He seemed more of a lone wolf than an expedition member or leader. He shot and killed a colleague on one of his early expeditions over a disagreement about working with Inuit. From that tragedy he went on to lead one of the greatest expeditionary debacles of all time. Funded by the U.S. Congress in 1871 to attain the North Pole, his trip devolved into misadventure and ultimately near warfare among different factions of his crew.
