A Voyage Around the World with the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the Years 1815-1818 in the Brig

Chamisso, Adelbert von. Rurik, Captain Otto von Kotzebue. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986).
  • 1815-18 Russian Exploring Expedition (Captain Otto von Kotzebue aboard Rurik).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 27, a paean to Kotzebue as author, the father of this Captain: How often in the far ends of the earth, namely on O-Wahu [O’ahu], Guaján [Guam], etc., have I been praised for my small share in the enterprise of his son, in order to cast a hem of the mantle of his fame over me. Everywhere we heard his name mentioned. American newspapers reported that The Stranger had been performed to extraordinary applause. All the libraries in the Aleutian Islands, as far as I have investigated them, consisted of a single volume of the Russian translation of Kotzebue.”

Realms and Islands: The World Voyage of Rose de Freycinet in the Corvette Uranie. From Her Journal and Letters….

Bassett, Marnie. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.
  • 1817-20 French Exploring Expedition (aboard Urania commanded by Louis de Freycinet).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Rose de Freycinet was smuggled aboard her husband, Captain Louis de Freycinet's corvette 'Uranie', about to sail on a scientific expedition round the world. She played a gallant and gracious part in the adventure which took her to many islands and countries. Her presence aboard, officially forbidden at the outset, had been condoned by the authorities long before she returned, and she was welcomed home as the heroine she had proved herself to be. [Summary from Aquila Books, ABEBooks, 3/1/17.]

Narrative of a Voyage to the South Seas, and the Shipwreck of the Princess of Wales Cutter, with an Account of Two Years Residence on an Uninhabited Island.

Goodridge, Charles Medyette. 6th ed. Exeter: W. C. Featherstone and Sold by the Author, 1852.
  • 1820-22 British Sealing Voyage (aboard Princess of Wales).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Account of a sealing voyage (starting May 1820) off the Cape of Good Hope which led to shipwreck and abandonment (in Crozet Islands). Curious blend of adventure, piety, and natural history (esp. birds). The unpaginated preliminaries include a preface, index (contents), opinions of the press, and lengthy subscriber lists organized by place and edition.

Journal of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands during the Years 1823, 1824, 1825….

Stewart, Charles S. With an Introduction … by William Ellis. London: Fisher and Jackson, 1828.
  • 1823-25 American Voyage to Sandwich Islands (aboard HMS Blonde).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

The author is a somewhat sanctimonious American missionary who nonetheless enjoyed a conversation with Lord Byron, a naval officer and cousin of the poet whose morals he detested. There is a good deal of material towards the end of the book on providing religious literature, writing tablets, hymn-books, etc. for Sandwich Island natives in their native language—literacy training for the reading of the Bible.

A Voyage Around the World 1826-1829.

Litke, Frederic. Edited by Richard A. Pierce. (Kingston, ONT: Limestone Press, 1987).
  • 1826-29 Russian Exploring Expedition (aboard Veniamin).
  • Maritime Reading
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Trip on Seniavin, a Russian ship, to survey coasts of Kamchatka, the Okhotsk Sea, and the Shanter Islands. Traveled from Kronstadt to Portsmouth, Rio, Cape Horn, Valparaiso, Sitka, & Kamchatka. Stopped in Sitka to observe the Russian colonies there under the Russian-American Company in New Archangel. Baron Wrangell was governor and the fort itself had been rebuilt after being destroyed by the Americans:

Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and Round the World: being Personal Narratives of Attempts to Reach the North and South Poles; and of an Open-boat Expedition up the Wellington Channel in Search of Sir John Franklin and Her Majesty’s ships “Erebus” and “Terror,” in Her Majesty’s Boat “Forlorn Hope,” under the Command of the Author. To which are Added an Autobiography….

M’Cormick, Robert. In Two Volumes. (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1884).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

The author participated in three polar expeditions, an early 1827 North Pole attempt, the famous James Ross Clark Antarctic expedition on Erebus and Terror (1839-1843), and a Franklin Search expedition searching for the same two ships. The Ross voyage was the circumnavigation of M’Cormick’s title. [See the Anthology of the Antarctic Reading Experience under 1839.]

A Visit to the South Seas, in the U.S. Ship Vincennes, During the years 1829 and 1830; with Scenes in Brazil, Peru, Manila, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena.

Stewart, Charles S. Two Volumes. New York: John P. Haven, 1831.
  • 1829-30 US Circumnavigation (W.C.B. Finch aboard USS Vincennes).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Stewart was in effect the missionary narrator of this somewhat odd circumnavigation in that it didn’t intend circling the globe until it was already on the Pacific Coast. He began on a different ship and then joined the round the world cruise aboard the Vincennes at Callao, Peru, on July 29th. [Note: there are variant editions of this work, with differing dates and paginations. The Google version of Vol. I does not indicate date but maybe 1832 rather than the first.

Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac Round the World, During the Years 1831-34, Embracing The Attack of Quallah Battoo…..

Warriner, Francis. New-York: Leavitt, Lord; Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1835.
  • 1831-34 US Circumnavigation (Downes aboard Potomac ).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

First destination on this US cruise was Sumatra where an American vessel had been attacked by Malay natives. The cruise is most well known for the Potomac’s vindictive and intentionally revengeful attack on those Malays, the people of Quallah Battoo for their earlier attacks. Much of the beginning of the book deals with the skirmishes between the Western and Malay forces, but they need not concern us. Rather we have here some passages dealing with instruction in literacy and religion, the reading of Scripture, and accounts of libraries on the cruise route.

Around the World: A Narrative of a Voyage in the East India Squadron, under Commodore George C. Read, by an Officer of the Navy.

Read, George Campbell, USN. In Two Volumes. New-York: Charles S. Francis, 1840.
  • 1838-39 American Circumnavigation (aboard Columbia commanded by George Campbell Read).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Rear Admiral George Campbell Read had a distinguished naval career including service on the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) in the War of 1812, in the Barbary Wars, and in this Sumatra expedition as Commodore of the Columbia. I assume this is his book (OCLC catalogues it as his), but it is hard to tell since the author refers to Read in the third person, and to himself as one of the Professors. Whoever the author, he is a thoughtful, even elegant writer with a self-deprecating impulse not common among admirals or explorers.

The Flag Ship: Or A Voyage Around the World, in the United States Frigate Columbia; Attended by Her Consort The Sloop of War John Adams, and Bearing the Broad Pennant of Commodore George C. Read.

Taylor, Fitch Waterman. By Fitch Waterman Taylor, Chaplain to the Squadron. [Two Volumes] New.York: D. Appleton & Co., 1840.
  • 1838-39 American Circumnavigation (aboard Columbia commanded by George Campbell Read).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 154-55: Previous to our leaving the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, I preached in the English chapel. The congregation was very respectable. The English chaplain who has charge of the congregation, and the chaplain of the Stag [a Brazilian naval ship], were present—the former reading the service.

Journal of a Voyage Around the World: A Year on the Ship

King, Thomas Worthington. Helena (1841-1842). (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003).
  • 1841-42 American Circumnavigation (aboard Helena).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Although not Antarctic bound, this ship did round Cape Horn and reached almost 59 degrees. King was a recent Harvard graduate when he took this voyage from New York to Canton, and after brief work there he continued on another ship back to New York. He was a fast reader and regular in his comments about reading.

She Went a-whaling: the Journal of Martha Smith Brewer Brown.

Brown, Martha Smith Brewer. (Orient, NY: Oysterponds Historical Society, 1993).
  • 1847-48 Whaling Voyage to South Pacific (aboard Lucy Ann).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

An example of a whaling captain’s wife going to sea with him. Whaling wives were usually known for their New England piety amidst the rough-hewn crews of 19th-century whaling ships. This is the diary of one of them, Martha Brown, who sailed from Orient NY aboard the Lucy Ann on August 31, 1847, on an eastward voyage round the world that eventually passed Cape Horn:

The Whale and His Captors, Or, The Whaleman’s Adventures, and the Whale’s Biography, as Gathered on the Homeward Cruise of the "Commodore Preble."

Cheever, Henry Theodore. New York: Harper, 1850 [Reprinted Fairfield, WA: Ye Galleon Press, 1991.].
  • 1849 Return Whaling Voyage South Seas to Boston (aboard Commodore Preble).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Author is a pious, anti-papist clergyman travelling in a whaler from South Seas to Boston, observing whaling practices and especially critical of Sabbath breaking customs of whalers.

Reminiscences of a Voyage Around the World.

Davis, Raymond Cazallis. Ann Arbor, MI: Dr. Chase’s Steam Printing House, 1869.
  • 1849-51 American Circumnavigation (aboard Hampton).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Written by an Assistant Librarian of the University of Michigan and son of the captain, who says he wrote it to increase an “insufficient salary.” First published in a weekly newspaper, readers he claims called for book publication. The author was early on a cabin boy, a job from which he was “ignominiously dismissed” for his greater interest in the world, than the world around him.