Robert Hood was born in 1797 at Portarlington, Ireland, the son of the Reverend Richard Hood. In 1809, he joined the Royal Navy as a first-class volunteer, serving in the Baltic, the Mediterranean and on the Cape of Good Hope station, and was promoted midshipman in 1811. In 1819, he was appointed midshipman on the British Naval Exploring Expedition [first Arctic Land Expedition], 1819-1822 (leader John Franklin), sent by the Admiralty to explore the north coast of America east from the mouth of Coppermine River to Hudson Bay.
After wintering at Cumberland House (Saskatchewan) in 1819, where Hood conducted meteorological observations and made sketches and watercolours of native people and natural history, the expedition travelled via Fort Providence to Winter Lake where they built their base, Fort Enterprise, and wintered in 1820. Leaving the fort in June 1821, the expedition travelled down the Coppermine River to its mouth, then proceeded east along the coast in two canoes, exploring and charting over 600 miles of newly discovered coastline before turning back at Point Turnagain on Dease Strait. Weakened by starvation and cold on the arduous return journey to Fort Enterprise, Hood was murdered on 20 October 1821 by the voyageur Michel Terohaute. News of Hood's promotion to lieutenant in January 1821 reached the expedition some weeks after his death.
During the expedition, Hood recorded important meteorological, magnetic and auroral data, and his journal, describing his scientific observations, the natural history and local customs, formed the basis for part of Franklin's narrative, which was illustrated with eight engravings from Hood's drawings.
Published work To the Arctic by canoe, 1819-1821. The journals and paintings of Robert Hood, midshipman with Franklin, edited by C. Stuart Houston, Arctic Institute of North America and McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal (1974) SPRI Library Shelf (41)91(08)[1819-1822 Franklin]
From the guide to the Robert Hood collection, 1811-1821, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
