The “Polaris” expedition, America’s first attempt to teach the North Pole in 1871, ended in tragedy. Doomed from the start, the mission was plagued by politics, insubordination, and the suspected murder of its commander, Charles Francis Hall. Half the crew would spend over six months drifting 1700 miles on an ice floe in the Arctic’s black winter, fighting starvation, storms, and intense cold.The “Polaris” expedition, America’s first attempt to teach the North Pole in 1871, ended in tragedy. Doomed from the start, the mission was plagued by politics, insubordination, and the suspected murder of its commander, Charles Francis Hall. Half the crew would spend over six months drifting 1700 miles on an ice floe in the Arctic’s black winter, fighting starvation, storms, and intense cold.
The “Polaris” expedition, America’s first attempt to teach the North Pole in 1871, ended in tragedy. Doomed from the start, the mission was plagued by politics, insubordination, and the suspected murder of its commander, Charles Francis Hall. Half the crew would spend over six months drifting 1700 miles on an ice floe in the Arctic’s black winter, fighting starvation, storms, and intense cold.