead the expedition because he had extensive knowledge about living in the Arctic.
He had traveled to the Arctic twice before—once in 1860 as a passenger on a whaling ship and the second time in 1864. He stayed in the north for several years, learning from the natives how to survive in frigid conditions.
So, on July 31, 1871, the ship, Polaris, left New London, Connecticut, and set sail for the Arctic. Along the way, it stopped in Greenland to pick up equipment, dogs, and an Inuit guide.
The weather allowed the men to reach farther north than any non-Inuit native had ever been before. In October, the ship found a safe place to spend the winter. By November 8, Charles Francis Hall was dead.
Hall had left Polaris to scout the area for two weeks. Upon his return, he requested a cup of coffee. Once he drank it, he became violently ill. He experienced severe pain and accused some of the crew members of poisoning him.
A doctor and natural scientist on board, Emil Bessels, with whom Hall did not get along, provided Hall with medical care until he refused any more help. He had also fallen out with sailing master Sidney Budington during the expedition.
Ultimately, Hall passed away and was buried in a shallow grave. The next fall, strong winds blew Polaris into an iceberg, causing damage to the hull.
Budington had assumed leadership after Hall’s death and ordered everything to be thrown overboard. Some of the crew members jumped onto a large ice floe. Polaris was swept away by the wind, leaving them without shelter.
For six months, the castaways drifted on their ice floe. Finally, on April 30, 1873, they were rescued. A vessel named Tigress from Newfoundland emerged from the fog and saved them.
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Captain Budington and the remaining members of the crew eventually made their way to New York.
The Navy Board of Inquiry determined that Hall had died of an apoplectic seizure, even though the rescued castaways claimed that Hall had believed that he was poisoned.
In 1968, Chauncey C. Loomis was writing a biography about Hall and traveled to his grave. The cold, dry conditions of the Arctic had preserved Hall’s body for more than a century. Loomis took samples of Hall’s hair, bones, and fingernails.
An analysis of the samples revealed large amounts of arsenic in his body. Back then, arsenic was a common medicinal ingredient in medical kits on ships.
Hall had died not from a stroke, but from consuming fatal amounts of arsenic. Loomis concluded that Emil Bessels would be the main suspect if Hall really had been murdered.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
