ELISHA KENT KANE: #1

ELISHA KENT KANE: (1872-1928)
American Arctic explorer., navy doctor, diplomat, artist, adventurer

Elisha Kent Kane was a hero with “Superstar” status. He was an adventurer, beyond his exploration of the Arctic North. By 30 he had traveled the world. He served in China. He traveled to Africa and descended into a volcano crater in the Philippines. He was stabbed in the abdomen as he fought hand-to-hand with pistol and saber in the Mexican War.

He made two expeditions to the Arctic as part of America’s participation in search of Sir John Franklin’s lost British expedition. Kane survived two winters in an ice-locked ship that was closer to the North Pole than any previous expedition. He and crew members that were alive, walked 1300 miles across the ice to survival. He wrote two books on his Arctic expeditions. They reveal Kane’s great talent as an artist with many engravings from his on-site sketches. When he died at 37, he lay in state for two weeks in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. The size of his funeral was second only to President Lincoln’s. A crater on the Moon bears his name.