John Caldigate.

Trollope, Anthony. Introduction by R. C. Terry. London: The Folio Society, 1995. [First published in book form London: Chapman and Hall, 1879.].
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

A romantic evening second-class deck conversation between a disinherited young gentleman and a mysterious widow (Mrs Smith) in some form of trouble. The talk turns to books, starting with John Caldigate, the deprived gentleman:

Shackleton’s Forgotten Men: The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic. [1914-17].

Bickel, Lennard. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Lord Shackleton. New York, Thunder’s Mouth Press and Balliett & Fitzgerald, 2000. (Adrenaline classics).
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 72, May 6, 1915: Outside, they heard the bluster grow to gale force winds. Irvine Gaze and Stevens went early to their bunks. Spencer-Smith, as ever, was reading a book by the light of the acetylene lamp.

Sitting on Penguins: Australia and the Antarctic.

Murray-Smith, Stephen. Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Mandarin Australia, 1991.
  • 1985-86 Australian Expedition to Antarctic Bases.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

The author went as a highly critical “ministerial observer” to visit Australian bases in Antarctica and as a journalist reporting on his 1985-86 trip, “a testimony to the spectacular beauty of the region and an indictment of our treatment of it.”

Étoffe du pays: Lower St. Lawrence Sketches.

Simms, Florence Mary. Toronto: Musson, n.d.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

This alleged children’s book is undated but probably describes events and publication of the mid-1920s. A couple of jems are worth recording from this delightful book:

Cape Clay Diary, March 1 – June 21, 1884.

Brainard, David L. Dartmouth Digital Collections. https://collections.dartmouth.edu/teitexts/brainard-diary/diplomatic/brainard-2-diary-diplomatic.html.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

To an almost hallucinatory degree, this diary by one of the six survivors is remarkably full of recipes and lists of foods and ingredients. A veritable wish list for foods, and even desirable books, as in entry below:

The View from the Masthead: Maritime Imagination and Antebellum American Sea Narratives.

Blum, Hester. Chapel Hill NC: University Press of North Carolina, 2008.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

As much literary history as exploration narratives, this fascinating study examines both several classics of American fiction and the reading habits of sailors. Blum has gathered a great deal of information about the working-class forecastle men and their interest in reading. For transcripts of their reading reactions, their dealing with ennui, and the production of literature for their use see entries in these anthologies for Cheever, Colnett, Dana, Delano, Little, Mercier, Porter, and several other whalemen.

The Arctic in the British Imagination.

David, Robert G. (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2000).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Starts with 1818 and Barrow’s Admiralty focus on the north for geographical, scientific, commercial, and nationalistic purposes. David describes three phases:

[Journal]

Roggeveen, Jacob. [needs citation].
  • 1721-22 Dutch South Seas Expedition to Australia (Jacob Roggeveen).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

This voyage was intended to confirm earlier knowledge of the Falklands in its path to Australia. It was too hurried to stop at the Falklands but it did find Easter Island before it reached New Ireland (Papua New Guinea) where Roggeveen’s journal ends, 18 July 1722.

From Edinburgh to the Antarctic: An Artist’s Notes and Sketches during the Dundee Antarctic Expedition 1892-93, with a Chapter by W. S. Bruce.

Burn Murdoch, William Gordon. Bungay, Suffolk: Paradigm Press, Bluntisham Books, 1984. [Facsimile of 1894 London first edition.].
  • 1892-93 British Whaling Expedition(Alexander Fairweather aboard Balæna et al).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

One of the most delightful, witty, sardonic, and intelligent of early Antarctic accounts. Burn Murdoch shipped aboard the Balæna with his friend William Speirs Bruce in 1892. This is an account of that journey. Bruce, later well-known for the Scotia expedition, was the ship’s surgeon and naturalist and Murdoch assistant surgeon and ship’s artist. This expedition recorded the first photographs of Antarctica. Murdoch has a good deal of respect for the intelligence of the foc’sle men.

Vihjalmur Stefansson, Robert Bartlett, and the Karluk Disaster: A Reassessment.

Cavell, Janice. Journal of the Hakluyt Society (January 2017). 22 p.
  • 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

p. 12: Several of the ship’s company would later recall that Stefansson had been reading about the Jeannetteexpedition just before he left [the Karlak], and they speculated that fear had driven him away.

The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore.

Hutchinson, John Robert. (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1913).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 42-3, description of life of 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.]

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).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

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.