Elisha Kent Kane

Kane, Elisha Kent 

Born Feb. 3, 1820, in Philadelphia; died Feb. 16, 1857, in Havana. American arctic explorer; doctor.

Kane was a member of two expeditions sent in search of J. Franklin and financed by the capitalist H. Grinnell. Kane advanced the hypothesis of the existence of an open polar sea north of Smith Sound, through which he believed the ships of Franklin’s expedition could have passed. The first expedition, undertaken in 1850–51 under the command of E. De Haven, discovered Grinnell Peninsula (the northwestern projection of Devon Island). The second expedition (1853–55), which was commanded by Kane, discovered Kane Basin and Kennedy Channel by advancing by sledge to 80° 40’ N lat., as well as Grinnell Land (a section of the northeastern coast of Ellesmere Island) and Humboldt Glacier and Washington Land (in north-western Greenland). In Kane’s Basin Kane and his companions abandoned their ship and moved by boat to 74° N lat., where they were picked up by a whaleboat. A sea of the Arctic Ocean has been named Kane Basin in honor of Kane.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Puteshestviia i otkrytiia 2-i Grinel’skoi ekspeditsii v severnye poliarnye strany dlia otyskaniia sera Dzhona Franklina, sovershennye v 1853, 1854 i 1855 gg. St. Petersburg, 1860.

REFERENCE

Arkticheskie pokhody Dzhona Franklina. Leningrad, 1937.