Writing the New World: Imaginary Voyages….

Fausset, David. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1993).
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 3: the exotic literature of Europe “was most clearly manifested in fiction about the regions that remained unknown the longest….their works, too, would finally be overtaken by history and supplanted by scientific descriptions of the material and social worlds.” (his examples are Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver, Poe, Lovecraft)

Race for the Pole.

Weems, John Edward. Preface by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York: Henry Holt, 1960.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Generally a whitewash of the Peary legend and legacy (mainly about the 1908-09 expedition) written as a homely narrative based according to Weems on thorough documentation. Although there is a decent bibliography one can’t find documentation for any given passage.

Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions: With Detailed Notices of the Expeditions in Search of the Missing Vessels under Sir John Franklin. To Which is Added an Account of the American Expedition, under the Patronage of Henry Grinnell… .

Simmonds, Peter Lund. By John C. Lord. Buffalo, NY: Geo. H. Derby, 1852.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Simmonds’ book is one of a series of reports on the “Progress of Arctic Discovery” that appeared in England and elsewhere from the first thoughts of the North-West Passage until the McClintock discoveries of 1859. As a group they tend to be largely derivative from similar works in the genre, but consistently provide a measure of hope that Franklin and his men survived, or their graves would be discovered.

The Arctic Navy List, or, A Century of Arctic & Antarctic Officers, 1773-1873: Together with a List of Officers of the 1875 Expedition, and Their Services.

Markham, Clements R. (London: Griffin, 1875).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Preface describes 3 generations of explorers from 1773 to 1873: 1) Cook and Phipps; 2) Ross, Parry, Franklin, Back; 3) Franklin searches. 4th would begin with the Nares expedition of 1875. The book is a biographical list showing voyage, ship, role in winter activities of all officers (e.g. Henry Kellett on Resolute where he was on the Committee of Management of the “Royal Arctic Theatre” 1852-54, before Belcher ordered abandonment of Resolute). Useful reference—there is a 1992 facsimile.

The Alaska-Klondike Diary of Elizabeth Robins, 1900.

Robins, Elizabeth. Ed. with Introduction by Victoria Joan Moessner and Joanne E. Gates. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 1999.
  • 1900 Private Visit to Alaska by Elizabeth Robins.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Robins was an actress, singer, feminist, and something of an adventurer; this diary covers only the Alaskan portion of her active life. Among other things she translated Nansen (p. 5), and wrote several novels and other books.

The Great White South, or with Scott in the Antarctic. Being an Account of Experiences with Captain Scott’s South Pole Expedition and of the Nature Life of the Antarctic… and an Introduction by Lady Scott.

Ponting, Herbert G. London: Duckworth, 1921.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 1: I might almost say that I first met Captain Scott in Siberia. I may at least state that it was there that I first got to know him, for I occupied myself during a journey over the Trans-Siberian railway in January, 1907, by reading his recently published work ‘The Voyage of the Discovery.’ I had bought the two volumes in Tokyo, thinking that they might furnish appropriate reading for a journey in the frigid conditions of climate which prevail in Siberia at that time of the year; and during my two weeks’ incarceration in the train, as it meandered over a third of the circumference of the globe, from Vladivostock to Moscow, I found that virile story of adventure of absorbing interest. Little then did I imagine that I should one day meet the great explorer in the flesh; much less that before four years had elapsed I should be accompanying him on his second voyage to the Antarctic regions. Wonderful, indeed, are the ways of Fate in the framing of our destinies!

Letters Written During the Late Voyage of Discovery in the Western Arctic Sea.

Parry, William Edward. By an Officer of the Expedition. London: Printed for Sir Richard Phillips, 1821.
  • 1819-20 British Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (Edward Parry aboard Hecla and Griper).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Letters from the Parry Expedition, 1819-1820, describing the voyage and the wintering at Winter Harbour, Melville Island, the Canadian Arctic waters and their ice, the Arctic night, the activities of the crews. Although anonymous, internal evidence shows the officer to have been one of the midshipmen on the Griper; either A.M. Skene or William Nelson Griffth.

A Man-of-War Library

Melville, Herman. White-Jacket, or The world in a Man-of-War. (New York: Library of America, 1983) p. 522-24:.
  • Maritime Reading
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Chapter 41 A Man-of-War Library

Nantucket Whalemen in the Deep-sea Fishery: the Changing Anatomy of an Early American Labor Force,

Vickers, Daniel. Journal of American History 72 (Sept. 1985) 277-296.
  • Maritime Reading
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On the whaling journey of the brig Polley to West Africa in 1774, and in particular one of its crew, Samuel Atkins, who wrote some poetry about the journey: Steadily the nerves of unlucky whalemen were worn down by loneliness, boredom, and the knowledge that the vessel would have to remain at sea until a reasonable haul of oil had been taken in (p. 278).

Elisha Kent Kane and the Seafaring Frontier

Mirsky, Jeannette. . Edited by Oscar Handlin. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 55-56, on setting off on the first Grinnell expedition: I collected as I could some simple instruments for thermal and magnetic registration, which would have been of use if they had found their way on board. A very few books for the dark hours of winter, and a stock of coarse woolen clothing…constituted my entire outfit; and with these I made my report to Commodore Salter at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

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
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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.

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.