Weird and Tragic Shores: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer

What causes a merely modestly successful, married middle class businessman during the American civil war era to suddenly decide to head up an artic rescue mission (and then return yet again for another try). And then later still, successfully campaign to be chosen by Congress to lead the then most ambitious ever official U.S. expedition to the North Pole itself? His character. Hall took his Christianity very seriously. All of the crew of Franklin's famous expedition of a decade past were lost and Hall decided to dedicate himself to help, even though his limited means meant that he must hitchhike a ride out on a whaling ship, then set himself ashore alone, and live cheaply on the polar wasteland among the Eskimos from whom he meant to learn Franklin's fate.Indeed Hall, way way out there in icy nowhere land, after learning the Intuit language, did find out valuable clues from conversations from native elders while spending a few winters sharing this people's dangerous way of life, their igloos, their hunger in bad times, and their raw meat diet in better times.Because he kept a daily diary we get whole amazing story. Hall managed to learn enough of the truth to allow him to lead a dangerous trek for to collect valuable Franklin expedition artifacts. Upon returning the second time to civilization, his book and lectures were enough for him to win commandership of an official American expedition to hopefully attain the Pole itself, President Grant in enthusiastic support!Farthest North? Well the tale of Hall's third trip is a very good one and a final mystery is produced for our consideration thanks to the author's own modern day travel up the High North where he takes samples whose later medical analysis yields astonishing results.

As a resident of Barrow, Alaska, the farthest north community in the United States, I share some of the goals and fascinations of Charles Hall, which come out in the book. "The Arctic will get into your blood Earl. You'll be back." That is what one Inupiat Eskimo leader told me back in 1969, during one of my first short visits to Barrow. And I did come back and have lived here full time since the mid 1980s. The Arctic, its extreme environment, and its Native people, can get in one's blood. I feel very fortunate to be able to live here.When I was in Cincinnati, I talked with a local librarian who said that Charles Hall used to camp outdoors in a local park in a tent in the dead of winter, just to toughen himself up for Arctic exploration.As noted in the book, Hall should also be remembered for working closely with the Native peoples of the Canadian Arctic, as he searched for traces of the Franklin expedition. Many other Arctic explorers had only fleeting contact with the local people, if that. And Hall had to hitch-hike on various ships during his early exploration. When he finally got a ship of his own, then he died under mysterious circumstances. That is tragic and a dreadful way to end one's lifetime dream.So read this book, and enjoy its excellent perspective on the Arctic and its people, and the dreams and determination of one man, who did all he could to learn more about our northern lands.

Chauncey Loomis' Weird and Tragic Shores is indeed all that. It tells the story of businessman and amateur explorer Charles Francis Hall. He goes in search of traces (possibly survivors?) of Sir John Franklin's expedition. The third trip goes wrong and Charles Francis Hall dies and is buried in the North. This book is driven by the personality of Hall and it is quite the personality. He is obsessed, unlucky, amateurish at times, belligerent, and stubborn, but the best word that could be one used to describe him is one that is applied to the Arctic itself, weird. The author captures the personality vividly with contemporary accounts, particulary those of Hall himself. It is an interesting book of a footnote character in the great age of Arcitc exploration, and sometimes through these footnotes in history one can see the truth behind what drives the explorers in its rawest form. An entertaining addition to the annals of history of the North.

Charles Francis Hall was an odd sort, but a man whose experiences grant us access to the information then preserved within the Inuit collective memory as regards encounters with the Franklin expedition -- and, significantly, other expeditions as well. While Cook's experience with his Inuit contracts proved ultimately frustrating to him, subsequent analysis of what he heard may provide genuine information on what went on with the Franklin expedition (and what went wrong).The book is well written, interesting, and contains high drama and Artic adventure all its own. I would emphatically read it in concert with David Woodman's "Strangers Among Us," a careful analysis of the Inuit testimony received by Hall that provides what may be the last word on the fate of the Franklin expedition from the descendants of people who made periodic contact with the men from the Erebus and Terror at various points during the painful deterioration of ships and crew.This book, now back in print, should not be missed by people with an interest in nineteenth century British and U.S. experiences in the Arctic. It has drama and human interest all its own, and deserves its place in the literature of Polar exploration in general, John Franklin's last expedition in particular.

This biography of C.F. Hall and his three journeys to the Arctic is an exceptional work because of the interweaving of Loomis' careful research with a captivating narrative that keeps begging to be read. A fine annotated bibliography and unobtrusive and informative footnotes keeps the reader aware of the extensive examination of both primary (mostly contemporaneous Journals by Hall and his associates) and secondary sources that has gone into the spinning of this yarn. The many mid-19th Century characters who are woven into this tragic biography come to life in what a lesser author might have molded into a tedious and technical text. Two nicely done maps are very useful aids to those unfamiliar with the details of the Canadian Arctic region. I found myself referring to them frequently. A group of historic photographs serve to bring even more vitality to the tale. Two thumbs up!