Race to the Polar Sea

Race to the Polar Sea, The Heroic Adventures of Elisha Kent Kane, by Ken McGoogan (Counterpoint, Berkeley, 2008)

The primary theme of this fine book has to do with Elisha Kane’s attempt to find out what happened to the expedition of Sir John Franklin that had disappeared somewhere in the arctic. He was also attempting to prove there was a “Polar Sea” surrounding the North Pole. The belief in a Polar Sea, although we now know it was a nonsensical idea, was widely believed by a number of arctic explorers in the early to mid 1800’s. The belief was that if you could travel through the pack ice far enough to the north there would be open water surrounding the pole. Not only would there be such a sea, there would also be an abundance of fish and game. There were a number of reasons for why people believed in a Polar Sea, mostly based upon assumptions we know now to be false, but there is no need for me to mention these here.

I found this book of uncommon interest not only for the detailed account of Elisha Kane’s arctic trials, unbelievable hardships, and triumphs, but also because it tells one a great deal about Elisha Kent Kane himself, an unusually adventurous and fine young man who had traveled widely around the world before he led his famous expedition to the arctic. In search of nothing but adventure (and possible fame), Elisha had traveled widely in Brazil, China, Africa and Mexico by his mid twenties. Some idea of his adventures can be seen in the following quote: “Despite his youth, a weak heart, and recurring health problems, Elisha Kane had made countless tough decisions in difficult circumstances. He had descended into a volcano in the Philippines, infiltrated a company of slave traders in West Africa, grappled with thieves on the Nile River, and narrowly survived getting stabbed during hand-to-hand combat in the Sierra Madre.”

Elisha had been repeatedly confined to bed by sicknesses of various kinds. In spite of his ill health he continued his university studies. He had natural abilities in art, music, and literature, but also studied chemistry, mineralogy, mathematics, as well as geography. At nineteen, appraising his health, he decided to study medicine and become a doctor. He apprenticed himself to a well-known Philadelphia doctor, excelled in his tasks, and then enrolled in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated at the top of his class in 1842. His interest in medicine had always been more theoretical than practical, and as he did not need money, he began looking for opportunities for travel and adventure. As his father was exceedingly well-connected he was given a position as ship’s surgeon on one of four ships being sent to China (just after China had grudgingly opened its ports to foreign ships). He eventually traveled to other countries, and, upon returning to Philadelphia signed on for a trip to the arctic in search of Sir John Franklin. This first trip failed to find any trace of Franklin but gave Elisha enough arctic experience to then be chosen to lead a second expedition, the main theme of this book.

There is no mention of Elisha Kane having experience as a ship’s captain or the leader of any previous exploration, but apparently this was not deemed to be necessary for him to be put in charge of a second arctic voyage. He was certainly not without experience as in two and a half years he had traveled some 40,000 miles, sailing in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, and cruised the Mediterranean, Red and Adriatic seas. He had been on five continents and explored three of them. In this sense he was well qualified. But having experienced the brutal practices that occurred on sailing ships of the time, he had unusual ideas about how things should be run more democratically. While this endeared him to most of his crew it also caused him some trouble with some. In any case, Kane managed to sail farther north than anyone previously, discovered and named the Humbolt glacier as well as many other points in the arctic. He also discovered what later became known as the American route to the North Pole, the route than was subsequently followed by most other arctic voyagers.

His major troubles arose when his ship became stuck in pack ice and they had to spend the winter locked in that icy embrace. They suffered almost indescribable ailments from lack of the proper food, weeks without any daylight, and cold, cold, cold. Amputations of toes and feet became almost commonplace, scurvy was a constant problem, and, as might be expected in such a situation, some of the crew threatened mutiny. Somehow, in spite of his own ill-health, Kane managed to keep them all together, treat their ailments, and get them through the winter. But then, calamity, because their ship could not make it out of the pack ice for the second year as they had thought it would. Faced with a second year locked in the ice, with little food, and much desperation, their plight looked hopeless. Kane, however, unlike previous explorers, was not too proud to refuse help from the Eskimo, and making a pact with them, managed to survive the second year and then later lead the remaining crew on an almost impossible 1300 mile trip by sled and boat to safety and home.

Kane was also remarkable in that he kept very detailed logs of their day-to-day activities and hardships, and as he was an exceptionally gifted writer and lecturer (as well as unusually handsome) he finally received the fame he had sought, and even more than he might have imagined. I have not mentioned his strange love affair with a woman deemed unsuitable for him, his attempt (long before Eliza Doolittle) to make her acceptable, and his eventual marriage to her, against his father’s wishes, and unfortunately not long before his untimely death at thirty-seven. This is a truly fine book, a remarkable adventure story, and an account of a truly remarkable man who was once the toast of the world and has subsequently been rather badly neglected.