Samuel Hearne

Born in London in 1745, Samuel Hearne went to sea at a young age and later entered the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He is best known for expeditions launched from Prince of Wales Fort in search of copper deposits and a route to the northern coast. After two failed attempts, his third journey, beginning in 1770, carried him deep into the interior with the Chipewyan leader Matonabbee and eventually to the mouth of the Coppermine River.

That expedition made Hearne the first European known to reach the Arctic Ocean overland in that region. Along the way, he recorded careful observations about geography, wildlife, climate, and daily life, and his account became an important source for later readers interested in northern North America. His writing is also remembered for its description of the massacre at Bloody Falls, one of the most troubling episodes in early exploration literature.

Hearne later served as governor of Prince of Wales Fort, but his life was shaped above all by exploration and by the book published from his travels, A Journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean. He died in London in 1792, leaving behind a record that is valued not only for its discoveries, but also for its detail, endurance, and human complexity.