William Kennedy (captain)

William Kennedy (April 1814 - January 25, 1890) was born at Cumberland House, Saskatchewan, a son of the Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor, Alexander Kennedy and his English/Cree wife, Aggathas Margaret (Mary) Bear, daughter of Philip Turnor a cartographer for the HBC. He traveled extensively through the western region, with his family, residing at many Hudson's Bay Company Posts and Forts including Fort Spokane, and Fort Astoria while his father was the Chief Factor of the Columbia District. At thirteen, he was sent to his father’s birthplace of St. Mary's Hope in the Orkney Islands for his education. In 1836 he returned to Canada after his father's death. Wanting to return to England to become a surgeon like his older brothers, he could not get the sponsorship. Instead, he was employed as a fur-trader with the Hudson's Bay Company.

Kennedy was commander of Lady Franklin's sponsored expedition in 1851 to find her husband, Sir John Franklin, using the ketch Prince Albert. His second in command was Joseph René Bellot, a French navy sub-lieutenant. The expedition was well organized as Kennedy was well versed in northern travel and used as many experienced men as he could find and outfitted them in native clothing. While the expedition did not find Franklin, it did acquire substantial knowledge of the Canadian Arctic. Because of his preparedness, leadership: adapting the dress and survival techniques of the Inuit peoples, bringing a custom made kayak for independent travel away from the ship, stopping in Greenland to purchase a dog sled team, asking the locals of the best routes and information of the area. They returned to Britain in October 1852 without losing any men and recorded the flora, fauna and cartography of the area. The first for any arctic exploration to that date.

Lady Franklin placed Kennedy in charge of her auxiliary steamship Isabel to search the Arctic via the Bering Straits early in 1853. However, most of the crew including his sailing master Robert Grate mutinied at Valparaiso in August, claiming the vessel was too small for her mission. After two years trading around the South American coast while trying to find another crew willing to sail to the Arctic, he gave up and returned the Isabel to England in 1855.

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