The World Cruise of the Great White Fleet: Honoring 100 Years of Global Partnerships and Security.

Crawford, Michael J. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 2008.
  • 1907-09 US Circumnavigation by the Great White Fleet.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Wonderfully illustrated volume, with the sixteen white battleships with gold trimmed bows, shown in formation. Not much about conditions aboard ship or amusements for the crew. Here is an example of the patriotic intent of the trip:

Bible, owned by Dr. G. Murray Levick, Surgeon for Northern Party

  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Richard Kossow has a copy of the New Testament which Levick had on this expedition. It is the Oxford Bible-paper edition, a small edition for which I didn’t get full details. Here is the description I have:

Fourteen Men: The Story of the Antarctic Expedition to Heard Island

Scholes, Arthur. New York: Dutton, 1952.
  • 1947-49 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (Heard Island and Macquarie Island).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

An expedition of scientific research, chiefly meteorological and magnetic, but with an interest in Australian claims in Antarctica. Stokes was a radioman but also one of the “mets.” The Captain of the ship was Lt. Cmd. George Dixon; the leader of the shore party for Heard Island was Stuart Campbell. The ship was Ellsworth’s Wyatt Earp, where the officers and men were separated even for the alternate night movies. The trip to Heard Island (4000 kilometers southwest of Australia) was so full of weather-related dangers that references to reading do not occur until one third of the way into the book, and then not very many. Most winterover books have a central winter chapter (July/August) that discusses what the men did to pass the time. This lacks such a chapter, never talks about what the author himself read, and mainly recounts weather-related adventures during that period. Most of the last 150 pages deals with the fauna of Heard Island.

The Seaman’s Friend; Containing A Treatise on Practical Seamanship; A Dictionary of Sea Terms; Customs and Usages of the Merchant Service; Laws Relating to the Practical Duties of Master and Mariners.

Dana, Richard Henry. Fifth Edition.Boston, MA: Thomas Groom, 1847.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

A comprehensive manual of most aspects of seamanship at the height of sail, and near the beginning of steam. There are a few rudimentary references to books and reading, rather surprisingly few for a man of Dana’s literary tastes.

Incidents of a Whaling Voyage….

Olmsted, Francis Allyn. New York: Appleton, 1841). (New edition. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1969).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Olmsted was a passenger aboard the whaler North American [a temperance ship] in 1839, a trip taken as a kind of rest cure for his chronic nervous debility. He returned to Yale for medical school and in fact graduated but died in 1844 after a second voyage.

Cold Comfort: My Love Affair with the Arctic.

Rowley, Graham W. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1996.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

This is a rather dry account of a mid-1930s expedition to map the coastline of Baffin Island and the Foxe Basin and also some archaeological work on Thule and Dorset cultures. There are scattered reading references:

No Man’s Land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country.

Conway, Sir William Martin. Cambridge: University Press, 1906.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

A general history of the archipelago, based on Conway’s studies and his earlier visits. Although he reviews a number of books in preparation for his manuscript, he does not here reveal the thoughtful reader who appears in his earlier narratves

In the Heart of the Arctics.

Senn, Nicholas. Chicago, W. B. Conkey, 1907.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

This rather charming account of a voyage with Peary to Greenland in 1905 aboard Erik. Senn was a Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago, and a veteran medic of the Spanish-American War.

The Last Great Quest: Captain Scott’s Antarctic Sacrifice.

Jones, Max. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Book shows tensions of scientific contributions of polar exploration over against the macho, imperial, jingoistic elements which often symbolized an imperial nation. Jones shows a good balance of respect and criticism for Scott, and situates Scott within the context of his times. His book shows tensions of scientific contributions of polar exploration over against the macho, imperial, jingoistic elements which often symbolized an imperial nation. He is particularly good on the English worship of manliness and pluck, showing how Scott’s reputation gained from the notion that he and his men were somehow superhuman heroes, though suggesting that we know little of how “heroically” Scott and his partners acted.

Farthest North; Or, The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic Expedition.

Lanman, Charles. New York: D. Appleton, 1885.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A determined hagiography of Lockwood, based on his journals before his death towards the end of the Greely expedition. But Lockwood does come across here as one of the most level-headed participants in the expedition.