HAYES, ISAAC ISRAEL

HAYES, ISAAC ISRAEL (1832–1881), U.S. explorer. Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, Hayes volunteered in 1853 as ship's surgeon on Kane's expedition to the North Pole in search of Sir John Franklin. His ship was icebound in Kane's Basin for two years, during which time Hayes took part in many sledge expeditions, on one of which he discovered and explored Grinnell Land. With nine of the ship's crew he also attempted to reach Opernavik (Greenland), and get help for the stranded ship (1854). Although he was forced to return to the ship, the following summer the whole crew made use of the route he had taken to make their escape. In 1860 Hayes sailed from Boston in command of the schooner United States in an attemptto discover the open water which he maintained surrounded the North Pole. After wintering in Kane's Basin, he continued north by sledge. He finally observed what he thought was the open polar sea but which in fact was the Kennedy Channel, which opens into the Arctic via the Mall Basin. He returned to Boston in 1861. He made his last trip to the Arctic in 1869, when he was accompanied by the American artist, William Bradford. Later in life he became a member of the New York Assembly.

The careful notes made by Hayes on his expeditions were a valuable contribution to natural history, meteorology, glaciology, and hydrology, and were included in the annals of the exploration society. He also took the first photographs of the Arctic. His writings include An Arctic Boat Journey (1860), Physical Observations in the Arctic Seas 1860 and 1861 (1867), The Open Polar Sea (1867), Cast Away in the Cold (1868), and The Land of Desolation (1871).

bibliography:

E.K. Kane, Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinell Expedition (1856); G.W. Cullum, in: Journal of the American Geographic Society, 12 (1881), 110–24.