This is the story of eighteenth- century English explorer Samuel Hearne- the first European to journey to the Arctic coast of North America, the author of a classic work of exploration literature, and the man who inspired one of the greatest poems in the English language.Twelve- year-old Samuel Hearne joined the Royal Navy in 1757 and served as midshipman during the tumultuous Seven Years War. Later, in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, he undertook a remarkable 3,500- mile, three- year overland journey in his quest for copper in the Arctic.Ken McGoogan chronicles Hearne's harrowing odyssey, which was marked by hardship, hunger and disappointment, and mitigated only by his friendship with the legendary Indian leader Matonabbee. Hearne's epic adventure culminated in the infamous massacre by the Coppermine River- an event that became the cornerstone of his own book. Journey to the Northern Ocean, and changed his life forever. It was Hearne's own account of this atrocity that McGoogan believes inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. Haunted by guilt and sorrow, the explorer shared his story with the poet when they met in London.