Birdie Bowers: Captain Scott’s Marvel.

Strathie, Anne. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2012.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Biography of the sailor who went to the South Pole and then died with Scott in 1912. Brought up an evangelical whose father was a Freemason, the biography shows a gradual ebbing of his faith through the early part of his career until he was summoned by Scott from the Royal Indian Marines.

Report on Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1883.

Garlington, Ernest A. Washington, DC: Signal Office, 1883. [Signal Service Notes No. X.].
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

p. 25, among supplies provided for the expedition: 45. 150 blank books. 46. 12 blank daily journals. 47. 280 star charts for auroras. 48. 750 forms No. 102 for self register. 53. 4 boxes pens. 54. 2 reams legal cap. 55. 4 reams letter paper. 57. 2 reams foolscap. 58. 4 quarts Arnold’s ink. 60. 1 reading glass. 69. 1 ream computing paper. 70-82. multiple copies of forms and instructions. 100-12. Various titles: Treatise on Aneroid Barometers; Admirlty Manual of Scientific Inquiry; Arctic Manual,1875; Vega’s Logarithms; Nautical Almnac, 1883 (2 copies); Nautical Almanac, 1884 (2); Chauvenet’s Astronomy; Chauvenet’s Trigonometry; Loomis’ Meteorology (2); Guyot’s Tables (2); Everett’s Deschanel; Bowditch Useful Tables; Negur on Chronometers (2). 135. Webster’s dictionary.

Old Whaling Days.

Barron, William. Hull, UK: William Andrews & Co., 1895.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

p. 59: Conclusion—Advice to Apprentices. NOW if any youth, who is intending going to sea, should read this rough sketch of the life of an apprentice, I would advise him to be very careful how he enters upon his duties. He should be civil to everybody and dutiful to his officers, doing his best to gain their good-will by performing what he is told, cheerfully. When he is set to do anything, do it quickly with a good grace. Nobody gains ill-will so soon as a sulky, grumbling boy. I will vouchsafe to say at the end of a long voyage a civil boy will be respected. Do not listen to the yarns of some men. When they wish you to stay, leave at once, and begin some trifling job, also improve your mind with reading, and your spare time in learning navigation. When the men see you are superior in education to them, they will treat you with respect. If a poor fellow cannot write, proffer to write his letters for him. It will cost nothing, and he will send a letter to his friends, otherwise he would neglect doing so, and I can assure you that he will befriend you in some way or other. Help those who are not so well educated as yourself, and do not taunt them because they are not so, although there are not so many now as formerly who cannot write.

Children of the Light: The Rise and Fall of New Bedford Whaling and the Death of the Arctic Fleet

Allen, Everett S. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

A somewhat elegiac tale of the decline of whaling and New Bedford, contrasted with descriptions of the life of the Inuit, before and after the coming of the whalers to the Beaufort Sea area. Main focus at end is on the disastrous season at Pt. Barrow of the whaling fleet which abandoned over 25 ships, but managed to rescue over 1200 whalemen.

Eskimo Doctor.

Gilberg, Aage. Translated by Karin Elliott. New York: W.W. Norton, 1948.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

A simple and charming book about a doctor’s year in Thule and environs [1938-39], providing medical services to the Inuit. There with his wife, he found the Inuit “The truly good people.”

A True Description of Three Voyages by the North-East towards Cathay and China, Undertaken by the Dutch in the Years 1594, 1595, and 1596. …

Veer, Gerrit de. Translated into English by William Phillip. Edited by Charles T. Beke. London: Hakluyt Society, 1853.[1ser, no. 13; a second edition appeared in 1876 as 1series, no. 54].
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

p. lix-lxii: The introduction has an inventory of the many relics found at the final site of Barents fatal expedition. No 75 includes the following items: A great number of prints from copper engravings, completely frozen together, including some of Goltzius; Pallas, Juno, and Venus, with Bosscher excudit; scenes from the Bible. “The manner of engraving the names of the engravers proves that all these must have been the work of the sixteenth century. It may seem strange that Arctic navigators had prints or engravings on board, but it is not at all so, for Heemskerck and Barendsz intended to go as far as China, when they sailed to the North-East. For that purpose they had merchandise on board, and prints or engravings were often used as such.

The Log of the Scotia Expedition, 1902-4.

Bruce, William Speirs. Edited by Peter Speak. With a foreword by Sir Vivian Fuchs. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992.
  • 1902-04 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (Bruce on Scotia).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

First Edition of the narrative of the 1902-04 Scotia Expedition to the Antarctic, published 90 years later, including Bruce's log, photographs, and plans as originally intended. Speak has added an introduction, explanatory notes, and a glossary of scientific terms.

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

Ricketson, Annie Holmes. From the Original in the Kendall Whaling Museum. New Bedford, MA: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1958.
  • 1871-74 American Whaling Expedition to Indian Ocean (aboard A. R. Tucker).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A good example of the so-called petticoat whaler, the Captain’s wife. This is a fairly calm memoir with some observations about the business of whaling, and frequent reference to books, newspapers, and letters but seldom with any reading details.

A Voyage to Terra Australis, Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country….

Flinders, Matthew. Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1966. [Facsimile of 1814 edition, Two vols. & atlas volume of individual charts.].
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Vol. I, p. 6: Among the books on this voyage were the “books of voyages to the South Seas, which, with our own individual collections, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, presented by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, formed a library in my cabin for the use of all the officers.” Every Admiralty chart for Australia was copied for them.

Relics of the Franklin Expedition: Discovering Artifacts from the Doomed Arctic Voyage of 1845.

Walpole, Garth. Edited by Russell Potter. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2017.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 98-99, relics found at Terror Bay, in boxes found near the sunken ship, with Gilder’s account most focused on the books: Tuktoocheeah said a box containing the bones was outside [the boat] but that a tin box of full of books was in the boat (Stackpole 1965: 74, 75). Gilder recorded that Ogzeuckjeuwock “saw books in the boat place” and confirmed that they were “in the boat,” as was the box of bones (Gilder 2006: 72)…. All of the writers recorded that there were three separate boxes: the first, a metal (tin) box held a number of books; the second, of similar size, contained bones; and the third box, of tin with a red cover held tobacco (Stackpole 1965: 75; Barr 1987: 73; Gilder 2006:73). The box holding the books was variously measured as “about one and half feet wide, one foot deep and nearly two feet long,” (Stackpole 1965:75), “one foot wide and two foot long” (Barr 1987: 73) and “two feet long and a foot square” (Gilder 2006: 72), and was the same size as the box holding the bones, which Schwatka incidentally recorded as two feet long. The different lengths were derived by hand signs from the Inuit (Stackpole 1965: 75). [Has anyone noted that these sizes sound suspiciously similar to the size of ASFS loan libraries. The tin doesn’t sound right however, but these would have been British products.]

This Distant and Unsurveyed Country.

Ross, William Gillies. Montreal, McGill University Press, 1997.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

p. 158: To keep the men alert and cheerful at winter harbor on the search expedition [Franklin search 1850-51], Penny’s surgeons had organized the “Royal Cornwallis Theatre” on board the Lady Franklin. Drawing actors from both ships and also from Sir John Ross’s nearby vessel, the company distributed printed handbills and performed in front of an audience of fifty, wearing calico costumes and accompanied by music that was described—possibly, with some exaggeration—as “tolerable” (Sutherland 1852: I. 428). At about the same time, the “Arctic Academy” got under way, also under the direction of the surgeons. Its classes ran for three hours a night, four nights a week. Reading, writing, and arithmetic formed the basis of the curriculum, but geography excited the men’s interest in a special way because some of them had sailed on merchant voyages to various parts of the world. Despite a limited supply of educational materials (slates, some paper and pencils, an old world map, and one copy of Johnston’sPhysical Atlas),the seamen (some of whom were barely literate) eagerly participated in discussions of global physical and human geography. The brightest men on the ships showed promise of learning elementary navigation by winter’s end.

The Real Story of the Whaler: Whaling, Past and Present.

Verrill, Alpheus Hyatt. New York: D. Appleton, 1916.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

A general history of New Bedford and its whalers. The book is both a useful compendium of knowledge about New Bedford, and a sentimental threnody for its whalers and whalemen.