Hartstene, Henry J.

Epithet: Commander US Navy

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000562.0x000152

Henry J Hartstene served on the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 (Senior commander Charles Wilkes), as lieutenant on board Porpoise from February 1839 to March 1839. With a fleet of six vessels, the expedition was commissioned on a world voyage of hydrography and exploration that included forays into the Southern Ocean. Arriving at Tierra del Fuego in February 1839, the squadron divided and Wilkes in Porpoise, accompanied by Sea Gull, went south and east to the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula. During April 1839, the six vessels left southern waters for Valparaiso, Chile, sailing to Callao shortly afterwards. Transferring to the store ship Relief on arrival at Callao, Hartstene left the expedition and sailed home to the United States, arriving in New York on 28 March 1840.

In 1855, Hartstene commanded Release on the United States Naval Relief Expedition, financed by the U.S. Congress to search for the missing United States Franklin Search Expedition, 1853-855 (leader Elisha Kent Kane). Having found the missing party at Godhavn in September 1855, Release and Arctic returned to New York with the rescued party.

In 1856, Hartstene commanded HMS Resolute on her return voyage from the United States to England. Resolute, under the command of Henry Kellett, had been sent to the Arctic by the Admiralty in 1852 to search for the missing Franklin expedition. After being abandoned in Melville Sound in 1854, she drifted south to Davis Strait, where the U.S. whaler George Henry discovered her. The ship was then taken to the United States, where she was repaired and refitted before being returned to England under Hartstene's command. The intention was that she be used to continue the search for Franklin. Hartstene died in 1868.

From the guide to the Henry Hartstene collection, 1838-1855, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)