H.M.S. Resolute: A Study in International Relations,

Dunbar, Moira. Beaver Outfit 292 (Winter 1961) 11-17.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A crisp account of the abandonment, drift, recovery, refurbishment, and return of HMS Resolute to the Royal Navy, and its subsequent breakup, with its oak timbers used for a desk given to the United States. Of the refurbishment it states (p. 16) that “She was refitted with the greatest care and in the minutest detail (even the officers’ libraries, musical boxes, and pictures were preserved and restored to their original position).”

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself.

Equiano, Olaudah. [Gustavus Vassa]. Fourth edition. (Dublin: Printed for, and Sold by, the Author. 1791). [First published 1789; also New York: Praeger, 1967.].
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 69: I had often seen my master and Dick employed in reading; and I had a great curiosity to talk to the books, as I thought they did; and so to learn how all things had a beginning: for that purpose I have often taken up a book, and have talked to it, and then put my ears to it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.

Barrow’s Boys

Fleming, Fergus. . (London, Granta Books, 1998).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 37, concerning the Parry and Ross Northwest Passage expedition on Isabella and Alexander, 1818: The officers, meanwhile, were supplied with a twenty-five-volume library of Arctic reference books, to which the Naval and Military Bible Society added ninety uplifting tracts to be shared between both ships.

The Life of Charles Dickens.

Forster, John. Three Volumes. Boston, Estes and Lauriat, 1871.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 482, from Volume III: It is also to be noted as in the same spirit, that it was not the loud but the silent heroisms he most admired. Of Sir John Richardson, one of the few who have lived in our days entitled to the name of a hero, he [Dickens] wrote from Paris in 1856. ‘Lady Franklin sent me the whole of that Richardson memoir; and I think Richardson’s manly friendship, and love of Franklin, one of the noblest things I ever knew in my life. It makes one’s heart beat high, with a sort of sacred joy.’ (It is the feeling as strongly awakened by the earlier exploits of the same gallant man to be found at the end of Franklin’s first voyage, and never to be read without the most exalted emotion.)

Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean, in Three Volumes.

Gillies, R. P. London: Henry Colburn, 1826.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Gillies takes a Chaucerian approach to his Tales, interspersing short chapters on the Voyage with a series of lengthy stories by his companions on this fictional whaler, Leviathan. The stories are either based right at home in England or Scotland, or have an element of the horror story to them.

Tudor Political Consultancy.

Houston, Chloë. [Review of Thomas Elyot, The Image of Governance], TLS (July 26, 2019) p. 26-27:.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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In the opening lines of his preface to The Image of Governance (1541), Elyot tells his reader that he came across his subject while

The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore.

Hutchinson, John Robert. (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1913).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 42-3, describes the life of an impressed seaman: With books he was for many years ‘very scantily supplied.’ It was not till 1812, indeed, that the Admiralty, shocked by the discovery that he had practically nothing to elevate his mind but daily association with the quarter-deck, began to pour into the fleet copious supplies of literature for his use. Thereafter the sailor could beguile his leisure with such books as the Old Chaplain’s Farewell Letter, Wilson’s Maxims, The Whole Duty of Man, Secker’s Duties of the Sick, and, lest returning health should dissipate the piety begotten of his ailments, Gibson’s Advice after Sickness. Thousands of pounds were spent upon this improving literature, which was distributed to the fleet in strict accordance with the amount of storage room available at the various dockyards. [Footnote: Ad. Accountant-General, Misc. (Various), No. 106—Accounts of the Rev. Archdeacon Owen, Chaplain-General to the Fleet, 1812-7.]

The Light that Failed.

Kipling, Rudyard. Revised ed. New York 1899.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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The Memorial University in St Johns, Newfoundland, has a copy of Kipling’s The Light that Failed. (Revised ed. New York 1899). It has a note on the cover that “This book was on the “Roosevelt” 83 degrees North, the time Perry [Peary] discovered the North Pole 1909.” Question is whether this might have been a title from the American Seamen’s Friend Society portable library that went on that voyage and is now at Mystic Seaport library, but lacking the books from the box.

Seamen’s Missions: Their Origin and Early Growth.

Kverndal, Roald. (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1986).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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An important aspect of the provision of reading materials to seamen throughout the world was the work of religious organizations such as the American Seamen’s Friend Society and many others to present small libraries to both naval and merchant ships. The movement began in Scotland but quickly was established in the United States. I’ve aggregated the material on mission libraries and books here under Great Britain.

Ancestral Voices.

Lees-Milne, James. (London, New York, 1975).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 31-32, describes a visit to Lord & Lady Kennet's home in 1942: Lord Kennet was luckily in bed with bronchitis so we were alone. K [Scott’s widow] as outgiving as ever. The first glimpse of her showed how she is ageing. Her figure is noticeably spread, and not mitigated by the shapeless, sacklike garments she always wears. She is the worst-dressed woman I know; and rejoices in a sort of aggressive no-taste in clothes and house.

The Arctic Navy List, or, A Century of Arctic & Antarctic Officers, 1773-1873: Together with a List of Officers of the 1875 Expedition, and Their Services.

Markham, Clements R. (London: Griffin, 1875).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Preface describes 3 generations of explorers from 1773 to 1873: 1) Cook and Phipps; 2) Ross, Parry, Franklin, Back; 3) Franklin searches. 4th would begin with the Nares expedition of 1875. The book is a biographical list showing voyage, ship, role in winter activities of all officers (e.g. Henry Kellett on Resolute where he was on the Committee of Management of the “Royal Arctic Theatre” 1852-54, before Belcher ordered abandonment of Resolute). Useful reference—there is a 1992 facsimile.