Elisha Kent Kane | |
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| Born | February 3, 1820 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | February 16, 1857 (aged 37) Havana, Cuba |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Branch | United States Navy |
| Service years | 1843–1857 |
| Rank | Assistant surgeon |
| Expeditions | |
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Elisha Kent Kane (February 3, 1820 – February 16, 1857) was a United States Navy medical officer and Arctic explorer. He served as assistant surgeon during Caleb Cushing's journey to China to negotiate the Treaty of Wangxia and in the Africa Squadron. He was assigned as a special envoy to the United States Army during the Mexican–American War and as a surveyor in the United States Coast Survey.
He was senior medical officer in the First Grinnell expedition to rescue or discover the fate of the explorer Sir John Franklin. He was credited with the discovery of an encampment and gravesite from Franklin's lost expedition on Beechey Island. He led the Second Grinnell expedition to the Arctic which was unsuccessful in discovering the fate of Franklin's expedition. His explorations of the Arctic went further North than any other expeditions at the time and led to the eventual path to the North Pole taken by subsequent explorers.
He spoke frequently to large audiences about his Arctic expeditions. He published two books chronicling his explorations; The United States Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: A Personal Narrative in 1856 and Arctic explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853,'54, '55 in 1857. Two United States Navy ships, a lunar crater and a waterway in the Arctic were named in his honor.