12 Facts About Samuel Hearne

Samuel Hearne was an English explorer, fur-trader, author and naturalist.

Samuel Hearne was the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, specifically to Coronation Gulf, via the Coppermine River.

In 1774, Hearne built Cumberland House for the Hudson's Bay Company, its second interior trading post after Henley House and the first permanent settlement in present Saskatchewan.

Samuel Hearne's father was Secretary of the Waterworks of London Bridge, died in 1748.

Samuel Hearne joined the British Royal Navy in 1756 at the age of 11 as midshipman under the fighting captain Samuel Hood.

Samuel Hearne remained with Hood during the Seven Years' War, seeing considerable action during the conflict, including the bombardment of Le Havre in 1759.

Samuel Hearne planned to join a group of northern First Nations that had come to trade at Churchill and somehow induce them to lead him to the copper mine.

At this point the sources become vague, but Samuel Hearne returned to Churchill in the autumn.

Samuel Hearne was sent to Saskatchewan to establish Cumberland House, the second inland trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company in 1774.

Samuel Hearne returned the next year but found trade had deteriorated.

Samuel Hearne's friend William Wales was a teacher at Christ's Hospital and he assisted Hearne to write A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean.

Samuel Hearne is mentioned by Charles Darwin in the sixth chapter of The Origin of Species:.