Henry W. Howgate - Howgate Arctic Expedition (1880)

Howgate Arctic Expedition (1880)

The 1880 Howgate Arctic Expedition was tasked with scientific and geographical exploration of Greenland in preparation for an 1881 International Polar Year expeditionary force and Arctic colonization. However, the Army and Navy decided, in June 1880, to withdraw support of the Howgate Arctic Expedition as the expeditionary vessel, the steamship Gulnare, was unseaworthy. Howgate, not to be deterred, found private funding.

The Gulnare departed in July, captained by Lt. Gustavus Cheyney Doane. The crew included Sgt. David Legge Brainard,George W. Rice (photographer), Dr. Octave Pavy (surgeon/naturalist) and Mr. Henry ("Harry") Independence Clay (1849—1884).

On August 3, in a heavy gale, the Gulnare was damaged, but worse yet, it lost a deck boat and the entire deck load. The steamer reached Disko on August 8 and steamer repairs lasted through August 21. Dr. Pavy did not join the crew for the home voyage, instead staying in Greenland to continue scientific studies.

"The steamer Gulnare returned to this port (St. John's, Newfoundland), last night, having failed to accomplish the object of her mission. On the 5th of August, only a few days after leaving, she encountered a severe gale, during which she lost her deck cargo and davits, and sustained some damage to her hull. No field ice was met with, but a large number of icebergs were seen, and the weather throughout proved very unfavorable. The Gulnare reached Disco and landed the Doctor and the Secretary, but was unable to proceed farther North." (The St. John's Evening Telegram, September 25, 1880)

Lt. Doane placed expedition failure upon the Gulnare and reported:

"The cruise of the Gulnare is the first acknowledged failure in Arctic annals. We did but little, but left a great many things undone requiring some moral courage to refrain from doing. We did not change the names of all the localities visited, as is customary, nor give them new latitudes to the bewilderment of the general reader. We do not dispute anyone's attained distance not declare it impossible that he should have been where he was. We did not hunt up nameless islands and promontories to tag them with the surnames... We did not even erect cenotaphs... We received no flags, converted no natives, killed no one... The object of this report is to expose a few of the specious pleas, fallacious reasonings, and ill-grounded conjectures which are called scientific, and to place the subject of circumpolar exploration on a basis of facts and reasonable probabilities. One cannot explore the earth's surface from an observatory, nor by mathematics, nor by the power of logic. It must be done physically.