Henry W. Howgate - International Polar Year Preparation

International Polar Year Preparation

Howgate was active in soliciting international support, including with the French Société de Géographie, for the "Howgate Plan", his vision of an Arctic colony.

Karl Weyprecht, an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy who co-led, with Julius von Payer the 1872—1874 Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition that discovered Franz Josef Land made a presentation at the 48th Meeting of German Scientists and Physicians in 1875, where he, too, made recommendations for establishment of fixed Arctic observation stations. In Spencer Fullerton Baird's 1877 Annual Record of Science and Industry, he states that Weyprecht, and others, made recommendations for manned polar stations at this year's International Congress of Meteorologists, adding:

"As these proposed international Polar stations are for purely scientific observations, and as their plan so perfectly harmonizes with the Howgate plan of an Arctic colony, it is to be hoped that our own government will establish, at least, two such scientific stations..."

So while ultimately, the Howgate Expedition of 1880 was an immediate and complete failure, Howgate was able to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars to plan a new expedition to coincide with the First International Polar Year (IPY). Named the "Lady Franklin Bay Expedition" (LFBE), its purpose was to establish and sustain, with adequate supplies, an Arctic colony near the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island. It was based on assumptions that Lady Franklin Bay could be reached every summer by ship, and that ships hindered Arctic adaptation. The colony was to be dropped off and left on its own in 1881 near the coal seam found previously by George Nares, relief supplies were to arrive in 1882, and the expeditionary team was to be picked up in 1883.

Though it was clear that some shared Howgate's enthusiasm for manned Arctic Circle stations, others didn't. Capt. Sir. Frederick Evans, hydrographer with the British Admiralty, made negative comments about the IPY LFBE proposal:

"This... appears to be a renewal of the Howgate Expedition of 1880... which was unsuccessful. There is now engrafted on the Howgate Expedition the taking part in a scheme (not yet matured) for various nations to found stations in the Arctic Circle... the time available, the money voted, the means proposed, all appear to be equally inadequate for the contemplated purpose."