I. I. Hayes

Isaac Israel Hayes (March 5, 1832 – December 17, 1881) was an American Arctic explorer, medical doctor, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War, and was then elected, after the war, to the New York State Assembly.

His book, The Open Polar Sea: A Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in the Schooner United States, was published in 1867. His other books were Arctic Boat Journey (1860), Cast Away in the Cold (1868), and The Land of Desolation (1872).

Formative years and Arctic exploration

Isaac Israel Hayes was born on March 5, 1832, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to Benjamin Hayes. He was raised on his family's farm before being sent to the coeducational Westtown School, which had been founded in Chester County in 1799 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Electing to remain there for two years following his graduation, he became an assistant teacher of civil engineering and mathematics. In 1851, he sought and received admission to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. After graduating from Penn a year ahead of schedule, he then signed on as ship's surgeon for the Second Grinnell Expedition of 1853–1855. Led by Elisha Kane, the project's members left New York harbor in June 1853 in search of Franklin's lost expedition.

While still engaged with Kane's expedition, Hayes and another team member succeeded in making a round trip exploration of the east coast of Ellesmere Island north of the 79th parallel (79° north). Traveling by sledge, they were able to improve mapping of the area by documenting the features of 200 miles (320 km) of previously uncharted coastline, an effort which helped future Arctic explorers, and reportedly made Hayes the first non-aboriginal explorer of Ellesmere. When Kane announced his plans to extend the expedition for a second winter even though the group's food and fuel were severely depleted, Hayes and seven other team members opted to head south for what they thought would be safety. Instead, they ran out of food and began to eat the only available food source – lichen – until forced to return to Kane's main group, where Hayes then underwent the amputation of three of his frostbitten toes before Kane ordered the group to head to Greenland via sledge and boat. After reaching New York in October 1855 and recuperating from the ordeal, Hayes then embarked on a lecture tour, speaking before audiences at the American Geographical Society and Smithsonian Institution and eventually becoming "the most prolific lecturer and writer on the Arctic in the nineteenth century," according to biographer Douglas Wamsley.