25. Sunk Cost Fallacy and Frobisher's 1577 voyage to the Arctic

Michael Lok believed a dubious opinion that the black rock from the Arctic contained gold. A second voyage was sent to Little Hall's Island to mine 200 tonnes of the rock.

During Frobisher’s 1576 voyage to the Arctic, a crewmember on an island picked up an unusual black rock that had within it something that glittered. Suspecting it contained gold, Frobisher held on to it in his cabin. When he arrived back in London, this dense, bread-sized rock became a source of much speculation and analysis. It ultimately led to a voya…