"Black Men" Encounter

A sailor from the HMS Resolute wearing facial covering

The "Black Men" encounter is a peculiar event in Franklin Expedition history.

## Background

In 1866, the American explorer Charles Francis Hall interviewed many Inuit on King William Island and the surrounding area who shared their recollections of the Franklin expedition. He was told a story by an old Inuit woman that a hunter named Kokleeargnun had actually been aboard one of the expedition's ships, either the HMS *Terror* or *Erebus*, and had encountered a strange group of "black men":

*"After a time, he* (Kokleeargnun) *went again to the ship with his dogs and sled. He went on deck, and a great many men - black men - came right up out of the hatch-way, and the first thing he knew, he couldn't get away. These men who were then all around him, had black faces, black hands, black clothes on - were black all over! They had little black noses, and this Innuit was very alarmed because he could not get away from these black men, but especially he was frightened when they made three great noises. When the great noises were made, the Esh-e-mut-ta* (Captain) *came up out of the Cabin and put a stop to it, and the black men all went down the same way they had come up. This Innuit believed these men belonged down among the coals and that they lived there. Then the Captain took this Innuit down with him into his Cabin and made him many presents, for he* (Kokleeargnun) *had been frightened so. Before the Captain took him down into his Cabin he told this Innuit to take a look over to the land, the Captain pointing out to him the exact spot where there was a big Tupik* (tent). *The Captain asked him if he saw the tent, and the Innuit told him he did. Then the Captain told him that black men, such as he had just seen, lived there, and that neither he* (Kokleeargnun) *nor any of his people must ever go there. After the Innuit had received the presents that the Captain made him, he left the ship and went home; and he would never go to the ship again because of the frightful looking black men that lived down in the coal hole."*

Hall was able to track down Kokleeargnun himself, who confirmed that the story had happened. To prove it, he produced the "presents" that the Captain had given him: two spoons, engraved with the initials **FRMC** (**F**rancis **R**awdon **M**oira **C**rozier), which he gave to Hall.

Hall was adamant that Kokleeargnun was mistaken, and that he had actually interacted with Sir James Ross aboard the HMS *Investigator* in the early 1850s. He speculated that Kokleeargnun had actually scavenged Crozier's spoons from one of the abandoned Franklin expedition sites and was mistaking them for a different gift that Ross gave him. However, Ross's expedition was well-recorded, and made no mention of such an event. Modern Franklin scholars believe that Kokleeargnun did in fact interact with the Franklin expedition.

## Analysis of the event

### The "Black Men"

There are several theories as to why the men that Kokleeargnun encountered appeared "black all over":

* The men were wearing black balaclavas, coats, and gloves. Balaclavas would account for their apparent small noses.

* The men had "blacked up" for a festive event. Pantomime performances, including minstrel shows, were sometimes performed onboard ships to entertain the crew. In addition, Sir Leopold McClintock reported that the crew of the *Fox* blackened their faces to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night during his artic expedition of 1857.

* The men were stokers, covered in soot. Kokleeargnun himself believed that the men's skin was blackened by coal because they lived underground.

### The Esh-e-mut-ta

The "Esh-e-mut-ta" (Captain) of the ship that Kokleeargnun went aboard is generally believed to have been Francis Crozier, based on the engraved spoons that Kokleeargnun received from him. This is supported by the fact that the Captain could converse in Inuktitut, a language which Crozier knew. It is thought that Sir John Franklin was likely already dead by the time this event took place, and that Crozier had taken command of the expedition. As previously mentioned, Charles Francis Hall believed the "Esh-e-mut-ta" was actually Sir James Ross, although this is not widely accepted by Franklin historians.

### The "three great noises"

The "three great noises" made by the "black men" were identified by Charles Francis Hall as three rounds of cheers, which Kokleeargnun had misinterpreted as three fearsome cries. This would indicate that the crew of the ship were actually in a good mood, possibly supporting the idea that Kokleeargnun had stumbled upon some kind of celebration amongst the men.

### The Tent's Contents

Many have debated about what the purpose of the tent was and why Crozier wanted Kokleeargnun to stay away from it, with the most likely theory being that the tent contained the expedition's gunpowder stores. This was not unusual, as Sir John Ross had deposited the gunpowder stores from his expedition at Felix Harbor, and Sir William Parry had done the same thing at Fury Beach (Parry even instructed Ross to destroy the Fury Beach stores so that it wouldn't harm any Inuit).

The evidence for this came from two sources: in 1854, John Rae was told by Inuit about their discovery of "an abundant store of ammunition, as the Gunpowder was emptied by the Natives in a heap on the ground out of the kegs or cases containing it and a quantity of shot and ball was found below high water mark." Years later, Hall interviewed an Inuit man named Pooyetta with some very detailed memories. Pooyetta told Hall that he had found a black powder keg and emptied its content onto the ground. Pooyetta had seen guns from a previous encounter with Crozier, but didn't know what the nature of the gunpowder was. Later, Pooyetta's son and his friend were playing with the powder keg (which still had some gunpowder in it) inside their igloo, and dropped some fire into the keg. The keg immediately went up in a big explosion and although no-one died, the two boys had badly burned faces and the igloo was completely destroyed.

Other theories as to the tent's contents have been postulated, including that it was a medical tent housing sick and diseased sailors, or that it was a magnetic observatory. David C. Woodman suggested that the tent may have been home to a rogue group of sailors who were practicing cannibalism, although there is no evidence that the crew had resorted to cannibalism by the time this encounter took place, nor that any of the crew had mutinied.