ABEBooks Description: First edition. Delano, an American mariner and author from Duxbury, Massachusetts, made several voyages to various parts of the Pacific including Hawaii, Palau, the Galapagos Islands, Manila, Canton and Macao, New Guinea, Australia, the East Indies, Chile and Peru. His ".opportunity for fame and fortune came in 1790. A new ship, the "Massachusetts", weighing 900 tons and 116 feet long, had been built at Quincy to engage in the recently opened and much-talked-about China trade. Delano booked on as second officer and began keeping the journal that would form the basis of his [this book]. He published this lengthy--about 600 pages--yet readable and frequently exciting story in Boston, and it was reprinted several times in the nineteenth century" (DNB). "A Narrative." reveals Delano's open-minded curiosity and respect for the diverse cultures he encountered. It includes a unique account of the "Bounty" and Captain Bligh, accompanied by the map and views of Pitcairn's Island. The source for Herman Melville's short story, "Benito Cereno" is taken from one of Delano's adventures in which a Spanish ship is overrun by the slaves it was transporting.
A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres: Comprising Three Voyages Round the World; together with a Voyage of Survey and Discovery, in the Pacific Ocean and Oriental Islands.
- Whalemen's Reading
The Polar Rosses: John and James Clark Ross and their Explorations.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
These two Rosses, respectively uncle and nephew, were arguably the major forces in Polar exploration from Barrow’s initial enthusiasm in the 1810s through to the successful findings of the Franklin Search, that despite Barrow’s loathing for Sir John after the failure of Ross’s first search for the North West Passage. This is an excellent and well-written biography of the two men and their era of discovery.
Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and Round the World: being Personal Narratives of Attempts to Reach the North and South Poles; and of an Open-boat Expedition up the Wellington Channel in Search of Sir John Franklin and Her Majesty’s ships “Erebus” and “Terror,” in Her Majesty’s Boat “Forlorn Hope,” under the Command of the Author. To which are Added an Autobiography….
- Maritime Reading
The author participated in three polar expeditions, an early 1827 North Pole attempt, the famous James Ross Clark Antarctic expedition on Erebus and Terror (1839-1843), and a Franklin Search expedition searching for the same two ships. The Ross voyage was the circumnavigation of M’Cormick’s title. [See the Anthology of the Antarctic Reading Experience under 1839.]
Scientific Observations of Dr. I. I. Hayes’ Arctic Expedition of 1860-61.
- 1860-61 US North Pole Expedition (aboard United States, commanded by Isaac Hayes).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Schott, who worked for the Coast and Geodetic Survey, appears to have done the analysis of Hayes’ data in 1865. At end of Part I, the “Computation of the Astronomical Observations” is a draft letter from Schott to Hayes (Feb. 13, 1865) about their publication.
Voyages of a Modern Viking
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
A very pleasant autobiography of someone who sailed with Amundsen on the Gjoa, the Fram, and the Maud, based on his diaries and presumably translated from Norwegian (though there is no indication).
In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship
- Whalemen's Reading
An account of a disastrous voyage in 1841-45 under Captain Howes Norris (until he was murdered for good cause) on the Sharon out of Fairhaven, Mass.
Scott of the Antarctic.
- Heroic Age 1901-1921.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
p. 14: It is perhaps significant that among the few possessions he was to pack for his first southern journey—possessions so carefully rationed for weight that he had to choose between a pair of socks and their equivalent weight in tobacco—Darwin’s Origin of Species was the book that went into his kit.
Labrador, The Country and the People.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
p. 175: The best educated people in the country at present are the Eskimo. Almost without exception they can read and write. Many can play musical instruments, share in part singing, and are well able to keep accounts, and know the value of thins. These accomplishments, entirely and solely due to the Moravian missionaries, have largely helped them to hold their own in trade, a faculty for want of which almost every aboriginal race is apt to suffer so severely.
The Lure of the Labrador Wild: The Story of the Exploring Expedition Conducted by Leonidas Hubbard, Jr.
- 1903 US Personal Exploring Expedition to Labrador by Leonidas Hubbard Jr. and Dillon Wallace.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
As a young lawyer Wallace met Hubbard, an editor of Outing magazine, in 1900 and in 1903 they departed New York to explore the wilder and hitherto unexplored parts of Labrador. It was a difficult journey in which Hubbard died of starvation and Wallace managed to survive and go on to further explorations and successful books. Hubbard’s wife Mina felt that Wallace had disparaged her husband by implying that Leonidas caused the failure—she went on to her own career as successful competitor of Wallace as a Labrador explorer in the “great race of 1905.” All the reading that I could find was Scriptural and from The Book of Common Prayer.
Shackleton Discovery Diaries. Vol. 1 Dec. 1901-1902.
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
p. 5, Thursday [Dec] 26th: One of the officers of the “Ringarooraa” sent me Swinburne’s “Songs before Sunrise” and two volumes of the Poems and Ballads, but I don’t think there will be much time to read these during the summer; during the long winter far away from the teeming life of the great world one may calmly criticize his rather erotic lines.
Polar Colonization: The Preliminary Arctic Expedition of 1877.
- 1877-78 US Preliminary Arctic Expedition for IPY 1881-84 (led by Howard Howgate).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Describes a preliminary plan of exploration, useful for another main expedition of 1878, but involving both meteorological and naturalist research. The expedition had George Tyson as choosing a suitable ship, the Florence, and captain of the expedition which sailed on August 3 from New London for a year-long venture. Howgate was a flawed character who nonetheless was a consummate bookman, none better to prepare for the book needs of the IPY expedition in 1881.
“Samuel Hearne’s Accounts of the Massacre at Bloody Fall, 17 July 1771”
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
By comparing Hearne’s field notes to the posthumous published vision of Hearne’s Journey, Maclaren calls into question the later Hearne account of the young woman at Bloody Fall. George Back was the first to call it into question. The horrid elaboration comes in the published version, not before, and indicates a good deal of editorial meddling. In his notes Hearne is only a neutral onlooker; in publication he is a reluctant participant.
Two Years before the Mast. A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea.
- Maritime Reading
Depicts the life of the forecastle seaman on a merchant vessel in 1840. Published anonymously, Dana was an educated gentleman who presented himself as a common seaman intending to “present the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is,—the light and dark together.” (p. 4)
In Search of the Magnetic North: a Soldier-Surveyor’s Letters from the North-West 1843-1844.
- Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
Overland scientific expedition in mid 1840s written by a staunch Anglican gentleman, concerned about the spiritual welfare of natives but fairly bigoted about it.
The Voyages of William Baffin, 1612-1622.
- 1612-22 British Voyages of William Baffin.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 150: Wherefore I cannot but much admire the worke of the Almightie, when I consider how vaine the best and chiefest hopes of men are in thinges vncertaine ; and to speake of no other then of the hopeful passage to the North-West. How many of the best sort of men haue set their whole endeauoures to prooue a passage that ways? not onely in conference, but also in writing and publishing to the world. Yea, what great summes of money haue been spent about that action, as your worship hath costly experience of. Neither would the vain-glorious Spaniard haue scattered abroad so many false maps and journals, if they had not beene confident of a passage this way; that if it had pleased God a passage had beene found, they might haue eclipsed the worthy prayse of the adventurers and true discouerers. And for my owne part I would hardly haue beleeued the contrary vntill my eyes became witnesse of what I desired not to haue found; still taking occasion of hope on euery likelihood, till such time as we had coasted almost all the circumference of this great bay.