Southern Lights: The Official Account of the British Graham Land Expedition 1934-1937, with Two Chapters by A. Stephenson, and an Historical Introduction by Hugh Robert Rymill.

Rymill, John. London: The Travel Book Club, 1939.
  • 1934-37 British Graham Land Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A rather lacklustre account of a scientific expedition aboard the Penola and on the Antarctic Peninsula, with solid accomplishment and little adventure. Apart from a few general remarks about reading in the evening, the only references to books are in the appendices. In the list of sledging equipment p. 279, a Nautical Almanac and Hints for Travellers Vol. I (RGS) are cited along with various notebooks needed for traverse and meteorological records. Personal equipment (p. 281) for sledging includes “1 book for reading.”

A Voyage to the Arctic in the Whaler Aurora

Lindsay, David Moore. Boston: Dana Estes, 1911.
  • 1884 Whaling Voyage to Greenland (aboard Aurora).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

This voyage was in 1884 to Greenland fisheries via Newfoundland. His introduction is prescient: I cannot imagine it being read by many, as the subject can only interest a few who have themselves gone down to the sea in ships. (p. 11). Lindsay was a lively reader but more in retrospect than in this book.

And the Whale is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen.

Miller, Pamela A. (Boston: David R. Godine: Kendall Whaling Museum 1979).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

A book of extensive excerpts of whalemen’s own escape literature, their own personal journals, often sentimental claptrap about home, love, and death, but best when devoted to their trade of whaling which they tended to depict accurately and realistically.

Antarctic Hazard.

Cockrill, Ross. New York: Philosophical Library, 1957.
  • 1950-51 British Whaling Expedition (aboard Southern Venturer).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Cockrill applied for the job of veterinarian on the British whaling expedition aboard the Southern Venturer in 1950-51, to evaluate the Antarctic whaling population, its health and welfare and the likely survival of the whaling industry in its postwar rebound. Cockrill has a charming style displaying admirable equanimity amidst fanatic whalemen. His ship was part of a large fleet of vessels making annual expeditions which typically killed 34,000 whales.

The Remarkable History of the Hudson’s Bay Company Including that of the French Traders of North-Western Canada and of the North-West, XY, and Astor Fur Companies.

Bryce, George. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1900.
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A general history of the Company from the seventeenth century until the end of the Reil Rebellion until after 1870 and the Company’s “great prospect” at the beginning of the twentieth century. He tries to recount with fairness the problems of the Company, its dubious Charter, the feud with Dobbs over Hudson Bay as the route to the NW Passage, problems with both Catholics and the metis, but he is too pro-British and anti-Catholic to be totally convincing. But he does show the urbane education and wide reading of many of the traders.

Sailors’ Life and Sailors’ Yarns

Codman, John . By Captain Ringbolt [pseud.] New-York: C. S. Francis, 1847.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

A journalistic kind of composite by a somewhat pious and rather strict naval disciplinarian. The following extracts some may read as the comments of a urbane writer of sound but severe morals; I see them as those of a pompous ass.

In the Days of the Red River Rebellion.

McDougall, John. Toronto: Briggs, 1903.
  • 1868-73 Red River Rebellion in Saskatchewan.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

McDougall was a rather devout Protestant missionary who (p. 111-113) engaged the Indians in an anti-alcohol petition, a miner episode in the Red River Colony’s rebellion against the Canadian government which had transferred Hudson’s Bay Company land to the new country to the detriment of Métis interests in their land and culture.

An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour: Drawn up from the Journals which were Kept by the Several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, esq.; by John Hawkesworth … Illustrated with Cuts, and a Great Variety of Charts and Maps.

Hawkesworth, John. Three volumes.London: Strahan & Cadell, 1773.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Hawkesworth’s introduction (p. xix) has a brief but controversial discussion of Providence and natural events. p. xx: “it will always be found that Providence interposes too late, and only moderates the mischief which it might have prevented.” In final passage he says he honors God but doubts his intervention in natural events.

Skating to Antarctica: A Journey to the End of the World

Diski, Jenny. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1997.
  • 1993-96? Tourist Excursion to South Georgia and Antarctic Peninsula aboard Academik Vasilov.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This largely autobiographical work using the hook of a voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula aboard the tourist ship, Academik Vavilov, to explore the pained relation of the author to her parents, and her own daughter’s efforts to explore those relationships. The somewhat mean-spirited passages on the sea voyage to South Georgia and the Peninsula are outweighed by the psychological exploration of troubled parental relations. In essence there is little about Antarctica beyond descriptions of tourists and penguins, nothing about reading, and a bit about boredom.

In Search of the Magnetic North: A Soldier-Surveyor’s Letters from the North-West, 1843-1844.

Lefroy, John Henry. Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada, 1955.
  • 1843-44 British Surveying Expedition for Magnetic North.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

p. xi, re an English soldier-scientist and surveyer assigned to Toronto: …with an English gentlemen’s sincere belief in the inevitable superiority of things English….. He loved his Church; and his interest in missionary work never diminished throughout a career which lasted seventy-eight years.

Narrative of a Voyage to the South Seas, and the Shipwreck of the Princess of Wales Cutter, with an Account of Two Years Residence on an Uninhabited Island.

Goodridge, Charles Medyette. 6th ed. Exeter: W. C. Featherstone and Sold by the Author, 1852.
  • 1820-22 British Sealing Voyage (aboard Princess of Wales).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Account of a sealing voyage (starting May 1820) off the Cape of Good Hope which led to shipwreck and abandonment (in Crozet Islands). Curious blend of adventure, piety, and natural history (esp. birds). The unpaginated preliminaries include a preface, index (contents), opinions of the press, and lengthy subscriber lists organized by place and edition.

‘One cannot help but liking them’: Terra Nova meets Fram.

Hooper, Meredith. Polar Record 49 (April 2012) p. 184-191. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247411000271.
  • 1910-12 Norwegian National Antarctic Expedition (Amundsen on Fram); 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 187: Curious eyes ranged over each other's ships. ‘While we are waiting events we have not been by any means idle,’ wrote Priestley on Saturday morning (Priestley: p. 50). Officers and scientists were busy using Terra Nova as a platform for vigorous scientific work for example sounding, hauling the plankton net, taking water samples, and dredging. According to Bruce, ten of Fram's crew including Amundsen lunched on board Terra Nova and ‘were very friendly, but didn't give away much or get much’ (Bruce: 1911c). On a return visit to Fram ‘to have a look round’ according to Browning, Amundsen asked him if there were any spare newspapers on Terra Nova as he had not read any since September. Browning ‘collected all I could get also a few magazines – he was very pleased’ (Browning: 1911). Priestley did not go. Instead, he showed a Norwegian Lieutenant over Terra Nova.