Frederick Schwatka

Lt. Frederick Schwatka, graduated from United States Military Academy at West Point in 1871.

1875 and received his medical degree from Bellevue Medical College in New York.

Lt. Frederick Schwatka, lead one of many expeditions to find Sir John Franklin, two ships and 129 men, that vanished into the Arctic Ocean in 1846.

No medal awarded. His expedition had failed in it's key objective. Not much interest in his other achievements.

Died at the age of 42, perhaps from laudanum poisoning.

Lt. Frederick Schwatka - Franklin Expedition

In 1879, he made "the longest sledge journey by white men; eleven months and four days and 4,360 km. That was the first Arctic expedition on which the whites relied entirely on the same diet as the Inuit. They ate only the animals they slaughtered. They were in ketosis all the time.

Lt. Frederick Schwatka, wrote about this diet, and how strong and healthy they were. They could work with heavy sleds and dog teams, all day, every day. They lived and worked on a carbohydrate free, and vegetable free diet. He was largely ignored in the USA.

Schwatka received the Roquette Arctic Medal from the Geographical Society of Paris, and a medal from the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia.