Scarcity of Seamen.

Sullivan, Thomas V. Second Edition.[Boston: Press of J. Howe, 1854.].
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

This 32-page pamphlet joins the interests of the needs of American commerce with the concerns of US seamen’s missionary activities in behalf of their moral probity.

The Resolution Journal of Johann Reinhold Forster, 1772-1775.

Forster, Johann Reinhold. Ed. by Michael E. Hoare. Four volumes. London: Hakluyt Society, 1982.
  • 1772-75 British Naval Expedition–Second Voyage (Captain James Cook aboard the Resolution).
  • “Discovery” of Antarctica.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Forster and his father George were the naturalists on Cook’s Second Voyage, aboard Resolution, replacing Sir Joseph Banks who rejected the expedition in a dispute over cabin space, and possibly a mistress. Banks took his library and instruments with him, but the library was somehow replaced by the Forster collection. Anders Sparrman was another scientist who joined the scientific team for the second voyage. The four volumes of Forster’s Journal are studded with references to many books in several languages, mostly dealing with natural history or anthropology (e.g., plant names, the copulation of sea elephants, tattoos and lip piercing, but he quotes Virgil constantly). One may assume with some degree of likelihood that most of the books cited were aboard the ship. Included here are only page numbers of these references. For all the bookish knowledge of the father there is little indication of reading in the Antarctic regions, other than looking up references. [DS]

The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley in the Paramore 1698-1701.

Halley, Edmond. Edited by Norman J. W. Thrower. (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1981). [Vol. II is a Portfolio of Maps].
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

[Note]: Despite an unsuccessful first voyage, Halley retained the confidence of the Admiralty, and his second cruise from September 1699 to September 1700 was successful. He went south as far as 52° into the ice field north of the site of the modern Halley Bay Geophysical Observatory and was in considerable danger, as he was later from a storm off the coast of Africa. (ODNB). Though they were in iceberg infested waters with fogbound conditions, the journals indicate no unusual events.

Arctic Smoke and Mirrors.

Kenney, Gerard. Prescott, Ont: Voyageur Press, 1994.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A detective story with a human rights impact. Inuit politicians are revealed as manipulators of history and people. This book should cause reporters and concerned citizens alike to think again not just about Inuit relocations but about the dangers of herd journalism and revisionism that ignores historical context. (ABEBOOKS).

Literacy, Literature and Libraries in the Fur Trade,

Payne, Michael. by Michael Payne and Gregory Thomas. The Beaver 45 (Spring 1983) p. 44-53.
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

p. 44: However fortunately for me I have dead Friends (my Books) who will never abandon me, till I first neglect them. [Daniel Williams Harmon at Fort Alexandria in 1803.]

Explorer’s Wife.

De Long, Emma Wotton. Introduction by Vilhajlmur Stefansson. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1938.
  • 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

p. 1: During the winter of 1932 Vilhjalmur Stefansson asked me to lend some of the relics of the Jeannette Expedition, commanded by my husband, to Mr. Bassett Jones of the Explorers Club. Mr. Jones was organizing a private exhibition of Arctic books and relics at the Grolier Club of New York. I had such things aplenty, of course, and gladly complied. Among those chosen were the large journal written by my husband on board the Jeannette up to the time of her crushing by the ice pack, the two ice journals in pencil, which faithfully recorded his fearful trip southward with his men to Siberia across the ice, and a silk flag which I had made as my contribution to the Expedition.

The Boss

Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. Nation (December 1919) p. 396, 398.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Review by Cherry-Garrard of Shackleton’s South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition 1914-1917, though not a very substantial one. J.M. Wordie found it very irritating, according to some notes at NLS.

The Norwegian with Scott: Tryggve Gran’s Antarctic Diary 1910-1913.

Gran, Tryggve. Edited by Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith. Trans. by Ellen Johanne McGhie. London: National Maritime Museum, H.M.S.O., 1984.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 46: I spent some hours in the hut tonight, listening to our first gramophone concert; it was a delight to hear Caruso, Melba, and Tetrazzini, among other famous stars.

The Quiet Land: The Diaries of Frank Debenham, Member of the British Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913.

Debenham, Frank. Edited by June Debenham Back. Foreword by Sir Vivian Fuchs. Bluntisham, U.K., Bluntisham Books/Erskine Press, 1992.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

On Debenham’s experience of the Scott expedition and its tragic end. It was he who suggested that excess funds in the memorial Appeal be used for an institute of Polar research and he became SPRI’s first Director, an unpaid position which he held from 1920 to 1946.

To the Sixth Continent: The Second German South Polar Expedition.

Filchner, Wilhelm. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1994.
  • 1911-13 Second German Antarctic Expedition (Filchner).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Filchner’s original plans mirrored Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition a few years later, with two ships and men starting from both the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea then meeting mid-way. Shackleton and Nordenskjöld helped him get a ship, the Deutschland, but he could get only one and went only to the Weddell Sea. He named the iceshelf after Kaiser Wilhelm II, but the Kaiser renamed it after Filchner. The ship was trapped in ice but was freed in the austral summer of 1912. The expedition is noted for its animosities, hostility not indicated in the passages here.

Life Onboard an Emigrant Ship: Being a Diary of a Voyage to Australia.

Mereweather, John Davies. London: T. Hatchard, 1852.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

The Rev. Mereweather of the Anglican Church saw it as his unpaid duty to provide moral leadership to the “poorer classes” being conveyed to Australia. Proceeds from its sale would go to the Female Emigrant Society for that purpose.

Report on Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1883.

Garlington, Ernest A. Washington: Signal Office, 1883. Signal Office Notes No. 10, re the Yantic and Porteus debacle.
  • 1883 Lady Franklin Bay Relief Expedition.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 25-7: Scientific Outfit of the Lady Franklin Bay Relief Expedition of 1883. Memorandum B, includes the following items: