Knight, Errol Lorne. Typescript diary of Wrangel expedition in which Knight died (Dartmouth STEF Mss 90, folder I. 3-Original diary is in folder 1.
  • 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

This is the diary apparently doctored by Harold Noice with long sections missing and some lines erased, some having to do with Ada Blackjack (cf. p. 15, Jan 14): I am sure she is the most stubborn creature I have ever known. [That comment follows 3 erased lines.]

The Journal of Annie Holes Ricketson on the Whaleship A. R. Tucker, 1871-1874.

Ricketson, Annie Holmes. From the Original in the Kendall Whaling Museum. New Bedford, MA: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1958.
  • 1871-74 American Whaling Expedition to Indian Ocean (aboard A. R. Tucker).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A good example of the so-called petticoat whaler, the Captain’s wife. This is a fairly calm memoir with some observations about the business of whaling, and frequent reference to books, newspapers, and letters but seldom with any reading details.

A Sequel to the North-West Passage, and the Plans for the Search for Sir John Franklin. A Review.

Brown, John. London: E. Stanford, 1860.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

This follow-up adds some opinion defending Franklin as the discoverer of the North-West Passage, but doesn’t appear to add much more on the Franklin Search and the earlier book. But the Harvard copy is an interesting one (Harvard Tower 120.) Presentation copy from John Barrow (Sir John Barrow’s son), with letters laid in, one dated Nov. 16, 1860: I am compelled again to differ with high arctic authority which is a matter rather of regret to me.—as you know how much I esteem

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:

The Wreck of the

Dickens, Charles. Golden Mary.By Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. (New York: Library Publishers, 1956). [Originally published in Household Words, 1856.].
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A compelling tale of shipwreck told by Dickens in the first section, followed by a kind of Decameron of tales told by survivors of the shipwreck as they waited for rescue, and the story of the rescue as told by Collins.

Alone.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn. London: Readers Union, 1939.
  • 1933-35 Byrd Second Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

After several expeditions Byrd, trying to justify his solo wintering at Advance Base, felt restless:

Cruises in the Bering Sea: Being Records of Further Sport and Travel

Niedieck, Paul. Camden, SC: John Culler, 1995. [First published in 1909.].
  • 1906 British Hunting Trip to Alaska and Siberia.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

The author hunted bear and sheep in Alaska and Siberia and his book is now especially current as he hunted on the fabled Kamchaka Peninsula where hunting had just opened. The author bagged many brown bears and snow sheep.

An Arctic Whaling Diary: The Journal of Captain George Comer in Hudson Bay, 1903-1905.

Comer, George. Edited by W. Gillies Ross. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1984.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

A straightforward and not too revealing journal of Hudson Bay whaling at the beginning of the 20th century, just as Amundsen was coming through on his NW Passage. Comer was commanding the American whaler Era at the end of the whaling era. Has a few interesting book notes:

Blizzard and Fire: A Year at Mawson, Antarctica.

Béchervaise, John. London: Angus and Robertson, 1964.
  • 1959-60 Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This book concerns the ANARE trip to Mawson in 1959. A somehwat odd book in that it is an epistolary account of a year at an Australian base by letters to a variety of friends and relatives, interspersed with a series of newsletters ostensibly for a public audience. He does tell some exciting stories as the base commander, but his references to reading are more utiitarian than inspirational, for example the use of The Australian Pilot to find repair facilities in various places (p. 24). A discussion of Plato and death is more speculative and a rarity for this book (p. 135). However, there are some quietly meditative passages that make the book valuable and are reproduced here even though unrelated to Antarctic reading.

The Life of Sir Clements R. Markham.

Markham, Albert Hastings. London: John Murray, 1917.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Pure hagiography by his cousin, also a naval officer. Clements had a short but early naval career which included service as the only midshipman on the Assistance on its 1850-51 search for John Franklin. He contributed to the Aurora Borealis and other papers of the voyage.

The Arctic in the Middle Ages,

Vaughan, Richard. Journal of Medieval History8 (1982) 313-42.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

An overview of knowledge of the Arctic in the middle ages. Claims that any one of the writers displays woeful ignorance, but collectively they provide a good picture of the medieval Arctic, from cold to frostbite, from skies to polar bears, to unicorn horns. The writers he cites are Saxo Grammaticus who is in “the very first rank of medieval writers about the north” and who wrote about geysers and volcanoes in Iceland, and Finnish use of skies. See his History of the Danes, 2 volumes, 1978-9.

A Voyage to Terra Australis; Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty’s Ship the Investigator….

Flinders, Matthew. In Two Volumes, with an Atlas. (London: Printed by W. Bulmer./.and Published by G. and W. Nicol, 1814).
  • 1801-03 British Exploring Expedition to Terra Australis (Captain Matthew Flinders aboard Investigator).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 5-6: On the 22nd [1801], a set of astronomical and surveying instruments, for the use of myself and officers, was sent down by direction of the Navy Board, as also various articles for presents to, and barter with, the native inhabitants of the countries to be visited, and many for our own use and convenience. Amongst the latter were most of the books of voyages to the South Seas, which, with our own individual collections, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, presented by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, formed a library in my cabin for all the offices. Every chart at the Admiralty, which related to Terra Australis and the neighbouring islands, was copied for us under the direction of the late hydrographer, Alexander Dalrymple, Esq.; who also enriched our stock of information by communicating all such parts of his works as were appropriate to the voyage.