p. 81, on meeting the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Markov: There were sixteen women on their ship, most in their thirties and forties. Some were very good-looking. I noticed. Some were sailors; some laundry workers. We tied to a rope a copy of Voyage to the Ice, the story of my 1977-8 expedition. It was hauled up and we received in return a guide to Leningrad’s Hermitage Museum.
Icebound in Antarctica
Lewis, David and Mimi George. London: Secker & Warburg, 1987.
- 1982-84 Australian Yacht Cruises (aboard Dick Smith Explorer).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Greenland, the Adjacent Seas, and the North-West Passage to the Pacific Ocean.
O’Reilly, Bernard. Illustrated in a Voyage to Davis’ Strait during the Summer of 1817. London: Baldwin, Craddock, & Joy, 1818.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
O'Reilly served as surgeon aboard a whale-ship, in order to gather scientific information on the northern regions. He gives much information concerning Arctic zoology, whale fishery, natural atmospheric phenomena, observations of magnetic variation, the history and habitation of Greenland, and observations concerning the possibility of a Northwest Passage." Field - "The observations of the author on the natives of Greenland, are recorded on pp. 52 and 85, of which the last two are occupied with a vocabulary of their language. Five of the plates are illustrative of the features, or habits of life of the Exquimaux." According to Abbey an article in the 'Quarterly Review' called the book 'a bare faced imposition.' Stanton & Tremaine mentions the book is said to have been plagiarized from material prepared by Sir Charles L. M. von Giescke. Hill: Pacific Voyages, p. 219. Field: Indian Bibliography, p. 297
A Journal of Voyages & Travels in the Interior of North America, Between the 47th and 58th Degrees of Latitude…
Harmon, Daniel William. Andover, MA: Flagg and Gould, 1820. [See also a later edition called Sixteen Years in the Indian Country,ed. William Kaye Lamb (Toronto: Macmillan, 1957).].
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
A very long sojourn (1803-1818 or so), by a Christian fundamentalist troubled by sin but trusting in God. Had a common law native wife who is not discussed very much until he finally marries and in reference to children. Tells harrowing tales of native drinking and its consequences, despite the fact that he provided liquor to them. On the death of his son, see p. 238-39.
Thulia: A Tale of the Antarctic.
Palmer, James Croxall. New-York: S. Colman, 1843.
- 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
A narrative poem about the sailing travails of the US schooner Flying-Fish on the US Exploring Expedition (1838-42). An appendix describes the circumstances that the poem portrays. Basically this is doggerel poetry describing two vessels of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, the Peacock, and the Flying-Fish. An appendix describes the adventures of the latter ship:
The Race to the White Continent.
Gurney, Alan. New York: Norton, 2000.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Preview
Describes and compares three major Antarctic expeditions of the late 1830s, one French (d’Urville), one British (Ross), and one American (Wilkes).
Within the Circle: Portrait of the Arctic.
Stefansson, Evelyn. New York: Scribner’s, 1945.
- Arctic Reading: General
Preview
p. 32: Since 1913 a journal printed in the Eskimo language has published twelve monthly issues each year in Godhavn. Avangnamioq, the Northlander, it is called. It is distributed throughout North Greenland as soon as it is off the press. It is sent in yearly volumes to the rest of the country from its printing plant, which is now housed in the town hall, the House of Assembly.
Edge of the World: Ross Island Antarctica: A Personal and Historical Narrative.
Neider, Charles. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1974.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Preview
Neider tells much of the history of Antarctic exploration by focusing on the geographic area of Ross Island and the Ross Sea. The book has a good series of maps which helped me understand what I have often found a confusing place. The book itself is highly derivative, including long passages quoted from some very familiar works of the explorers, from Ross onwards, including Scott and Shackleton, but it also recounts the author’s own experiences and near disasters on his Deep Freeze expeditions to McMurdo and travels elsewhere in Antarctica.
Under the Pole Star: The Oxford University Expedition, 1935-6.
Glen, Alexander Richard. London: Methuen, 1937.
- 1935-36 Oxford University North East Land Spitzbergen Expedition (led by Alexander Glen).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
A British expedition to North East Land of Spitsbergen, with a mixture of English and Norwegian crew, scientists and sailors. Glen was the expedition leader and wrote this account with a debonair and detached style. The assignment was to survey the north east region of the archipelago. Obviously this was a bookish group who did a good deal of reading but seldom reporting on what they were reading. The author himself seems prone to boredom and speaks of it fairly often.
Douglas Mawson Book List 1911-14
Mawson, Douglas. from Mawson’s Antarctic Diaries.
- 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Another two-page typed list was prepared for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14 of which Mawson was the leader; some of those physical books are shown in the Jacka edition of the diaries, the 7th plate following p. 62, depicting Winter Quarters at Cape Denison. The diaries, originally held by the Mawson Institute of Antarctic Research at the University of Adelaide are now a part of the South Australian Museum. . I am most grateful to Mark Pharoah of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide for help in providing copies of the original lists.
Discovery: The Story of the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition.
Byrd, Richard Evelyn. New York: Putnam’s, 1935.
- 1933-35 Byrd Second Antarctic Expedition.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Byrd’ second expedition (1933-1935), again settled at the still usable Little America, emphasizing science and technology at considerable expense for a wholly private expedition. The technology included four airplanes, various tractors, and snowmobiles. The trip included Byrd’s near-fatal solitary period at Bolling Advanced Weather Base recounted in Alone.
Camp Century: City under the Ice.
Wager, Walter. Philadelphia and New York: Chilton Books, 1962.
- Greenland.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
An enjoyable read about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s nuclear-powered city tunneled into the Greenland ice cap. The base was 130 mi. from Thule, 100 from a slightly nearer base (Tuto), and thus Camp Century. It operated for about six years and was intended as a model for future bases. I don’t know if there is any summary study of its accomplishments. This is the human interest part of it, not long after it opened up, a rather saccharine account. There are some casual mentions of the library and plate 1 has a picture of the library at Camp Century. Plus these citations:
A Voyage to the South Seas in His Majesty’s Ship the Wager in the Years 1740-1741.
Bulkeley, John and John Cummings. Gunner and Carpenter of the Wager. New York: Robert M. McBride, 1927. [First edition, 1743; Second edition, 1757].
- 1740-41 English Naval Voyage to the South Seas (aboard Wager).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
Preview
Fascinating account of a shipwreck, a potential mutiny, and a Warrant Officer who took it on himself to advise incompetent officers in how to save the lives of the crew. His advice was dependent upon one volume he borrowed from the ship’s Captain.
The Strange and Dangerovs Voyage of Captaine Thomas Iames, in His Intended Discovery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea….
James, Thomas. London, Legatt, 1633. [Reprint in Hakluyt Society edition of the Voyages of Luke Foxe and Thomas James. Two volumes. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1894). The James account is in Vol. II, p. 451-611.].
- Arctic Reading: General
Preview
p. 606, in a list of instruments provided for his voyage are a number of books: A Chest full of the best and choicest Mathematicall bookes that could be got for money in England; as likewise Master Hackluite and Master Purchase, and other books of Journals and Histories.
Memoirs of Joseph René Bellot…with his Journal of a Voyage in the Polar Seas in Search of Sir John Franklin. [1851-52]
Bellot, Joseph Rene, Lt. Two volumes.(London: Hurst and Blackett, 1855).
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
Though much of this takes place on land, Bellot sailed on the Prince Albert as part of a British expedition searching for Franklin. Bellot died in 1853. The work consists of a memoir of Bellot by Julien Lemer (p. 1-87), an introduction by Bellot (p 88-108, reprinted from the Annales Maritimes), and Bellot’s journal, the remainder, though the running heads get confused.
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.”