sign in sign up
<<
Home , Isaac Hayes, Isaac Israel Hayes, Open Polar Sea

He didn’t find the he was looking for—and probably overestimated how he actually managed to get—but the discoveries of M1853 helped set the course for later explorers. And that was just the first of his several careers.

Pointing the Way

40 NOV | DEC 2011 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE to th e Pole by Dennis Drabe lle

or a short time in the mid-19th century, a Penn Medical School diploma doubled as a credential for . In 1853, M1842 led an expedition to and beyond on a search forF a missing British explorer [“Explorer in a Hurry,” Mar|Apr 2008]. In 1860, Kane’s former medical officer, Isaac Israel Hayes M1853, mounted an Arctic expedition of his own, with the main goal of discovering the rumored ice-free Opposite: Famed Civil War sea that was supposed to ease the way straight to the . photographer Mathew Brady shot this portrait of Hayes Despite failing to find his man, Kane returned a hero, embellished his sometime between 1860 and fame by writing a bestselling book about his exploits, and triggered a 1872. Library of Congress. Above: Hayes himself pioneered nationwide binge of mourning when he died of a heart ailment in 1857, at the use of photography in Arctic age 37. Though Hayes made less of a splash, he set the course for subse- exploration. Images he brought back helped inspire paintings quent Arctic explorers. He went on to run a hospital during the Civil War, like Aurora Borealis (1865, oil on canvas), by . to earn a living by lecturing and writing, and to serve multiple terms as a Smithsonian American Art member of the New York State Assembly. Museum, gift of Eleanor Blodgett. Doctor, explorer, CEO, public speaker, author, legislator—Isaac Hayes excelled in a remarkable number of roles. He deserves to be better known.

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2011 41 Hayes planned to cross from Greenland to using sledges pulled by dogs, with a boat strapped to one of the sledges for eventual launch into the Open Polar Sea. He was defeated by impassable terrain, frigid weather, and dwindling food supplies—and the fact that no such sea existed—but this chart of Smith Sound, possibly by Hayes himself, shows his track and discoveries in the 1860-61 expedition. From the American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin Libraries.

Hayes was born in 1832 to a farming been to Hayes’s liking: upon graduat- harder and graduated a year earlier than family in Chester County, Pennsylvania. ing, he stayed there two more years as I otherwise would have done.” After attending the local public school an assistant teacher of mathematics Toward the end of his abbreviated until age 13, he was sent to Westtown and civil engineering. stay at Penn, Hayes wrote a letter to School, a Quaker boarding school of Hayes was leaning toward the study of Kane, offering his services as med- such austerity that its disapproval of law when his father talked him into med- ical officer on his imminent rescue frivolous literature extended even to icine instead. The young man entered mission to the Far North. (Kane’s own Shakespeare. It was a good incuba- Penn’s Medical School in the fall of 1851. Arctic career had begun with a stint tor of scientists, however. Another of As a student he was ambitious, if not as ship’s doctor on an earlier voyage.) its pupils was Edward Drinker Cope, traditionally so. “I had a lot of intuitive The interview went well—and the Penn who became a renowned paleontologist feeling that my destiny would lead me to connection couldn’t have hurt—but an (and taught the subject at Penn). Even the North,” he recalled, “and under the offer was not immediately forthcom- without the Bard, Westtown must have influence of this feeling I set to work the ing. Hayes hedged his bet by open-

42 NOV | DEC 2011 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE ing a medical practice in to deliver the plea for mercy. “We have Kane’s death left Hayes eager to return and trying to latch on to John Charles come here, destitute and exhausted,” to the North at the head of his own expe- Frémont’s planned expedition to the he told Kane, “to claim your hospitality; dition; but with no support from the US Rocky Mountains. The arrival of a brief we know that we have no right to your government and little from the philan- note on May 26, 1853, saved Hayes from indulgence, but we feel that with you, thropist who had bankrolled Kane, it casting his lot with the inept Frémont: we will find a welcome and a home.” took him three years to raise the roughly “Dr. Kane would like to see Dr. Hayes They knew their man. Although hurt $30,000 he needed. (In the process, he as soon as possible.” A whirlwind week and resentful, Kane not only took the alienated the only woman he ever loved, later, Kane’s ship left New York harbor prodigals in but also surrendered his who told him he had could have her or with the 21-year-old Hayes on board. bunk to Hayes, who had to undergo the the Arctic, but not both.) He furthered north, Hayes looked and learned, amputation of three frostbitten toes. his cause by following up on Kane’s great especially from adaptations by Eskimos The reconstituted group abandoned book, Arctic Explorations, with one of his (as the Inuit were then called) to their ship and made its arduous way back own, Arctic Boat Journey in the Autumn uncompromising environment. He also to Greenland on sledges and boats. In of 1854, about the Kane expeditionary tended to patients, notably after the October of 1855, they finally reached schism. In June of 1860, the Hayes North return of a party sent out to lay depots New York, where they were welcomed as Pole Expedition finally set sail. Its objec- on Canada’s Ellesmere Island. Tempera- symbols of America’s coming-of-age: it tives were to increase scientific knowl- tures bottoming out at 75 degrees below was no longer a country to be explored, edge of the Arctic, reach the Open Polar zero had left the sojourners severely but one that engaged in exploring. Sea, and, conceivably, steer a course all frostbitten; despite Hayes’s best efforts, Hayes lectured about his just-con- the way to the North Pole. In Greenland, Hayes supplemented his crew with Eskimos, including one who had taken part in the Kane expedition. In June of 1860, The Eskimos were crack hunters, and Hayes depended on them to keep his the Hayes North Pole Expedition 20-member party supplied with fresh meat. They performed well enough that finally set sail. Its objectives were no one fell victim to the condition that had plagued Kane’s party: scurvy. to increase scientific knowledge of Hayes’s plan was to cross Smith Sound from Greenland to Ellesmere Island via sledges pulled by dogs, with a boat the Arctic, reach the Open Polar Sea, strapped to one of the sledges for eventual launch into the Open Polar Sea. But the and, conceivably, steer a course dogs kept dying, and the terrain—if that’s the right word for an immense jumble of all the way to the North Pole. ice slabs and hummocks—was so intrac- table that often the explorers had to climb, descend, zigzag, backtrack, and plod three of them died. On a happier note, cluded adventures at the Smithsonian ahead all day long just to advance a mile Hayes and another man made it to Elles- Institution, the American Geographical or two. The thermometer recorded tem- mere and back by sledge, filling in blank Society, and lesser venues. Although peratures in the minus 60s, a zone where spots on the map. the talks were well received, audiences snow on the ground hardens, causing fric- Bent on exploring some more, Kane found one aspect of them disappointing: tion and hampering progress. Luckily one decreed that the expedition would the speaker himself. A reporter described of the Eskimos knew how to cope with spend a second winter in the Far North. him as “quite a young looking, slender, this condition: melt ice in your mouth and Yet fuel and rations were running so black haired, dark complexioned gentle- drool on the sledge’s runners, where the low that he gave everyone a choice: man, rather under the medium size, [who] liquid formed a slick ice coating. stick with him or head south with a does not, at first sight, appear like one of Even so, the trip proceeded at such portion of the supplies to live on. To his those robust men whom we naturally a petty pace that Hayes was driven to dismay, eight men—a majority—elect- picture to ourselves as the best fitted to distraction. The food supply dwindled, ed to leave, Hayes among them. Their encounter the rigors and hardships of game became unavailable, and he finally journey proved so harrowing that the polar navigation.” Ultimately, however, had to admit that the best he could do famished secessionists were reduced that slight specimen became, as Douglas was use clues from his surroundings to to eating lichen scraped off rocks. In W. Wamsley puts it in his invaluable infer the existence of the Open Polar Sea. desperation, they turned around and 2009 biography, Polar Hayes, “the most In a morose frame of mind—and with fin- retraced their steps, all the way back prolific lecturer and writer on the Arctic gers that may have trembled in the pro- to the mother ship. Hayes was chosen in the nineteenth century.” found cold—he took measurements with

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2011 43 a sextant to estimate the latitude where by relying on Eskimo solutions to Arctic previous trips—Danish administrators he and his men had to turn around. The problems. (In a world that swore by a of the island and Eskimos alike—and figure he wrote down, 81° 35’, brought rigid hierarchy of races, Hayes’s willing- wrote a book about the excursion. him some solace: at least he’d attained a ness to learn from a “primitive” people By now Hayes was nearing 40, making new —that is, a point closer had been exceptional.) The most impor- a modest living as a lecturer and author, to the Pole than any previously recorded. tant legacy of the Hayes Expedition, in and slipping into the role of Arctic émi- Or had he? Almost everyone who has short, was to point the way to others, who nence grise. When Congress asked his since looked into the matter believes that followed it with greater success. opinion about funding a polar expedi- Hayes made a self-serving mistake, over- tion being assembled by an eccentric estimating his forward progress by a good After that somber re-entry to civilization, Cincinnati newspaper publisher named 100 miles. The main evidence comes from Hayes gradually won recognition for his , Hayes expressed his own journals, where his descriptions achievements. When he sought a posi- grave reservations. Having run across of the landscape fail to jibe with the posi- tion with the Union Army, President Hall on several occasions, Hayes consid- tion he claimed to have reached. To the Lincoln himself took an interest in ered him a bumbler, especially compared end of his life, however, he clung to his the matter. In 1862, Hayes was named with Hayes himself, who would have belief in that farthest north. director of Satterlee, a government hos- been glad to take charge of a federally Much as Hayes yearned to go on, it pital being built in West Philadelphia sponsored expedition. Congress ignored was impossible—he and his men were to treat wounded Union soldiers [“Penn Hayes’s warning, with dire results. Hall’s too weak from hunger. They made a Fights the Civil War,” Mar|Apr 2011]. leadership was so erratic that up north long, gloomy retreat, getting back to There was no rulebook for managing fed- a mutinous subordinate got rid of him Greenland in the summer of 1861 only eral hospitals, so Hayes had to improvise. by administering a fatal dose of arsenic. to be told that the United States had The core of his staff was a group of Roman (The consensus at the time was that Hall fallen apart. So preoccupied were most Catholic nuns, the Sisters of Charity, who had died of natural causes. Although Americans with the Civil War that the proved to be reliable and industrious. By Hayes publicly surmised the truth, he expedition’s arrival in Boston a few all accounts, Satterlee was a model insti- was not to be vindicated until a century weeks later went virtually unnoticed. tution that rose to the occasion when later, when Hall’s body was exhumed The Hayes Expedition may have failed casualties arrived by the wagonload from and tests were performed.) Afterward, on its own terms, but then they were such bloody battlefields as Second Bull the expeditionary ship became sepa- impossible terms to begin with: there Run and Gettysburg. Gettysburg posed rated from 19 of its crew members, left is no Open Polar Sea (although global a special challenge. In addition to thou- marooned on an ice floe, on which they warming may soon contradict that state- sands of Union soldiers, the hospital took drifted helplessly south for six terrifying ment). Hayes managed his men well, in 175 wounded Confederate prisoners of months before being rescued. collected some interesting fossils, and war; when space inside the buildings ran One effect of the Hall fiasco was successfully introduced photography to out, the overflow had to be housed in tents to dampen American enthusiasm for Arctic travel. He also wrote evocatively pitched on the hospital grounds. With Arctic exploration. Asked by a newspa- about his experiences, including the hardly a day off, Hayes stayed on the job per reporter in 1875 whether he intend- isolation that clamps down on a person until the war’s end. (Shortly afterward, the ed to lead another northern expedition, during the months-long Arctic night: property was sold to a developer, who tore Hayes replied: “I cannot say that I real- “Silence has ceased to be negative Satterlee down.) ly expect to, for I am not rich enough, … I seem to hear and see and feel it. Hayes now moved to New York, where he and I have never found anybody willing It stands forth as a frightful spectre, took care of a long-deferred task: writing an to make the needed sacrifice. After the filling the mind with the overpowering account of his Arctic expedition, The Open disastrous voyage of [Hall’s vessel], I consciousness of universal death … Its Polar Sea, which came out in 1867. Though hardly think the Government would presence is unendurable. I plant my feet he was honored by foreign geographical aid another expedition.” heavily in the snow to banish its awful societies, at home the Civil War had all but Later that year, Hayes reinvented him- presence—and the sound rolls through erased his exploits from memory, and the self as a politician when he ran on the the night and drives away the phantom. book’s sales were middling. Republican ticket for an open seat in the I have seen no expression on the face Hayes hoped to return to the Arctic, New York State Assembly. Winning hand- of Nature so filled with terror as THE where he might nail down his Open ily, he soon became known for his efforts SILENCE OF THE ARCTIC NIGHT.” Polar Sea theory and even conquer the on behalf of society’s less fortunate mem- And the expedition had legs, if you will. Pole itself. As a means to these ends, he bers. In an exchange with a colleague Not only did Hayes ignite the late-19th- proposed founding a colony of explor- who begrudged spending state money on century craze to discover the North Pole, ers, who would abide in the North for insane asylums, Hayes made a cutting but his methods influenced , years on end, making forays until the reply to a request for more information: among others. Peary took Hayes’s route ultimate prize was won. However, he “While I can give the gentleman … infor- northward—possibly all the way to the settled for an advisory role on a plea- mation, I cannot undertake to give him Pole in 1909, though this remains a mat- sure cruise to Greenland in 1870. He rel- either heart or understanding.” ter of lively debate—and emulated Hayes ished reconnecting with friends from Meanwhile, a British Arctic expedition

44 NOV | DEC 2011 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE From 1862 to the Civil War’s end, Hayes served as director of Satterlee, a federal hospital built in West Philadelphia that treated thousands of Union soldiers and also took in 175 wounded Confederate prisoners of war. Lithograph by Charles Magnus, 1864. From the Library Company of Philadelphia. ended prematurely when most of the par- process. In exasperation, he berated wit- would thereby gain an edge at the ballot ticipants came down with scurvy because nesses at hearings and even snarled at box. Widely criticized as an obstructionist, their leaders had ignored Hayes’s recipe his own colleagues (the irascibility may in the fall of 1881 Hayes was pressured by for warding it off. At the same time, have been caused in part by the heart his own party into not running again. they called into question both his attain- trouble that eventually killed him). Late that same year, he died after a ment of the farthest north record and the Six years after it started, his political brief illness. When his relatives came up existence of the Open Polar Sea. Hayes career came to a sudden end. The streets from Pennsylvania to settle his affairs, defended himself in print, and the ensu- of had become so filthy that they discovered that he owed back rent on ing battle of words ended in a draw. citizens rose up and formed an indepen- his apartment. They were able to retrieve Assemblyman Hayes built a reputation dent group to lobby for creation of a sepa- his papers, but little else. It was a sad as an anti-Tammany Hall Republican rate street-cleaning department that would finale, but not an ignominious one. In with an independent streak. Perhaps his report directly to the mayor. Hayes and an era of influence-peddling, bribery, and most notable political effort was to push other Republicans objected that the pro- boodle, Hayes stayed clean. He parlayed for construction of a railroad tunnel link- posal would give too much power to the his medical degree into, first, the Arctic ing with Manhattan under incumbent mayor, a Democrat. The New adventures he craved and, then, into a the , a project that came to York Times sided with the reformers, and vital non-belligerent contribution to the fruition a generation after his death. the dispute degenerated into scurrilous Civil War. He leapt from one important job Physicians tend to be autocratic, as name-calling. The Times went so far as to to the next and performed at a high level do hospital administrators and leaders suggest that Hayes’s opposition derived in each. Not quite 50 when he died, Isaac of expeditions. Hayes, of course, was all from a devious and ghoulish motive: he Hayes packed a full lifetime of leadership three. Re-elected several times (to one- wanted poor people, who voted heavily into his relatively brief time on earth.◆ year terms), he began to lose patience Democratic, to die from diseases picked up Dennis Drabelle G’66 L’69 is a contributing editor with the ponderousness of the legislative on the putrid streets because Republicans of The Washington Post Book World.

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2011 45