Charles Francis Hall - 1860-1862, 1864-1869

Charles Francis Hall

Accomplishments:

• on his first voyage, Hall lost his ship in a storm and was forced to spend the year in the vicinity of the whaler where he lived and travelled with the Inuit
• the Inuit told Hall stories of white men who had long ago visited the area and worked there
• upon investigating the supposed location of this activity, Kodlunarn Island in Countess of Warwick Sound, Hall found evidence which suggested that it was indeed the former site of the mining community and colony which Frobisher had attempted to establish some 285 years earlier
• on his travels through the area, Hall made a careful survey and discovered that Frobisher's "Streights" were actually a huge bay and not a channel, as it was believed at the time
• on his second voyage Hall made his base at Repulse Bay and heard rumour from the Inuit that survivors might still be found near Fury and Hecla Strait
• while investigating this, Hall traced the west coast of Melville Peninsula between Parry's farthest point and Rae's northern limit at Cape Crozier

Interesting Facts:

• the excellent chart which Hall prepared on his first voyage was so exact that it was not until the application of aerial photography that it was improved upon

  View Voyage Route

Information taken from Arctic Canada, Volume I, Third Edition, 1982

Image courtesy of Unidentified Artist/NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA/C-28015