Polaris Expedition - Personnel

Personnel

In the spring of 1871, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant had named Hall as overall commander of the expedition, and he was being referred to as Captain. Though Hall had abundant Arctic experience, he had no sailing experience, and so the title was purely honorary. In selecting the officers and seamen, Hall relied heavily on whalers with experience in the Arctic. This was markedly different from the polar expeditions of the British Admiralty, which tended to use naval officers and highly disciplined crews.

For his selection of sailing master, Hall first turned to Sidney O. Budington, then to George Tyson, who both initially declined due to prior whaling commitments. When those commitments fell through, Hall named Budington as sailing master and Tyson assistant navigator. Budington and Tyson had decades of experience between them captaining whaling vessels. In effect, the Polaris now had three captains, a fact which would weigh heavily on the fate of the expedition. Further complicating matters, in 1863 Budington and Hall had quarrelled because Budington had denied permission for Hall to bring his Inuit guides, Joseph Ebierbing and Tookoolito, with him on an expedition at a time when they were ill and in Budington's care.

The rest of the officers and scientific staff were Americans (first mate Hubbard Chester, second mate William Morton, and astronomer and chaplain R.W.D. Bryan) and Germans (chief scientist and surgeon Emil Bessels and meteorologist Frederick Meyer). The seamen were mostly German, as was chief engineer Emil Schumann. In addition to the 25 officers, crew, and scientific staff, Hall brought Inuit interpreter and hunter Ebierbing, his wife Tookoolito, and their child. A Greenlandic aboriginal named Hans Hendrik, his wife Merkut and three children also joined the expedition.