Edmund Hoar

Edmund Charles Hoar was the Captain's Steward aboard HMS Erebus on Sir John Franklin's final expedition to the Northwest Passage in 1845.

Edmund Hoar RN
Born	1822 Portsea, England
Died	c. 1848 King William Island, Canada

Early life

Hoar was born in 1822 in Portsea, England, the eldest son of John Henry Hoar 1800-1874 a shipwright and Dockyard Guardian at Portsmouth Dockyard and Susanna Hoar (nee Fitzpatrick) 1800-1873. Hoar's family were all baptised at St Mary's Church, Portsea but no record of his baptism has been found. His younger brother Henry John Hoar 1824-1899 was a Gunner in the Royal Navy and he had two younger sisters, Harriet Lucy born in 1827 and Ann Marie born in 1830.

Naval career

Hoar first enlisted in the navy in 1841 aged 19 as a "domestic" aboard HMS Cornwallis with Lt James Fitzjames. They sailed to the South China Seas and participated in the First Opium War which ended with the Treaty of Nanking signed on board the Cornwallis in 1842. When Hoar returned to England in 1844 he was rated as an Able Seaman. He is recorded in the muster book of the Cornwallis as: 5ft 11 1/2" tall with blue eyes, light hair, fair complexion, an anchor tattoo on his right arm and vaccinated (against smallpox). He was unmarried.

The Franklin Expedition

Main article: Franklin's lost expedition

Pewter name stamp

In 1845 James Fitzjames was given command of HMS Erebus and tasked with recruiting most of the crew for both the Erebus and HMS Terror and he included a number of former shipmates from the Cornwallis such as Edmund Hoar who was appointed Captain's Steward to Sir John Franklin on the Erebus. During the preparations for the voyage Hoar worked with Franklin's household and became acquainted with Lady Jane Franklin's lady's maid Sarah Foster. In Franklin's last letter to his wife he enclosed a letter from Hoar to Foster and wrote in a footnote to Lady Jane that Hoar had expressed the hope that Foster would remain with her until their return from the Arctic. On 19th May1845 the Expedition left Greenhithe to seek a passage through the frozen archipelago north of Canada to find a way across to the Pacific. The two ships were beset by ice off King William Island and in April 1847 the crews deserted the ships and set out across the ice dragging the ship's boats but they all perished in the attempt. Human remains and artefacts from the expedition have been found strewn along the south west coast of the island. DNA testing of the recovered bones has been undertaken where possible but thus far no match to Hoar has been found.

Henry Hoar taken in the1880s. On his right breast are his brother Edmund's Polar Medal (octagonal) and China Campaign medal.

The crews were all posthumously awarded the Polar Medal and Edmund Hoar's medal was presented to his father, John Hoar, on 8th October 1860 and worn by his brother Henry Hoar (see photo). No photograph of Edmund Hoar is thought to exist and none of his letters have survived.

Finding the wreck

In 2014 a Parks Canada research vessel located the intact and well preserved wreck of the Erebus in shallow water south of King William Island. After two seasons of archaeological dives to study of the upper deck of the vessel they broke through to the main deck below and the first cabin they chanced upon was that of the Captain's Steward, Edmund Hoar. Subsequent dives have recovered numerous artefacts from his cabin, some being items relating to his role on the ship such as stacks of willow pattern plates used by the officers. Many of the finds are personal items such as a lead stamp inscribed "Ed.Hoar" and a bundle of coins with holes through the middle, originally tied together, consisting of a 1797 George III cartwheel penny and several Chinese coins current in Nanking at the time. A hair brush with human hair was found in his cabin but the hair was too degraded to be DNA matched to Hoar (or indeed Franklin). Also found in the cabin but not necessarily related to Hoar were a Latin primer, pens and pencils, sealing wax (with a finger print in it), an accordion, a sealed medicine bottle marked "C" and Arabica coffee beans. In 2022 a large ledger book with a quill pen tucked inside was also recovered but it is undergoing conservation and as of June 2024 the contents were still unknown.

HMS Terror was found by Parks Canada in 2016 in an even better state of preservation.

Further reading

R J Cyriax: Sir John Franklin's Last Arctic Expedition. Arctic Press

Michael Palin: Erebus, the Story of a Ship. Cornerstone

Russell Potter et al: May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth. McGill-Queens University Press

Bibliography

• Muster book HMS Cornwallis 1841
• Muster book HMS Erebus 1845
• Baptismal and Marriage Registers, St Mary's Church, Portsea
• Parks Canada Agency