Robert Hood (1797 - 1821)

Artist Biography

Robert Hood was born in 1797 in Bury, England. At 14 he became a midshipman, the first step in a naval officer’s training. In 1819, he and George Back were chosen as the midshipmen for Sir John Franklin’s first overland arctic expedition.

They set out from Gravensend, England, on May 23, 1819 in search of a northwest passage. Sadly, this expedition seemed doomed from the start. Plagued with unwilling participants, inadequate supplies and inexperience, these naval men found themselves in a new and unforgiving land.

Robert Hood’s invaluable service as a surveyor and accomplished draughtsman provided the expedition with sound maps, but that wasn’t enough to deter the inevitable fatigue and starvation.

In October 1821 – on the overland hike back from the Arctic coast – malnourished and sick, Hood got into a dispute with suspected cannibal Michel Terohaute and was found murdered.

Hood’s legacy exists in the names of arctic flora and fauna as well as the Hood River.