A joint biography of uncle and nephew with much on other explorers of the time, e.g., Parry. There is an impressive body of contemporary literature surrounding the Rosses and Parry which is well-described here, including the acrimony between uncle and nephew, John and James.
Polar Pioneers. John Ross and James Clark Ross.
Ross, J. M. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
The Voyage of the ‘Why Not ?’ in the Antarctic: the Journal of the Second French South Polar Expedition, 1908-1910
English Version by Philip Wash. New York, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911. [Reprinted Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1978].
- 1908-10 Second French South Polar Expedition (Charcot on Pourquoi-pas?).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Charcot’s is a rather ponderous book about an important expedition, with several historical excurses in which he consistently praises Antarctic explorers, as if to elevate himself.
Jack in the Forecastle; or, Incidents in the Early Life of Hawser Martingale.
Sleeper, John Sherburne. Boston: Crosby, Nicholas, Lee, 1860.
- Whalemen's Reading
Preview
Sleeper was an American sailor, journalist, and politician who was Mayor of Roxbury, Mass., and a member of the Mass. Senate. As a novelist he used the pseudonym of Mawser Martingale, and I suspect this book is autobiographical fiction. He went to sea as a cabin boy in 1809, age 15, and the book is about his first command in the merchant marine in 1821.
Peter Fidler, Trader and Surveyor, 1769 to 1822.
Tyrrell, J. B. Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. Third Series. VII. Section II (1913) p. 117-27 [Read May 28, 1913].
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
p. 127: Fidler himself was a hard worker, but was of an irascible disposition with comparatively little consideration for the weaknesses and failings of others. He was a diligent student and fond of reading. In the Library at York is a manuscript book of mathematical problems worked out by him, and a large number of printed books in the Library are inscribed with his name and have evidently been contributed to the Library by him. Most of these are on mathematical subjects of some kind, many of them being such books as “The Nautical Almanac,” “The Diary Companion, being a supplement to the Ladies’ Diary,” “The Gentleman’s Diary, or the Mathematical Repository.” Others are on Biblical chronology. In addition to which there is the “Monthly Magazine for a number of years.
Journal of Transactions and Events, during a Residence of Nearly Sixteen Years on the Coast of Labrador; Containing Many Interesting Particulars, Both of the Country and Its Inhabitants, Not Hitherto Known
Townsend, George. Three Volumes. Newark, UK: Allin and Ridge, 1792.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
Townsend took six voyages to Labrador over sixteen years and this is his personal account of his experiences. Throughout the journal are many references to reading prayers to his family, sometimes twice a day.
A History of the Whale Fisheries, from the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date.
Jenkins, J. T. (London: Witherby, 1921).
- Maritime Reading
Preview
p. 178, [don’t know that this is relevant but worth checking—books here may refer to account books ]: … as they claim to know the procedure of the former company having their books in their possession, they are first in the field and " that the design manifestly tending to the increase of navjgation, and the benefit of all His Majesty's subjects, it is humbly hoped, will receive countenance and encouragement."
Under the Northern Lights, with Illustrations by G. R de Wilde.
MacGahan, Januarius A. (London: Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1876).
- 1875-76 Private Expedition to Magnetic North Pole and North West Passage (Captain Allen Young aboard Pandora).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
Narrative of Captain Allen Young's expedition in his yacht Pandora (later the Jeannette), 1875-76, into Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, and into Peel Sound. Also contains an account of Young's sledge trips during M'Clintock's Fox Expedition. The Voyage was privately organized, its object to sail to the magnetic pole by way of Lancaster Sound and from there negotiate the North West Passage. They reached Beechey Island where they found a number of relics left by earlier expeditions but were finally beset by ice in Franklin Strait. There were two other works written on this expedition, both by the commander, one was privately published and contained photographs. (ABEBooks description.)
A History of Polar Exploration.
Kirwan, L. P. New York: Norton, 1960.
- Arctic Reading: General
Preview
Kirwin’s History is widely considered the classic history of polar exploration.
South Latitude.
Ommanney, Francis Downes. London: Longmans, 1938.
- Whalemen's Reading
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A beautifully written book on whaling in the Weddell Sea, where R.R.S. Discovery II was trapped (like Endurance) but escaped.
The Southwest Pacific since 1900: A Modern History.
Grattan, C. Harley. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963.
- Heroic Age 1901-1921.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
This survey of the history of Australia, New Zealand, The Islands, and Antarctica includes a substantial chapter on “The Heroic Age” (p. 561-91), a derivative but very serviceable summary. Unlike some others he ends the Heroic Age with the completion of Shackleton’s Endurance debacle in 1916 rather than with Shackleton’s death on South Georgia in 1922 during the Quest expedition. His summary of the age rings true: “Thus ended the Heroic Age in a wild burst of blazing ambition, disaster, valor, fortitude, squalor, squabbles, and tragedy” (p. 591).
Ice Ship: The Epic Voyages of the Polar Adventurer Fram.
Johnson, Charles W. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2014.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Preview
This is a workmanlike biography of a ship, Fridthof Nansen's Fram, and its major voyages: Nansen's attempt to drift to the North Pole in 1893-96; Otto Sverdrup's journey to Ellesmere Land and Alex Heiberg Island, 1898-1902; and Amundsen's Expedition to the South Pole in 1911-12. It is a good retelling of the major adventures of these three motivated if depressing explorers, though there is little new here and some mistakes and questionable emphases. Although the ship is well-known for its well-stocked library, and that is recognized here, there is little about what was in the library, only some general comments about books in certain fields such as botany and other sciences, and a reading from Corinthians for a burial at sea.
The Voyages of Captain Scott….
Scott, Robert Falcon. Edited by Charles Turley, with an introduction by J. M. Barrie. London: Smith, Elder, 1914.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Preview
A completely adulatory semi-biography, much from Scott’s writings. Ex:
Roughing It in the Bush; Or, Life in Canada.
Moodie, Susanna. Two volumes. New York: George P. Putnam, 1852.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
Mrs. Moodie (nee Strickland) sailed on an immigrant ship of mainly Scots headed to Canada in 1832. She writes with a refreshing candour about the trials and tribulations of life in the Canadian bush, direct enough to warrant a Norton Critical Edition in 2007, with extensive supporting material about her life and work.
The Voyage of Captain Bellingshausen to the Antarctic Seas 1819-1821
Bellingshausen, Thaddeus von. 2 vols. Trans. from the Russian. Edited by Frank Debenham. London: Hakluyt Society, 1945.
- 1819-21 First Russian Antarctic Expedition commanded by Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen (aboard Vostok and Mirny).
- “Discovery” of Antarctica.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Only a fraction of Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin Bellingshausen’s (aka Thaddeus, 1778-1852) long career in the Russian Navy was devoted to Antarctic exploration, his two-year expedition exploring Antarctic in 1819-21. It was nonetheless a notable venture as the second circumnavigation of the continent (the first was by Captain Cook in 1773-74), and the first actual sighting of the Continent in January 1820. His discovery of Alexander Island and the naming of the Bellingshausen Sea were not much honored in Russia since they were of little immediate practical use, but his achievements are now much more fully recognized, At least as translated and then edited in this version, Bellingshausen appears to have an easy-going if formal style of writing and shows himself to be a most judicious man in both his navigation and his leadership of the voyage, a character much doubted by his critics.
Arctic Meeting at Chickering Hall. Plan for Exploration of the Arctic Regions,
Howgate, Henry W. Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York 10 (1878) 276-98.
- 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Includes meeting commentary by William Cullen Bryant, Bayard Taylor, Lord Dufferin, and Isaac Hayes. Hayes approved Howgate’s plan but recommended the mouth of Smith Sound rather than Lady Franklin Bay because he wasn’t confident that the later could be reached every year. He was right.