National Library of Scotland. Archives.

  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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McClintock Notes : [Murray 12604 1736] McClintock to Murray, generally showing McClintock’s involvement in every detail of the publication of his work.

Polar Pioneers. John Ross and James Clark Ross.

Ross, J. M. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A joint biography of uncle and nephew with much on other explorers of the time, e.g., Parry. There is an impressive body of contemporary literature surrounding the Rosses and Parry which is well-described here, including the acrimony between uncle and nephew, John and James.

Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Performed in the Years 1819-20, in his Majesty’s Ships Hecla and Griper.

Parry, William Edward. London: John Murray, 1821. [Harvard copy (Accessions *59-131) has annotations by Captain Matthew Liddon, commander of the Griper.].
  • 1819-20 British Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (Edward Parry aboard Hecla and Griper).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Disappointed at John Ross’s failure to find an open path through the Northwest Passage in 1818, the Admiralty’s John Barrow ordered this important continuation of the search. Continuing explorations eventually morphed into the Franklin Search as well by 1849.

Letters Written During the Late Voyage of Discovery in the Western Arctic Sea.

Parry, William Edward. By an Officer of the Expedition. London: Printed for Sir Richard Phillips, 1821.
  • 1819-20 British Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (Edward Parry aboard Hecla and Griper).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Letters from the Parry Expedition, 1819-1820, describing the voyage and the wintering at Winter Harbour, Melville Island, the Canadian Arctic waters and their ice, the Arctic night, the activities of the crews. Although anonymous, internal evidence shows the officer to have been one of the midshipmen on the Griper; either A.M. Skene or William Nelson Griffth.

Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Performed in the Years 1821-22-23, in His Majesty’s Ships Fury and Hecla, Under the Orders of Captain William Edward Parry, R.N/. F.R.S., and Commander of the Expedition.

Parry, William Edward. London: John Murray, 1824.
  • 1821–23 Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage (in Fury and Hecla, under William Edward Parry).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Parry’s second voyage involved two year’s of winterovering in Winter Harbour, including a number of interactions with natives. There is little here on reading,unlike Lyon’s earlier private journal.

A Brief Narrative of an Unsuccessful Attempt to Reach Repulse Bay, through Sir Thomas Rowe’s Welcome, in His Majesty’s Ship Griper, in the Year 1824

Lyon, George Francis. London: John Murray, 1825.
  • 1824 British Voyage to Repulse Bay (aboard Griper, commanded by Captain George F. Lyon).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 27: The agreeable visits from ship to ship, which so pleasingly break in on the monotony of a Polar voyage, were now denied us, but I was amply compensated for the want of a more extensive society, by having the happiness of knowing that I had officers and men with whom I was confident of continuing on the most friendly terms. We had already in our passage across the Atlantic arranged our little plans of improvement and amusement, and I looked forward with pleasure to the approach of winter.

The Zoology of Captain Beechey’s Voyage, Compiled from the Collections and Notes made by Captain Beechey….1825-28.

Beechey, William Frederick. (London: H. G. Bohn, 1839).
  • 1825-28 British Voyage to Pacific Northwest to Meet Captain Franklin at the Bering Straits.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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After three voyages as a subordinate officer Frederick Beechey was appointed commander of HMS Blossom in 1825 and assigned to the Bering Straits to await the arrival of John Franklin on his second overland expedition to the Mackenzie River Delta and on to the Alaska coast. Although Franklin never arrived (they missed each other by only 200 miles), Beechey and his men employed the time in scientific observation, especially of specimens of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, some from the South Seas but many from the Arctic waters of Kamchatka and Alaska.

To the Pacific and Arctic with Beechey: The Journal of Lieutenant George Peard of H.M.S. ‘Blossom’

Peard, George. Edited by Barry M. Gough. (Cambridge, UK: Hakluyt Society, 1973).
  • 1825-28 British Voyage to Pacific Northwest to Meet Captain Franklin at the Bering Straits.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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George Peard, the first lieutenant of the Blossom, gives detailed descriptions of the places visited and the inhabitants, among them Pitcairn Island and the Gambier, Tahitian and Hawaiian groups. No less valuable are his accounts of Kamchatka, California, the Northwestern extremity of North America, and various parts of South America. Peard had an inquisitive, scientific mind, and he wrote a clear discursive narrative which shows that British exploration in the early Pax Britannica bore many fruits - scientific, commercial and strategic. It also showed that the Northwest passage had again eluded the British, in spite of the careful planning of the Admiralty, the Colonial office and the Hudson's Bay Company and the painstaking execution of orders by such naval officers as Parry, Franklin, Beechey and Peard himself. Two of the plates are now printed at the end of the book. [Description from Google Books, 10/7/17.]

Arctic Regions, Voyage to Davis’ Strait.

Duncan, David. By David Duncan, Master of the Ship Dundee…July 1826-27. (London: E. Billing, 1827).
  • 1826-27 British Whaling Expedition (aboard Dundee, commanded by David Duncan).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
    Whalemen's Reading
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Claimed to be the only fishing ship to winter over with crew on board, in company with another ship which was wrecked. Nothing found on reading but an unusual early adventure.

Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions during the Years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833…Including the Reports of Commander, Now Captain, James Clark Ross.

Ross, Sir John. London: Webster, 1835. [Reprinted New York: Greenwood Press, 1969.].
  • 1829-33 British Private Second Voyage to the Northwest Passage (John Ross aboard Victory).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Cruise and overland expeditions of the Victory under John Ross, including James Clark Ross’s location of the North Magnetic Pole. John Ross was knighted on his return to England in 1833.

Observations on a Work, Entitled “Voyages of Discovery and Research within the Arctic Regions,” by Sir John Barrow, Bart. Ætat. 82: Being a Refutation of the Numerous Misrepresentations Contained in that Volume.

Ross, Sir John. By Sir John Ross, C.B. &c Captain in the Royal Navy. “Oh! That mine enemy would write a book!” (Edinburgh, London: Published for the Author, by William Blackwood and Son, 1846).
  • 1829-33 British Private Second Voyage to the Northwest Passage (John Ross aboard Victory).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Ross’s heated personal defense against Barrow’s attacks on his reputation: when I looked for an historian I found a calumniator.