An account of the International Geophysical Year expedition to the Weddell Sea with Captain Finn Ronne, 1956-58, with emphasis on the stresses and conflicts between the military captain and the civilian scientists. Behrendt is unusual in noting, mostly from his daily journal, a substantial amount of reading during the winter at Ellsworth Station. These readings included Ronne’s own Antarctic Conquest (p. 24); War and Peace (p. 58); The Rebel (Camus) and Stefansson’s Arctic Manual (p. 114); Gods Graves and Scholars (Ceram: p. 122); Thurber (p. 136); Cold (Gould: p. 140); thesaurus (p. 153); The White Desert (Giaever: p. 158 with a long quote); Mrs Warren’s Profession (Shaw) and Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck: p. 170); The Rain Cave: p. 189); Of Whales and Men (R.B. Robertson: p. 201); Life on the Mississippi (Twain: p. 214); The Life of Greece (Durant: p. 223); Scott’s Last Expedition (p. 320); Time magazine (p. 323); Merck Manual (p. 346); Human Destiny (LeComte de Nouilly: p. 371); The Wall (Hersey: p. 374).
Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957.
- 1957-58 Operation Deep Freeze I. Ellesworth Station. (Finn Ronne).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor.
- Maritime Reading
p. 25-26: In July 1838 the Admiralty sanctioned the supply of libraries to sea-going ships. Large ships were issued with 276 books, small ships with 156. The books were mostly religious or of an ‘improving’ nature. Various societies and private individuals also contributed. As early as 1816 a Lieutenant Baker and a Dr Quarrier supplied the Leander frigate, fitting out from Woolwich, with a library of several hundred books. Mrs Elizabeth Fry later persuaded the Admiralty to issue libraries to naval hospitals and to the coastguard.
Does Anyone Read Lake Hazen?
- 1957-58 Canadian International Geographical Year Ellesmere Island Expedition.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Describes a Canadian expedition to northern Ellesmere Island 1957-58 as part of the International Geophysical Year.
Mawson: a Life.
- 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
A balanced biography of Mawson, emphasizing his achievements but not ignoring his sometimes depressive personality and temper.
Only Yesterday.
- Arctic Reading: United States
p. 353, re Byrd: Yet the noble art of ballyhoo, which had flourished so successfully in the nineteen-twenties, had lost something of its vigor. Admiral Byrd’s flight to the South Pole made him a hero second only to Lindbergh in the eyes of the country at large, but in the larger centers of population there was manifest a slight tendency to yawn: his exploit had been over-publicized, and heroism, however gallant, lost something of its spontaneous charm when it was subjected to scientific management and syndicated in daily dispatches. [See also chapter 8, “The Ballyhoo Years,” p. 186ff.]
Birdie Bowers: Captain Scott’s Marvel.
- 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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.
The Life of Sir Martin Frobisher.
- 1576-78 The Baffin Island Voyages of Martin Frobisher.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 37-8: Expense inventory of Frobisher’s first voyage in 1576 include:
Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic A dventure.
- 1880 British Whaling Voyage to Iceland (Conan Doyle, Surgeon).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
A facsimile and transcript of a diary Conan Doyle kept on an Arctic whaling trip in 1880 as ship’s surgeon aboard the S.S. Hope. It includes a good bit about his reading during this six-month summer trip to Greenland. All quotations here are from the transcript.
In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times.
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Nansen’s second major work, this book covers only the earliest period of Northern exploration and could well be titled “In Northern Myths.” He is certainly among the earliest and most scholarly, literary, and research-oriented writers of exploration history, the work verges little upon the subject of our inquiry.
A Report on the Resources of Iceland and Greenland.
- Arctic Reading: United States
This is a report commissioned by William H. Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State, on the desirability of acquiring Iceland and Greenland for the US, just as the U.S. had acquired a few Caribbean islands and Alaska.
Three Years of Arctic Service, An Account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881-84 and the Attainment of the Farthest North.
- 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
- Arctic Reading: United States
These volumes are Greely’s personal, not official, somewhat sanitized version of his expedition and its aftermath. Much of the work is taken from Greely’s journals, and those passages are given within quotation marks, as in the original publication.
Second in Command: A Biography of Captain Francis Crozier.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
A short biography, probably the first, of Crozier, with some useful information but hardly profound treatment.
With Nansen in the North, A Record of the Fram Expedition in 1893-96.
- 1893-96 Norwegian North Pole Expedition (Fridthof Nansen aboard Fram).
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
p. 40, Oct 1, 1893, Sunday and their first day of rest: In the forenoon we had some sacred music on the organ, and read books from our well-stocked library.
Roald Amundsen.
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Bomann attempts to do to Amundsen what Huntford did to Scott. Most of the time he refers to Amundsen as “the polar explorer” as if he thought himself the only one. Apart from a reference to Amundsen’s childhood reading of and fascination with Sir John Franklin, I found nothing about reading.
Life Aboard: The Journals of William N. and George F. Smith.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Diaries of typical 19th-century voyages by New Brunswick ships to all over the world, usually carrying timber. Nothing polar about it (mostly St John to Liverpool), but an interesting example of a seaman’s journals.