Murder at Repulse Bay Part 2″

Last week I wrote of the circumstances surrounding Charles Francis Hall's killing of Patrick Coleman at Repulse Bay in 1868. The story continues with Hall's return to the United States the following year.

Hall returned to the United States dogged by controversy over the killing of Patrick Coleman. He turned to his patron, Henry Grinnell, for help.

The first question that Grinnell needed to have answered was who would have jurisdiction in the case. First he took the matter up before the British government's representatives in Washington. He was surprised at the answer he received.

They replied that the shooting had taken place beyond the borders of Canada, so neither the British nor Canadian authorities would have anything to do with it. The American authorities ignored the matter completely.

Hall had killed Patrick Coleman in a legal no-man's land and had gotten off scot-free.

Was it murder? Or homicide? The answer depends on whether the killing was justified.

It probably wasn't. As Chauncey Loomis pointed out in his excellent biography of Hall, "Weird and Tragic Shores," there was "no evidence that a mutiny had been planned; whatever Coleman did was on the spur of the moment."

Frank Lailer, the one whaler whom Hall trusted entirely, had not been present at the time of the shooting. Fifty-five years later, he was interviewed by a reporter, and told him that all the sailors were young and that Hall could have controlled them without using a gun.

If he had been present, Lailer said, he "could have fixed the matter up."

Had Hall been charged with the murder – it seems appropriate now, under the circumstances, to call it a murder – he could not have pleaded self-defense. He had taken away a rifle from one sailor, and Patrick Coleman was unarmed. It was very fortunate for Hall that the killing took place in a jurisdictional no-man's land. He had gotten away with murder.

Years later, another of the whalers, Peter Bayne, gave another possible reason for the shooting. While Hall had been away in the Igloolik area, Bayne and Coleman had long conversations with the Inuit about the long-lost Franklin expedition. And they learned something new from a native of the Boothia Peninsula.

That man told the whalers that one man who had died aboard the ships was buried on shore with great ceremony and that his grave had been covered with something that turned to stone. Bayne and Coleman understood this to be a cement vault and concluded that such a ceremony would befit only the leader, Franklin himself.

Hall's fanatical interest in Franklin had rubbed off on the whalers. The young men were interested in this subject. The Boothia natives were leaving shortly and so the whalers had them recount the story to the local Inuit so that they, as well as the whalers, would be able to repeat it to Hall on his return. Peter Bayne told his version of the story later to George Jamme, who wrote this:

"The idea in the minds of Bayne and Spearman, in getting the Boothia natives to recount their story to the local natives, was to have the information for Hall on his return from Fury and Hecla, and in such shape that it would be useful to him… The motive in doing it was only loyalty on the part of the men.

"But, to their astonishment, when Hall returned late in June, he rather resented their acts, upbraiding them for their presumption. This is where Hall made a grievous mistake. His attitude was offensive to the men, and they began to lose interest; which latter, in turn, brought about friction. The whole culminated in the shooting of Coleman by Hall, July 31…"

The young whalers, in their desire to help Hall unravel the Franklin mystery, had crossed an unseen line that existed only in Hall's tortured mind. They had ventured into unknown territory, impinged on Hall's sacred calling, invaded what was his mission alone.

Bayne went on to say that Coleman was wrong in his actions and his attitude, "but that the situation had not yet reached the point where it became necessary for Hall to resort to firearms. Hall, however, had to maintain his own standing of respect by the natives."

The crack of a gun and the sight of young Patrick Coleman crumbling to the ground apparently snapped Hall out of his violent reverie. Bayne tells us that "Hall was heartbroken at the happening and tended Coleman as only one such would."

But it was too late for young Patrick Coleman. He lay dead in a tent on the shores of Repulse Bay, the victim of murder.

Taissumani recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.