In 1862, Howgate became a second lieutenant with the
22nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In 1863, he became a
first lieutenant in the U.S. Signal Corps. In 1867, he joined the
20th Infantry before re-joining the Signal Corps where he served as a property and disbursing officer before becoming responsible for planning all polar expeditions.
Preliminary expedition The Howgate Preliminary Polar Expedition had two phases. The 1877 phase was tasked with establishing relationships with local
Inuit promoting scientific experiments, and whaling as a source of revenue. Its vessel, the schooner
Florence, was a fair sea-boat, but too small for the mission at 56 ton fore and aft. The
Florence was captained by George Emory Tyson, Master, who had been assistant master and navigator of the
Polaris under
Charles Francis Hall. The
Florence crew included Ludwig Kumlien, Orray Taft Sherman, and
New London mariners. The 1878 phase, to be captained by Howgate, was to join forces with the first crew and establish polar colonization. The
Florence left New London on August 2, 1877, and first anchored at Niantilic Harbour, western
Cumberland Sound, on September 12. It reached the winter harbor of Annanactook on October 6. While at Annanactook, Mr. Kumlien and Mr. Sherman engaged in notable scientific work, assisted by local Inuit. The
Florence was unable to leave Annanactook until early July, and when it did embark, on July 5, 1878, it was pressed ten miles east by an ice floe before making Kickatiue Island. The expedition arrived in
Godhavn Harbor on July 31. There, Tyson learned that the government expedition steamer they were expecting to join forces with had been deferred. With phase one complete and phase two abandoned, the
Florence sailed home on August 22, reaching Boston harbor on October 30.
Arctic expedition The Howgate Arctic Expedition was tasked with scientific and geographical exploration of Greenland in preparation for an 1881 International Polar Year expeditionary force and Arctic colonization. However, the Army and Navy decided, in June 1880, to withdraw support of the Howgate Arctic Expedition as the expeditionary vessel, the steamship
Gulnare, was unseaworthy. Howgate, not to be deterred, found private funding. The
Gulnare departed in July, captained by Lieutenant Gustavus A. Doane. The crew included Sergeant
David Legge Brainard,
George W. Rice, Dr. Octave Pavy and Henry Clay. for the Howgate Plan, his vision of an Arctic colony.
Karl Weyprecht, an officer in the
Austro-Hungarian Navy who co-led, with
Julius von Payer, the 1872–1874
Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition that discovered
Franz Josef Land, made a presentation at the 48th Meeting of German Scientists and Physicians in 1875 where he, too, made recommendations for establishment of fixed Arctic observation stations. The Smithsonian Museum's
Spencer Fullerton Baird, in his 1877 Annual Record of Science and Industry, says that Weyprecht, and others, made recommendations for manned polar stations at that year's International Congress of Meteorologists, adding: While the Howgate Expedition of 1880 was ultimately a failure, Howgate was able to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars to plan a new expedition to coincide with the First
International Polar Year. Named the
Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, its purpose was to establish and sustain, with adequate supplies, an Arctic colony near the northeastern tip of
Ellesmere Island. It was based on assumptions that Lady Franklin Bay could be reached every summer by ship, and that ships hindered Arctic adaptation. The colony was to be dropped off and left on its own in 1881 near the coal seam found previously by
George Nares, Though it was clear that some shared Howgate's enthusiasm for manned Arctic Circle stations, others did not. Captain Sir
Frederick John Owen Evans commented: == Legal issues ==