Poisoned at the Pole: The Death of Charles Francis Hall

A cup of coffee. A sudden illness. A body buried in Arctic ice.
Charles Francis Hall was an obsessive, self-taught explorer who made not one but three expeditions to the Arctic in the late 1800s — a man so consumed by the North Pole that he left his family behind and bet everything on a dream. But it's how he died that still haunts historians today.
In this episode of the Death & Gardening Podcast, Jenny and Chelsea dig into the strange and suspicious death of Charles Francis Hall — a tale of Arctic obsession, a crew on the edge of mutiny, and a decades-later discovery that changed everything we thought we knew about what happened aboard the Polaris.
Was it a stroke? Or was it something far more sinister?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm Chelsea. And I'm Jenny.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

And this is Death and Gardening.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

All right. Alright. If I were to tell you, for the last few years, I have been rigorously studying the Arctic and have decided to invest all of my time and money into gathering supplies and looking for someone to take me to Greenland. Would you have a lot of faith in my success or survival? Depends on how much money you have, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Maybe. Skill and no help.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Considering I haven't talked to you about this at all. Yeah, no. Yeah. And and uh Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, today I'm going to tell you about a man who did that and survived not only once, but went on two more Arctic expeditions in the late 1800s. Oh wow. Okay. Committed. Yes. And since this is our podcast, yes, there is a plant slash murder element, though it is speculative.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Charles Francis Hall was born around 1821, likely in Rochester, New Hampshire, but his wife mentioned at some point that it was actually Vermont. Okay. Early days records are difficult, so who knows. The states on the East Coast somewhere. Yes. Okay. He at least grew up in Rochester, New Hampshire. He went to school there. He was described as a young Lincoln, and that he, quote, read assiduously. Like a well-read man. Yes. And he also apprenticed as a blacksmith. Oh nice. Okay. His childhood was described as rural simplicity.

unknown 1:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Sounding very Abraham Lincoln. Um, but as I was reading about him, he also seemed a little bit like Hamilton, always looking for something more and never satisfied. Ah, alright. By 1849, I think this is where there's the most records about him. Like I think the book I read mentioned that there was no record of him before his arrival to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1849. Oh. He was married to Mary. And the book that I read, it was so I will mention the book right now because that is where everything that I have comes from, and a little bit of Wikipedia, but almost entirely from this book. It is by Chauncey Loomis. It is called, Oh my gosh, where did it go? I think it's Weird and Tragic Shores. And it was published in like 1971. Okay. Um so the author mentioned some very specific details about what Cincinnati was like in this time, 1849, mid-century. There were 100 churches, 28 whiskey distilleries, 21 breweries, three colleges, four medical schools, one law school, 30 primary and secondary schools, and three artificial flower factories. Lack of a better term, it was popping. It had a lot. That's awesome. My next sentence is it was a bustling city and full of opportunities. Yep. Um, yeah, because that's just what was mentioned. Obviously, there's gonna be plenty of other things that are in the city, but it was growing there. Yeah, it it was the place to be, it sounds like. Apparently. Right. Around this time, Charles started working in a seal engraving shop, like the seals that you would use in like notary services, letters, invitations, like like wax stamp seals, or just like kind of bigger. I think both. I think it was just kind of any that was a popular thing. And yeah. It was such a weird thing to me. I didn't realize that that was like a job, I guess. Everybody had all kinds of different jobs, so they've gotta come from come from somewhere, but it was just kind of random. Yeah. Uh, but he didn't really like working for someone else. That's a vibe. I feel that. Yes. So, quote, with considerable fanfare, he started his own business. Nice. And that was, I believe it was Hall's engraving something. I should have written that down, but I did not.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Okay, so he had his own engraving business. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

By 1855, he started publishing a newspaper called the Cincinnati Occasional that was described as, quote, a mouthpiece for his quirks and special interests.

unknown 5:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

There was not a lot of news in this newspaper. It was mostly just so he could talk about all kinds of things. Like he wrote a lot about balloons, which I assume are hot air balloons, because he mentioned there was like an article he wrote about, I think, an accident, a crash, or something. Uh, but it was emphasized that he wrote a lot about balloons specifically. And at some point he was interested in a type of steam engine that was a total failure, and he wrote about that a lot. Um, I think this is a good example of his eccentric personality. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Bringing uh a newspaper to light that's not uh news, it's just you and just you yapping about your interests.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yep. Yep. Around eighteen fifty-seven to eighteen fifty-eight, uh, he uh uh began to study with intensity and purpose about the Arctic and survival. He took notes in many notebooks. It sounds like a lot, like also reminded me of Hamilton, just constantly writing, constantly learning, just it was a lot. Yeah. He was reading about the past expeditions of John Franklin and Elisha Kent Kane. So John Franklin was a British explorer who left in 1845 on the ships Terror and Erebus. Nice. And had not been heard from in a couple of years because these expeditions were usually years long. So I think it was after a certain point that they should have heard from them. Yeah. It was a couple of years of not hearing from them. Uh many people assumed something terrible happened and they all died. But there were expeditions by others, such as Henry Grinnell and Elisha Kent Kane, to go search for Franklin and his crew. Um, Elisha Kent Kane was sort of described as like Charles Hall's idol in this type of in the exploration, expedition type thing. He definitely like picked, I think one of his future crew members was also on the Cain expedition. So he was very interested in all of them and what what they did. So then in 1859, Charles started publishing a new newspaper called the Daily Press, and that's when he started writing about John Franklin and the Arctic like publicly. That's when his interest was sort of first known because I had thought about that as I'm reading. I'm like, you have this newspaper that you're publishing and talking about yourself, but you're not talking about the Arctic that you're researching so intently. Like, what? The balloons. Yeah. Balloons and failed steam engines. Like, how is the the Arctic not taking precedence here? So I don't know. But yeah, so he started writing about that. He was convinced that the US should contribute liberally to Arctic exploration and wrote, quote, let the United States government be the first to plant her flag upon the North Pole. Ah. Uh the government did not contribute. And it was mostly Henry Grinnell's contributions that made Charles' first expedition happen. Somebody believed in him. Yeah, Grinnell definitely spoke highly of him at this time, saying that he was like blessed by God to do this like type of thing. And uh Charles definitely felt that he was called by God to go search for Franklin's potential survivors. Um, because they thought that maybe, maybe there were survivors. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

And to be fair, I feel like I like this guy so much already. This is something I would do, honestly, except for the called by God. I don't care about that part, but yeah, I would absolutely be like, okay, I'm gonna research all this. I'm gonna go. Right? You can believe in me or not, but I am going to go. Yes. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Especially always wanting something more. How it like this is a perfect opportunity to go and I mean, maybe make something of yourself, maybe not, but maybe just get answers that no one else has gotten so far.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yeah, and he didn't have the hurdles of like nowadays in modern age, so he could actually do that. And from what you've said, sounds like he did.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

All right. So remember, he started researching the Arctic in 1857 to 1858. By 1860, Charles left on a whaling boat named the George Henry that was captained by Sidney Buddington. So he's already out. Research for three years, had all of his notebooks. He's like, all right, keep going. So they made it to Baffin Island, which is north of Canada and west of Greenland. So it is it is very, very up there and very cold. It's not as far north as you can go, but it's it's it's pretty far. Yeah. Yeah. Um he met an Inuit couple, Tucolito and Ebir Bing. Those are the translated versions of their names, because I do not know how to read their names in like actual Inuit, like anything. So that is what they were um that's how they were written in the book that I read, and yeah. So Charles decided to live with the Inuit people to learn how to survive, make relationships, collect stories about the Franklin expedition. He did find some relics of Franklin and his crew and heard stories of survivors. He was basically just going to all of the Inuit people that lived anywhere nearby and was like, hey, have you seen the ship, this guy, this crew, anything about it? And they would there, I mean, there had been many expeditions, I think, in the area, but I think as far as the time period goes, Franklin was the main one, maybe, to have been there. And he did hear some stories. So he did believe that that they were out there. And Franklin's expedition was let's see. So Franklin left England in 1845. So this is a good I mean what 1860? So that's a long time to make it.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, that's like almost 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Yeah. Um, but there it it was a possibility. So I guess. All right. So at the end, well, yeah, okay. So he spent two years and four months on this expedition, returned to the US in August 1862.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

The Civil War had started four months earlier in April. And I don't know enough about how the Civil War started to know that when he left in 1860, if like war was imminent, if that was like sort of an expected thing, or how much of a shock that would be coming back, how much word, you know, because when you're out in the Arctic, you only are gonna get messages very, very rarely. So I don't know how big of a surprise that was, but that's still kind of crazy.

unknown 13:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

It's gonna be a lot more tense and a lot more things happening than when he left. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

And uh he will find out that it is a lot harder to raise money for his next expedition that he's already planning.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Um there's a war afoot, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Yeah. He he still really thought that the government would care about him w wanting money to go. Poor sweet summer child. Yes, yes. Uh he basically distanced himself from everything happening with the war and was just concentrated, like fo very, very focused on.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

He had his one thing he wanted to focus on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yes. So Charles had actually brought Tucolito and Ebir Bing and their child back to the US. Oh. Um, which I guess a tiny, tiny little bit from my terrible memory about Tucolito specifically. She had already learned English and been and had dinner, I think, with like Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Um people were sort of surprised at how well she spoke English and just stuff like that. So he was sort of, or she was Charles's interpreter kind of thing, like relationship, and her husband definitely helped with like the hunting and and the survival stuff. But yeah, so anyways, he brought them back to the US and they lived with the captain, Sidney Buddington. And this is the part that I have a little little bit of trouble with, with Mr. Charles Hall. Um he brought them to lectures that he was giving about his ex expedition um to raise money, which I'm like, okay, yes, you're gonna bring these people that you know most US people have not had an interaction with. And I'm like, and to me, I was like, all right, that's okay. It's a little bit showman, you know. It is. I mean, and as long as they're like, alright, sure, then it's fine. Yeah, but at least that Tucolito could like speak to people in English, and it wasn't, you know, I mean, I'm sure there was still a little bit of awe and all of the things. But anyways, uh, the part that I have a problem with is that Hull it almost sounded like he like rented them out to museums to go be exhibits in these places. And specifically one of them was P. T. Barnum's museum. So don't love that. But he did show some concern after having them on display for so long and that it might be affecting their health.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

They're still people.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Yeah, right. Uh yeah, and it it was a concern because Tucolito's child became very ill and ended up dying.

unknown 16:22

No.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Yes. I don't know as a result of what, and I was thinking also, yeah, these are Inuit people from the Arctic that are now in New York, I think New York and wherever else on the East Coast. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. So that was really sad. And I cannot remember the name of the first child, but it was something about a butterfly, like little butterfly. And it was so so sad. And Tokolito became very ill, but she did recover. And yeah, but that was that was really sad. I'm glad they didn't all die, but still sad that any of them had to die. Mm-hmm. And also because of that, Charles and Sidney Buddington had a disagreement because Buddington was trying to find a way to let Tucolito and her husband return to the Arctic because they were homesick. Charles was unhappy that Buddington would basically go behind his back and try to, you know, get them home. So, um they're home, dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

All I can hear is Pocahontas, these white men, they're dangerously pretty much nabbed somebody from the Arctic, brought them back, showing them on display, they get sick, the child dies, and he's like, No, why are you going behind my back? Because they want to go home. Yeah, I feel like they wouldn't want to go home at this point.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Right? Yeah. Which I think Charles was planning an upcoming ex well, he was obviously planning an upcoming expedition, so I'm assuming that he just wanted them to wait until he was able to go with them instead of just sending them on their own. Yeah, because they do throughout Charles's expeditions in life, like Tucolito and her husband are with him all of the time. They come back to the US again, like they they have a good relationship.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

So surprising.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

It is very surprising. Um, but the disagreement between Charles and Sidney Buddington uh was not resolved for many years. And this is important. None of this seems like important anything, but it is all backstory leading up to all of the other things that as a writer and a reader of many things.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Anything can be important.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Yes. This book that I read I loved because I picked up on the foreshadowing early, but it is so subtle and it was so great. Like it was something as simple as one of the crew members that he was that Charles was trying to hire. He said that he had been to the Arctic for a couple of years or something, and that he was very strong and he was excited to go. And like when I saw that the author was pointing that out, like that he said he was this and that, I was like, oh, he this is gonna be a problem later. And it was, it was. Yes, um, not related to everything else that we're talking about, but yeah, it was just I just I loved the foreshadowing in the book, it was just nice.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Alright, so unresolved disagreement for many a year.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Yes. Okay, so in July 1864, that's right, because the first expedition was two years later. Yes. So Charles left for his second expedition on the whaling ship Monticello. Nice. He made it to King William Island, where he thought there might be survivors, like according to the stories that he had heard. He found enough evidence to believe that there were no survivors and basically gave up on this quest. I think he found um bones. Oh, there were, yes, there were skeletons that were found, which I mean there was gonna be bodies because the ship deaf or the ships, I believe they both sunk. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

So the people that did make it ashore, if they made it ashore and not washed ashore, only had a certain amount of time to live before inevitable, probably death anyway.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

And I think his theory was that the survivors would have been living with Inuit people, and that's why they would have survived for so long. But the stories that he had heard about white men living with the Inuit people just ended up not being credible. It was kind of that the Inuit people they wouldn't lie, but they would sort of tell stories that maybe the person wanted to hear. Like, and not as a whole, but I think in this specific case, it was like just like I don't I don't know necessarily a motive behind that other than just wanting to be helpful, maybe or probably not just wanting to like destroy this man's quest that you just spent so much time trying to do outright. Yeah. Yeah. So let's see. Oh yes. There was an incident on this expedition where Charles confronted a crew member about taking too long to do a task. And it was I think the task was uh they had taken like ten hours to go to a certain location and come back. And Charles had asked another crew member, was like, Hey, does that really take ten hours, like an entire day? To do that. And he was like, no. So Charles and goes and confronts them about that. And the crew member became aggressive, talked of mutiny, and there's a lot more to the story, but the the gist of it is Charles ended up shooting him after asking him if he would stop talking that way.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

I mean, in the time when you have a crew and you're on your own out in the wherever, mutiny is a huge risk and you shut it down quick.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Yeah. Yeah. Um I think it sort of just shows Charles wasn't necessarily like the best leader. No. Um it yeah. I could see that. Yeah. Yeah. He could very well be just garbage leader. Yeah. It just I mean, he the the crew member did die. It it was after about two weeks, and Charles did try to help him, so it's not that he was just like a terrible person, but I think it was more just he didn't know how to sort of command and get the respect and like that he should have or that he sort of needed to be able to make this successful.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

What did he do? Hire pirates? No, no, just okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

A lot of the people I think some of the people that he hired were like just men off of the whaling ships. Oh. Um yeah. Okay. So after that whole incident, um, at the end of this expedition, or sometime in this expedition, but during the expedition, he decided he wanted to come back to reach the North Pole. He was I think that was kind of a trend, was he was always planning the next one, it kind of seems like before the first or the current one was even over.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

So he went from Arctic hanging out with and meeting the Inuit people and then King Charles Island. Is King Charles Island populated by Inuit people as well? Or was it more of a desolate kind of island?

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Um, I think there were people that yeah, I think he spoke to people that were there.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

And then now he's decided I want to go all the way in the North Pole.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yes. Which, as far as I know, at this point no one had done that.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Um, I know there was a lot of search for the Northwest Passage that people believed either was or was not there. It it it was there. Um, but yeah, the so yeah, after he gave up on Franklin's whole thing, he was like North Pole.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

And that was during the second expedition then. I'm pretty sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Yeah. So we're not on the third yet. Not yet. Okay, so that expedition ended around 1868 or 69. Oh, that's a longer one. I think that one, yeah, that was about five years. Yeah. Yeah. Compared to the two of the first one. Yeah, which I mean, two years not knowing anything about it is still, to me, a very long time. Yeah. Okay. So by 1870, Hall was spending all of his try time trying to convince the government to fund his next expedition.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Just gave up on the government, my guy.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

They don't care. Also, they're a little busy. Well, at this point, the Civil War is over. Yeah. Yes. That was it, that ended in 1865. So also while he's on an expedition. He just avoided all of it. Right. Which was also when Lincoln was assassinated. So now there's a new president.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Um, maybe this one will do it.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

And I think it was after this expedition. I haven't written here, but I'm not 100%. But uh about two weeks at home in Cincinnati with his wife and two children. Jesus. It was mentioned that he did not write about his wife or children hardly at all. Not like to suggest that he didn't care, but obviously by his actions and all of the things. He spent so much time in New York and Washington, DC. And obviously years on expedition. But it did I I believe there was a note in one of his diaries or supportive of him doing this. Alright. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

I mean, yeah, he's just so obsessive about just this the expeditions. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

I feel like kids. Yeah. And I feel like obsessed is still somehow an understatement. Right. This was his like life's mission. Yeah. Um, at so some point in either 1870 or before, you know, the next one, um, he met with John Franklin's wife, who I believe was in her eighties at this point, and she was from England.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

So she was the one that he gave up on trying to find that expedition, right? And this is the widow, I'm guessing, of him. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Um, so she traveled from England to come meet with him in Cincinnati because she was not satisfied with the report that he he sent her. Because he gave up. And felt that yes, there were still questions that were not answered that he could have answered better, and that he didn't give like locations or where he spoke to people that may have seen them. It was there, there's just there were a lot of unanswered questions that she was not satisfied. There. Um, she even asked him with notes. She's like, Yeah. She asked him if he would dis uh delay his expedition to the North Pole to go back and learn more about her husband, as there probably weren't others who were about to make it to the North Pole before him.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

No.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

I just thought that was funny. I cannot remember exactly the way she worded it, but it was just like, I don't think you're in danger of not being the first Wuchu there. And I think probably one of the most surprising things about this entire thing is that for this third expedition, a bill went before Congress that named Charles the captain of the North Pole expedition. And Charles had asked for about $100,000 and two ships, and Congress passed the bill for $50,000 and basically one ship. But the appropriations committee did allow an extra $50,000 specifically for the ship to be ref refitted for the Arctic. Wow. Yeah. He did get there eventually. Yeah. And he did have a meeting or a couple of meetings with President Grant and was surprised that Grant had knowledge of the Arctic and was interested in it and at all. So I thought that was kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

No, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

It's cool eventually worked out for him in the end. Honestly, with England and then now the not the Americas, but the United States specifically. Um I'm a little bit surprised it did take him three expeditions long for the president to not want to learn and possibly conquer another undiscovered, undisclosed place. Right. That no one's been to yet.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which I mean, yeah. At least during the war it made sense to not pay attention. But now it's like, well, hey, the war's over. Everything's good now. Let's let's yeah, let's let's go see what's out there. Explore. Yeah. Okay, so they named the ship Polaris. Polaris. Polaris. Nice. Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

I just like ship names.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

They're always so fun. That's why I included them because oh, yes. And okay, so side story real quick. I didn't include it in my notes, but I still love this connection because there are so many crossover things in this entire story that's wild. So his first expedition, he was trying to be able to use a ship called the Resolute. Okay. I don't know if you know the story about the Resolute. Nope. I don't actually remember the whole story, but I know that there was something about the Resolute that it either s was super damaged or sank or something. May I it didn't sink. Obviously. But they Whatever type of incident the Resolute was involved in, part of the Resolute was taken and used to build the Resolute desk that is in the Oval Office.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

And there were two that were made, and then there's been replicas made, but it is still the one that is in the Oval Office. And yeah, so he was trying to use the like rebuilt, refitted Resolute ship. And I was just like, what? And I just learned about that. Not that like in the last six months. So just reading through that before, you know, before knowing about the resolute ship, I would have not thought twice about it. But now I'm like, that's the resolute desk.

unknown 31:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

What do you mean you were gonna use that ship? Okay, so his third expedition, the Polaris Expedition. A quote from the book that I think probably sums it up, or yeah, anyways. Um The Polaris expedition was doomed to failure. Charles Francis Hall's career began in the shadow of tragedy, the disappearance of the fra the Franklin expedition. It was to end in the shadow of mystery and controversy. So in September of 1871, Charles made it to Thank God Harbor. Wow. All right. Thank God we made it. Yeah. Um, with his crew of 25, including Tucolito and her husband, um, Sidney Buddington was also on the crew, and Dr. Bessels, who was like the scientist doctor of like a medicinal doctor or I feel like that would also be good to have on in your crew on the expedition. He was a medical doctor, but he also was the one to set up like an observatory. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Okay. And he was in charge, I believe, of the scientific side of this expedition. Um, they were off the coast of Greenland and did some usual exploring stuff. Uh in late October of 1871, Charles climbed a mountain and took in the views. He came back to the ship, had a cup of coffee, and then became violently ill. Wow. He was vomiting, became paralyzed on his left side, he had fluctuating temperature, and after a few days became delusional and had a seizure. After a week of these symptoms, Charles started to improve and was clear-headed again. And then November 7th, he relapsed and became comatose and died November 8th, 1871. Damn, that's wow. Yes. Dr. Bessels attended to him during this time and determined that he had suffered an apoplectical insult, or what we would call a stroke. Which makes sense with the paralyzed on the left side and not a lot of the other things that are.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Yeah, so that might be another symptom that happened. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But the seizures and the vomiting and the yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Mm-hmm. There are several different accounts of what actually happened at this time. I took extensive notes on this part and I decided not to include all of the different things that happened. Um but give us the most interesting ones. Yeah. I well, I think it's basically because it's kind of like, okay, well, who made the coffee? And like it was like a steward that brought him the coffee, and there was this other guy in the cabin with him who also wouldn't say who else was in the cabin with him. And that's just immediately suspicious. Yeah, there's a lot. Um so yeah, there are several accounts of what's what has been happening. There are accounts of the crew not obeying Charles' orders and openly defying them, including Dr. Bessel's. There are several accounts of Charles saying that he was afraid someone on the crew might hurt him. Many mentioned that Charles said that there was something bad in the coffee, the coffee made him sick. When Charles became clear-headed, after first becoming ill, he looked at Dr. Bessels and said, Quote, Doctor, I know everything that's going on, you can't fool me. Oh Charles definitely thought that he had been poisoned.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

I mean, yeah, that's you drink coffee and fall that violently ill out of nowhere, seemingly. Yeah. I would also think I've been poisoned at that point.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Yes. Okay, so I will tell really quickly what happened to the rest of the crew after Charles died. Okay, and then we'll get back to the the sort of things around. Yeah, I guess. Because this is also a little important or at least interesting to me. Um, they buried Charles on the shore of Greenland, I don't remember where, and they still set out to reach the North Pole, which I'm like, to be fair, that's all he wanted to do. So carry on, you know, what he wanted. And around October 1872, so the following year, the ship ended up caught in ice and was severely damaged. Fourteen of the crew stayed on board, while 19 abandoned the ship onto a large ice floor. And I'm assuming these are like the big sheets of ice that you see out, you know, you think of out in the Arctic. And I read that one of them that they were on was four miles in circumference. Okay. So this is large. Yeah. Um, the 14 that stayed on the ship were rescued a couple of months after the ship ran aground later on. And the 19 that were on the ice flows were rescued on April 30th of 1873. So from October to April, they were jumping from ice flood to ice floor. They were seal hunting, and I guess at two points they did manage to kill polar bears, which I hate all of this, but this is a different time. I understand. That was survival.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

I was saying hate it, but also they are purely running on survival instincts at that point.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

You're on floating ice sheets, you have no food.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

So hunting to literally survive and not just die.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Yeah. No, and I'm I'm not hating on them for it. I just hate I it it's I'm impressed they killed polar bears.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

That's what I was like. I'm like, that's terrifying. Polar bears are probably the most horrifying bear in reality. I think so. They will mess you up and you will not have to tell the tale. Do I still want to cuddle one? Oh my god. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

Uh yeah. Okay. So, and then. Alright, so that is how the Polaris expedition ended. Um, there was an inquiry by like the Department of the Navy and stuff to interview everybody. It was to mostly figure out why the the expedition failed, like how it ended up this way. And they did ask about, you know, Charles Hall's death, but I think in the end they even determined that it was what Dr. Bessels said. It was just a stroke. A stroke, basically. Yes. I was gonna say that leads me to one point about all of this. Okay. Um, so Sidney Buddington, who was on the crew that he had had the disagreement with, um, we all know that Charles, well, they all know, everybody knows at this point that Charles kept diaries and journals, but none were found from this expedition. Uh none or almost none. I think the writings that were found, it was very, very few, and mostly just records. Um, the crew all said that Sidney Buddington took possession of them and then burned them, and he denied that. He was also accused of being a drunk on the ship, like all the time. Sydney. Okay. Yes. And let's see, I guess before I get into the other theories, I will tell the the really fun part. Okay. So the book that I read, The Weird and Tragic Shores by Chauncey Loomis, the author himself went to where Charles was buried, and this was in 1968, to exhibit his body, to take samples to see if they could prove his claim of being poisoned.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

Was he given permission?

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Yes. Hell yeah. Yes. He he went through all of the proper channels. This was if this was a very yeah, because they assumed that his body being buried in Greenland would be very well preserved. Cold? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess they could only actually dig like the crew could only dig down about two feet because it was that solid and hard to Okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Oh, well, I mean, that's yeah. So how many animals got at it? None. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Okay. Because that's the other worry, is only about two feet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I I believe they took samples of his hair and um, I think specifically finger a fingernail or nails. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

But after testing, they concluded that Charles did in fact have high levels of arsenic in the last two weeks of his life. Okay. Yeah, they'll do it. Yes. So there are some theories about what happened because this was obviously when they found out that there's arsenic, you know, present. Um that's a hundred years after this whole thing happened, basically. Yeah. No one is alive to figure it out. And there's not really any records about that. Because if well, and that was the thing, too, is all of the talk of Dr. Bessel saying, oh, he was delusional or oh, he was demented happened to be when he was talking about thinking people poisoned him. And then I think it were it was the other crew members that said he became clear-headed and then was talking about being poisoned.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Well, I mean, when you have your train of thought again, you can be like, mm-hmm. I was poisoned. What the f Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

But it it was a little odd to me that Dr. Bessels was like, yeah, he became delusional and started talking of being poisoned. And I'm like, oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Yeah. I mean, in his delusion, he very well could have come to that conclusion. But yeah, when you're clear-headed, you'd definitely be like, uh, yep. Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Dr. Suspicious.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Yes. So, and that was also one of the things was while Charles was getting his crew together for this expedition, he was a little suspicious of Dr. Bessels. I don't know exactly why. Um, but and Bessels was also one of the ones that was defying orders openly. They were it was pretty well. Um, I think all of the crew had the same opinion that Charles and Dr. Bessels did not really get along, and that there might have been some competition for who was in charge or who should be in charge.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

Um, yeah, no, I could see a power struggle, definitely, especially if he's a doctor and he's just got some dude, probably in his opinion, who sure studied a lot, but doesn't have a doctorate. He just kind of gained all this money in going off and doing these explorations, whereas this guy's like, no, I'm a scientist, I have a degree, I have all the yeah. And he I could see that he most definitely probably thought he should lead the charge through research and everything else.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Right. And Dr. Bessels was from Germany, they had to arrange like transportation for him to come from Germany to the US to get on this expedition.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

And he I think Charles had wanted somebody else, like a different doctor that. Someone else had suggested, and he was like he would have saved this whole thing money because he was already working or like contracted through the army somehow. So, like the president could have just, or somebody could have just reassigned him to this expedition and just paid his normal salary instead of drawing an extra salary for somebody else.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

So I think there might have been a little like maybe Charles just wasn't for that too. Yeah. Or also that Charles just was not that great of a leader in the first place and just really Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Really failed to step up, and the guy thought that he could do better, and Charles didn't like it.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

Yeah. But it's yeah, so it's hard to have any solid theory other than it does make sense that Dr. Bessels have being the doctor and medical kits back then had arsenic in them. Oh, absolutely. So that and I guess the main thing is that when Charles would have been drinking the coffee, Bessels was supposedly at his observatory, which was not on the ship, obviously, it was like on the shore. So unless he had like conspired with the cook or something, like it just there's a lot of who knows what-ifs. Yeah. But whoever had the more probably and well, and Charles was very suspicious of Dr. Bessels, and also while he was sick and when he became sort of clear-headed in those times, he wouldn't let Dr. Bessels treat him. He was very, very suspicious of him. So I don't know if that just comes from the tensions already, or if he I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

Yeah, and it's hard to know when almost all, if not all, the journals that he would have been taking vanished.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Yeah. Yeah. And right, and that's why I was like, well, how would Sidney Buddington, like, what purpose would he have had for getting rid of all of those?

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Yeah, unless it was just a vendetta, or unless he knows that, oh, it Charles wrote some less than savory things about me in these books that could shine a very poor light and put me in suspicion.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, and then there is also a theory that I have seen on just about everything that I have looked up about Charles Francis Hall, that I honestly do not know where it actually comes from because I have yet to see a credible source, like an actual source, whether it is from Smithsonian or any of the different things, and I could be just not looking in the right spot. But there is a theory that Charles Hall and Dr. Bessels were corresponding with the same woman. Oh. And that it was like a love triangle, and that Dr. Bessels took out his competition. However, what makes this not very credible of a theory to me, and it's not a hundred percent, but first of all, Charles was still married. Yeah, he's married with two kids. And he didn't drink alcohol and observed the Sabbath. Oh. Which So he was a devout something. I think Christian. Okay. Yeah. Um he He didn't write about, I guess the sort sort of a common thing on expeditions was, you know, when you're away from your wife, you might take an Inuit woman to be, you know, in a sort of relationship. Back in the days. And I'm like, sure, right? Yeah. But he didn't write about that, which obviously, why would you write about that if you didn't want people to know about it? So I'm not saying it didn't happen. I just he like the way that he was about everything else, it does not seem likely that he would be corresponding with, and she was young. Like she, so I know a little bit about her because she also has her own Wikipedia page. Oh. Um, she was Vinnie Ream, and she was a sculptor who was contracted to make the statue of Abraham Lincoln, and had a room in the Capitol building to work, like had her own studio in there. Wow. This statue of Abraham Lincoln is still on display in the Rotunda today.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

It is an incredible statue. And she was only 23 when the statue was completed. Like she was 17 or 18 when she won the contract to do this. That's cool. And I was like, are you kidding? So I'm like, she and that I think it was completed in 1871. So she was only 23, and these men, like Charles Hall was 50 when he died. Oh, okay, yeah. In 1871. Yeah. And I know that that was also a thing, but he's already married. I'm just struggling.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

Not all men are like this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:16

And that's why I'm like, I get that there were a lot of I mean, I all of this could be true. Clearly. True, yeah. I just don't think after reading about him and the way that he was that that makes sense. And I can't find anything that says for sure that he even talked to her or knew her. So and then there's also the theory that he could have dosed himself, whether it be suicide or maybe trying to treat himself when he was too paranoid of Dr. Bessel's treating him.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

Yeah, I could see that too. And just like slipping up on accident.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:55

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the first thing I'm like, no, that's a boring theory. I was like, but it is it is a thing that could have happened if he was super paranoid about being treated by anybody else and thinking they were conspiring to get him, basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

So yeah. And I will show you real quick a picture of Charles. I think it was the only picture, like, of like known of him. Okay. He looks very mountain man to me. He does.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

He looks like somebody who would go out and just explore.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

The beard looks like it would keep him warm in the earth.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

Right? Yeah. So yeah, that is Charles Francis Hall.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

Never mind. Wait, so did they actually end up making it to the North Pole in the end? Oh.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

They did make it farther north than any other expedition had made it so like to that point.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 51:00

Um, I don't remember exactly where it was at because I was trying at this point not to focus on the expeditions and trying to get to the murder point. But I mean, I read the whole book. Like I skimmed through some parts, but I read most of it and it was very interesting. Like it's I highly recommend it. Um, it does not read like a typical maybe 1970s era biography.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

At least they made it farther. Yes. They just still didn't quite hit that point. But yeah. Again, treacherous waters and a lot of ice and yeah, things that take out ships pretty easy. Oh Titanic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

Yeah. I was thinking about that as I was writing this. I was like, man, Titanic happened. And I'm like, wait, Titanic happened way after this. Like, this was, you know. Yeah. You would have thought they would have learned.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

Right. Oh. Yeah, no, that's that's crazy. It also shows how much you could just like kind of do. Yeah. I want to go explore. Right? Don't throw me in the woods. I'll go explore the things. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Come back with a book full of sketches and journal notes and be like, hey go.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun for the most part. But I'm not great at surviving. I don't have that.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

I could probably do it for a little bit and then I would just get fed up and be like, alright, I'm ready to go back.

SPEAKER_00 52:36

I think I could give myself solidly two days. Two days. I am I am fairly confident that I could survive one full day and night in the wild by myself and not die. Beyond that, anything's, you know, I I don't think I'd make it very long.

SPEAKER_01 52:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

I would not eat mushrooms, though, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

Yeah. Yeah, you'd have to know what you're looking for. But berries are also up there on the risky scale sometimes, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

I'm sure I would avoid the deadly mushrooms and the poisonous berries, and I would pick a plant that looks safe and it'd still be deadly. So I mean, I just I just don't have that survival instinct. That got lost somewhere along the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

Yeah, I could do that, but if it came down to like hunting meats and things, I'd be like, oh I could maybe fish. I could possibly fish. I know how to do that and descale the fish and do but rabbits, anything else, like break my heart and be like, nah, I'll just starve. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 53:48

Yeah, and I hate fish, seafood, all of the things, and that's the easiest thing for sure to get. Yeah, I'd be I and yeah, I love animals. Yeah. Uh the scenes in the Lion King where they're eating all of the bugs.

SPEAKER_01 54:04

Those are just gross.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

I don't like it. I'm traumatized from like five years old. So no thanks.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

It's the food of the future. Yeah. Yeah, I know that's a crazy story. Expedition. Three expeditions. And uh. Yeah. No wife and two kids during all of that. She's still like, yeah, you go get them, sweetie, it's fine. Right? We'll be here.

SPEAKER_00 54:32

I know. I like to think that I would be like that. And I mean, I don't know. Maybe she was just so used to being alone for years at a time. And I mean, I don't know how she was supported because he barely had money for himself to live between expeditions. So I'm not sure how she was supported.

SPEAKER_01 54:51

Maybe she maybe she was a mistress to get by.

SPEAKER_00 54:58

Yeah, I don't know. It doesn't mention much about them because he didn't write about them very much. So there's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 55:06

Which is also a little sad, but I understand he was hyperfixated on the Arctic.

SPEAKER_00 55:11

And I mean he did important things. It's not that he just went out and, you know, oh, I'm taking a cruise and doing nothing, you know, insignificant. Yeah. Yeah. But it's still, yeah, it's still hard. I don't know. I just thought he was a pretty interesting guy, and then to have the arsenic element, I was like, ho ho ho ho. So absolutely. That's fun. Yeah.

unknown 55:39

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

Well, go explore. Right? Go explore, but also if somebody gives you a bad vibe, don't explore with them.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

Right, maybe not. Maybe not make the first mate the guy that you've had a disagreement with for several years.

SPEAKER_01 55:55

Yeah, that too. You have two people on your crew and or team that you highly disagree with, and or the vibes just don't pass, maybe don't go with them.

SPEAKER_00 56:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:10

Yeah. Choose a different group. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Alright. Well. Any ending notes aside from the literally everything?

SPEAKER_00 56:25

I don't think so. I guess just I don't know, read the book, because I left a lot of stuff out. This may feel in-depth. And what was the book again? Weird shores or weird and tragic shores by Chauncey Loomis. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

There you go. Check out that book if you want to read the interesting expeditions and life of Charles Francis Hall.

SPEAKER_00 56:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

Charles Francis Hall.

SPEAKER_00 56:50

I read it through Internet Archive because you can borrow it on there. So I just I read it on there. And yeah. It has a lot of pictures too, which is very cool. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 57:04

Yeah. Well, and with that, we will catch you next week.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

With whatever I come up with. We shall see. Until then, take care of yourselves. Bye.