The Last Voyage of Capt. Sir John Ross, R. N. Knt. To the Arctic Regions; For the Discovery of a North West Passage; Performed in the Years 1829-30-31-32 and 33.

Huish, Robert. To which is Prefixed an Abridgement of the Former Voyages… Transmitted by an Officer Attached to the Last Expedition. London: John Saunders, 1835.
  • 1829-33 British Private Second Voyage to the Northwest Passage (John Ross aboard Victory).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Includes accounts of earlier British voyages to the high Arctic. Huish is wonderfully sardonic in viewing the whole operation from Captain Ross on down.

Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River, and Along the Shores of the Arctic Ocean, in the Years 1833, 1834, and 1835.

Back, George. London: John Murray, 1836.
  • 1833-35 British Overland Expedition to the Arctic Sea (led by George Back).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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From ABEBooks: George Back's expedition charted over 1200 miles of new territory and made important observations of Magnetic North and the Aurora Borealis, all while working under appalling conditions. The original purpose of the trek was to determine the fate of the second Ross expedition, which had set out in 1829 and was feared lost in the Arctic Ocean, and incidentally to make scientific observations and survey an unknown section of arctic coast. Back, a veteran of the Franklin expeditions, volunteered to lead an overland expedition north along the Great Fish River, which extends from the Rae Strait to the Great Slave Lake in northern Canada, west of Hudson's Bay. Notified that Ross had returned safely to England, Back was directed to proceed with an expedition of discovery. He found the river (now named for him) "which, after a violent and torturous course of five hundred and thirty geographical miles, running through an iron-ribbed country without a single tree on the whole line of its banks, expanding into fine large lakes with clear horizons, and broken into falls, cascades, and rapids to the number of no less than eighty-three in the whole, pours its waters into the Polar Sea" (p. 390). "As a literary composition this work may rank higher than any former volume produced by the northern expeditions" (Edinburgh Review, Sabin 2613). "Expedition via Montreal overland to north central Canada, traveled by canoe and portage down Slave River to Great Slave Lake, up Hoarfrost River, through Artillery Lake, Clinton Colden Lake, and Lake Aylmer, down the Great Fish River (now Back River) to the arctic coast, thence along Chantrey Inlet to Ogle Point. Descent of Back River was made in July and Aug. 1834. The narrative includes descriptions of the rivers and lakes traversed; ice conditions on the waterways, and in the seas in spring and summer of 1834; general landscapes, including land forms, rock types, and plant and animal life; and the difficulties of canoe transportation. Includes two Yellowknife Indian tales, and account of founding of Fort Reliance and of starving conditions; notes on physical characteristics and facial tattooing of Netsilik Eskimos. And discussion of Hearne's journey" (Arctic Bibliography, 851). p. 171-72: It has been my endeavor to foster this feeling of contentment by general kindness, by a regular observance of the Sabbath (the service being read in English and French,) and by the institution of evening schools for their improvement.

Narrative of an Expedition in HMS Terror: Undertaken with a View to Geographical Discovery on the Arctic Shores, in the Years 1836-7.

Back, George. London: John Murray, 1838.
  • 1836-37 British Voyage of Discovery in HMS Terror (commanded by George Back).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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[From WorldCat] Having served on expeditions under John Franklin, the British naval officer Sir George Back (17961878) had already gained first-hand experience of Arctic peril and survival by the time he was appointed in 1836 to command HMS Terror. His mission was to survey uncharted coastline in the Canadian Arctic, yet Back's ship became trapped in ice near Frozen Strait and was unable to escape for ten months. In this account, first published in 1838, Back lucidly documents the developing crisis, noting the numerous preparations to abandon ship, the deaths of three of his men from scurvy, and the further damage caused by an iceberg after the Terror was freed. Against the odds, the ship managed to reach Ireland in 1837. Naturally, Back gives much credit to the durability of the Terror, originally a bomb vessel from the War of 1812, it had been further strengthened for Arctic service.

Narrative of a Voyage of H.M.S. Herald during the Years 1845-51, under the Command of Captain Henry Kellett…being A Circumnavigation of the Globe.

Seemann, Berthold. Two volumes. London: Reeve and Co., 1853.
  • 1845-51 British Voyage of Exploration to the West Coast and the Pacific (Commanded by Henry Kellett aboard HMS Herald).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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This expedition was focused on the US West Coast and Pacific natural history rather than high latitudes though it did reach the Bering Strait. Its focus was chiefly botanical.

A Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the North-West Passage…while in Search of the Expedition under Sir John Franklin.

Armstrong, Alexander. (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1857).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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The Voyage of Investigator, with Capt. McClure, which separated from its consorts early in the trip, and struck off independently “with a firm reliance on a merciful Providence, and full confidence in our resources” (p. 74). Armstrong was the surgeon and naturalist aboard the Investigator.

[Review]. “Account of the Proceedings of H. M. S. Enterprise from Behring Strait to Cambridge Bay.” By Capt. R. Collinson.

Back, George. Journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London 25 (1855) p. 194-206.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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The Enterprise and the Investigator set sail together in 1850 to establish the North Pacific arm of the Franklin Search, hoping to meet the by-then missing Franklin as he emerged from the Northwest Passage. It was not to be: the ships were separated after successfully navigating the straights of Magellan only to be met by high seas that separated them forever. This paper was communicated to the RGS by Sir George Back, from Captain Collinson of the Enterprise.

Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition.

Beattie, Owen, and John Geiger. Vancouver, B.C., GreyStone Books, 1987.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A rather lacklustre book about the exhumation of three Franklin sailors in 1984. Spectacular for its pictures of the corpses; less so for a few things about books.

Sir John Franklin.

Beesly, Augustus H. New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1881.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 75: And now we come to one of the most tragic histories ever told. One might call it pathetic, but that, as Thackeray says of the circumstances of George the Third's madness, it is too terrible for tears. Nevertheless, no one could read Franklin's diary and not be touched. It was, it must be remembered, written from night to night, after the day had been spent in one of the most frightful of all torments, starvation, and when death seemed to draw visibly nearer hour by hour. It is as if he had written it with his heart's blood, which to the last drop he was determined should be shed for those at home in England. There is no unmanly wailing in it. It is the most matter-of-fact record of appalling suffering. Perhaps the most tragic feature of it is that at one point the dates cease. Whether he had lost count of time or not, it is impossible to say. The diary does not cease, though the dates do. Perhaps the record of those days was added afterwards, because, however willing the spirit was, he found it frequently impossible to pen his notes upon the spot.

Memoirs of Joseph René Bellot…with his Journal of a Voyage in the Polar Seas in Search of Sir John Franklin. [1851-52]

Bellot, Joseph Rene, Lt. Two volumes.(London: Hurst and Blackett, 1855).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Though much of this takes place on land, Bellot sailed on the Prince Albert as part of a British expedition searching for Franklin. Bellot died in 1853. The work consists of a memoir of Bellot by Julien Lemer (p. 1-87), an introduction by Bellot (p 88-108, reprinted from the Annales Maritimes), and Bellot’s journal, the remainder, though the running heads get confused.

A Sequel to the North-West Passage, and the Plans for the Search for Sir John Franklin. A Review.

Brown, John. Second edition.flattered London: E. Stanford, 1860.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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This second edition of Brown updates the summary beyond the significant date of 1859 and McClintock’s report. A final section is an unpaginated “Opinions of the Press,” ending with an encomium to Brown from Alexander von Humboldt (August 16, 1858), on the last printed [but unpaginated] page of the book. An excerpt is included here as a remarkable example of a reading experience from an unusual source:

Searching for the Franklin Expedition. The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter.

Carter, Robert Randolph. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Private journal of a cruise in the Brig Rescue in search of Franklin, together with the Advance. Part of US Grinnell Expedition in 1850, one of 12 search vessels that year. Carter was first officer of the Rescue, a small ship that wintered in 1850-51 off Beechey Island in, where the bodies of three of Franklin’s menrs had been found. Clearly Carter is intelligent witty and educated. p. 10: The headquarters [of the expedition] were the luxurious Astor House, whose accommodations were provided by the management; and the Grinnells had already stocked the ships’ libraries with books, many written by earlier Arctic explorers.

Island of the Lost.

Cooper, Paul Fenimore. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s sons, 1961).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

This is an elegant little book posing as a biography of King William Island and a vehicle for telling its indigenous history, the story of the Franklin debacle (prior to discovery of the sunken Erebus), and a fairly brief account of the Franklin Search.