A Two Years’ Cruise off Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, Patagonia, and the River Plate: A Narrative of Life in the Southern Seas.

Snow, William Parker. Two Volumes. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857.
  • 1854-56 British Patagonian Mission Society Expedition to Southern Atlantic (Captain William Park Snow aboard Allen Gardiner).
  • Maritime Reading
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A fraught voyage with conflicting commands for sea matters and spiritual matters, to which Captain Snow took umbrage.

The Cabin Boy’s Log: Scenes and Incidents on a New Bedford Whaler, Written from the Journal as Kept by the Lad on a Three Years’ Voyage in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Tobey, Warren B. Boston: Meador, 1932.
  • 1866-69 US Whaling Expedition to Indian and Pacific Oceans.
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p. 18, the Nov. 1866, preparations for the trip of this 15-year old included writing material, a New Testament, and the Episcopal Prayer Book. No indication throughout that he ever used them. Elsewhere there are several passages about pastimes, scrimshaw, boat models but nothing about reading. Notable for the cruelty of the captain to the cabin boy and the sailors.

The Journal of Annie Holmes Ricketson on the Whaleship A. R. Tucker, 1871-1874. (

Ricketson, Annie Holmes. New Bedford, MA: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1958).
  • 1871-74 American Whaling Expedition to Indian Ocean (aboard A. R. Tucker).
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One of the honeymoon voyages, complete with child born in Fayal, and dead within a day, then rounding the Cape of Good Hope, sailing 3500 miles to Australia, and two years cruising in the Molucca Passage. The voyage ended after four months cruising in the mid-Atlantic to bring back a full cargo of whale oil. Ricketson took two more voyages. She is a reader but as so often in women’s journals mentions no titles.

A Yachting Cruise in the South Seas.

Wood, C. F. London: H. S. King and Co., 1875.
  • 1872- Private British Voyage to Sandwich Islands (Cunard Line).
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p. 6-7, Chapter I: The weather now was intensely hot and fine, and that feeling of drowsiness and languor came over me, which I have always experienced on first reaching the tropics. Reading becomes a delusion and a snare, and to take up a book means to be asleep in a few minutes. On Sunday, May 11th, we sighted Rotumah. This was the first island I intended visiting, my object here being to ship some of the natives, to strengthen my present crew. No one ought to attempt a voyage through the South Sea Islands without carrying an extra crew of this kind. For in the first place there are so many islands where there is no anchorage or perhaps a very precarious one, that it is better to keep the vessel standing off and on, worked by the white crew, while those who wish to visit the island go away in the boat manned by the South Sea Islanders. A coloured crew, too, are better able to row about all day in the hot sun; they are cheery, light-hearted companions, and are always ready, and enjoy the fun of diving into the water after any shell or piece of coral that one may fancy whilst rowing over the reefs.

The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger.

Corfield, Richard. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2003.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
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Corfield concentrates on the science of the expedition without neglecting the human relations of the scientifics. One notable chapter is called “The Library of Time,” in which the biological remains dredged from the ocean body, tiny creations which would eventually yield the details of earth’s climatic and oceanographic history: For the geologist and oceanographer there is simply nothing to match the detailed information trapped in the sediment of the deep sea; it is the library of time. [p. 135].

The Voyage of the Challenger.

Linklater, Eric. New York: Doubleday, 1972.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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Speaks here and there of the boredom of a scientific voyage that dredged ocean bottoms thousands of times through the ocean world. Dredging was known as “drudging” and even some desertions were attributed to boredom.

At Sea with the Scientifics: The Challenger Letters of Joseph Matkin.

Matkin, Joseph. Edited by Philip F. Rehbock. Honolulu, HA: University of Hawaii Press, 1992.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
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p. 17, Introduction: Books and newspapers were no doubt available in the ship’s library, which during a portion of the voyage was in the charge of Matkin’s immediate supervisor, the ship’s steward. In addition, a special collection of scientific and travel books was taken aboard explicitly for the expedition (see Appendix E), although these were probably reserved for the use of the scientific staff and may not have been readily available to Matkin. It is also possible that bulletin’s describing the ship’s ports of call were posted for the crew’s edification. Finally, Matkin himself on more than one occasion mentions visiting a library ashore.

Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, being an Account of Various Observations Made during the Voyage of H.M.S. “Challenger”… 1872-1876.

Moseley, Henry N. London: Macmillan, 1879.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
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Moseley views most things from the viewpoint of a naturalist but brings a sympathetic humanity to everything he observes. One would have been fortunate to travel on the Challenger with him.

The Cruise of her Majesty’s Ship “Challenger.” Voyages over Many Seas, Scenes in Many Lands.

Spry, W. J. J. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1877.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
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This round the world voyage was epochal including a visit to the Kerguelen Islands in Jan. 1874. It experienced some polar conditions but not many. It never wintered over, the best time for library use.

The Cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka & New Guinea with Notices of Formosa, Liu-Kiu, and Various Islands of the Malay Archipelago.

Guillemard, F. H. H. Second Edition. London: John Murray, 1889.
  • 1882-84 British South Seas Expedition aboard Marchesa.
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p. x: In these latter regions there is indeed but one thing that mars the traveller’s enjoyment. The book of Nature lies freely open to him, but without years of study he cannot read it. It is written in an unknown language. He is confused with the unfamiliarity of the character and the apparently insuperable obstacles it presents. Such at least were my own feelings, although travel in tropic lands was no new thing to me. The few sentences I have deciphered have for the most part, I fear, been already translated by others, and in giving them to my readers I can only express my regret that Nature's volume has not met with a better exponent.

Round the Horn before the Mast

Lubbock, Alfred Basil. New York: E. P. Dutton. 1907.
  • 1899- American Schooner Voyage from San Francisco to Europe and Round the Horn aboard Royalshire.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 17, after a day of shoveling coal he and his new English friend cleaned up and went to the opera to see “Carmen.”

A Gipsy of the Horn.

Clements, Rex. London: Hart-Davis, 1951. First edition. (London: Heath, Cranton, 1924).
  • Maritime Reading
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An account of a young mariners first voyage, including this passage on reading during a voyage around the world:

The Last Voyage of the Schooner Rosamond

Chevalier, Haakon. London: Andre Deutsch, 1970.
  • 1920 Cargo Voyage of Schooner Rosamond.
  • Maritime Reading
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A delightful book about two Stanford sophomores who in the spring of 1920, looking for adventure, decided to ship aboard a schooner scheduled to deliver timber from Seattle to Cape Town. Haakon and Don Snedden had no experience as sailors and their assignment turned out to be a ten-month circumnavigation of the world as apprentice seamen. It was an adventure and their story is told with grace, excitement, and candor. For a time they tried to conceal their academic affiliation but it became obvious to the officers and small crew soon enough. Chevalier, even at 18 years at the outset, is among the most intelligent and sensitive readers encountered in my long search for maritime readers.