The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the KARLUK

Niven, Jennifer. New York, Hyperion, 2000.
  • 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

The doomed voyage was the Stefansson Canadian expedition aboard Karluk in 1913-14.. When Stefansson was ashore hunting for fresh meat in Alaska, the ship was caught in the ice with several men aboard and drifted into the Chukchi Sea with Bartlett now in command. Some have charged that Stef deliberately abandoned the ship and men and the evidence seems ambiguous. Niven is anti-Stefansson to an extreme, and gives a fine portrait of Bartlett’s rescue efforts; while she may have some good points it would be difficult to verify them given the inadequacy of the documentation provided. There is no index.

On Floating Ice: Two Years on Antarctic Ice-Shelf South of 75°S.

MacDowall, Joseph. Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1999.
  • 1955-59 Royal Society IGY Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

For one year MacDowall was the leader of this expedition and base at Halley Bay in the Weddell Sea, one of Britain’s contributions to IGY. It is quite a prosaic account, with little drama, but notable for its citations to the base newspaper, the Halley Comet.

The Mystery of the Erik.

Green, Fitzhugh. New York: Appleton, 1923.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An engaging juvenile fiction account of a mutiny aboard a Northwest Passage expeditionary ship, with a reasonable plot concerning an insurance claim for a sunken ship. Like many Arctic juvenile tales, this is a very good vehicle for instructing boys in almost all aspects of expeditionary life: sailing, sealing, natives, walrus, magnetism, you name it.

Arctic Justice: On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet, 1923.

Grant, Shelagh D. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002.
  • 1923 Canadian Murder Trial at Pond Inlet.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Fascinating book on the introduction of European-based law into a culture that had no reason to understand it, in its communitarian consensual approach to justice. Well-written and badly proofed, but worth the read.

A World of Men: Exploration in Antarctica.

Herbert, Wally. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1968.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Herbert was in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year and other times, starting in Dec. 1955 with the Falkland Islands Dependency Survey (FIDS). This is an account of his romance with the ice, which seems to have been a strictly masculine affair as the title implies.

The Barren Grounds of Northern Canada.

Pike, Warburton. London: Macmillan, 1892.
  • 1889-91 Canadian Overland Journey to Barron Grounds by Warburton Pike.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

An 1889-91 trip from Edmonton to Athabasca and the barren grounds in search of caribou and musk-ox. Pike nearly starved on Peace River in 1891.

New Land: Four Years in the Arctic Regions.

Sverdrup, Otto. Two volumes. London: Longmans, Green, 1904.
  • 1898-1902 Swedish Ship and Sledging Expedition to Northern Greenland (Led by Otto Sverdrup aboard Fram).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

Volume I:

Only Yesterday.

Allen, Frederick Lewis. New York: Harper, 1931.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

p. 353, re Byrd: Yet the noble art of ballyhoo, which had flourished so successfully in the nineteen-twenties, had lost something of its vigor. Admiral Byrd’s flight to the South Pole made him a hero second only to Lindbergh in the eyes of the country at large, but in the larger centers of population there was manifest a slight tendency to yawn: his exploit had been over-publicized, and heroism, however gallant, lost something of its spontaneous charm when it was subjected to scientific management and syndicated in daily dispatches. [See also chapter 8, “The Ballyhoo Years,” p. 186ff.]

Antarctica, or Two Years Amongst the Ice of the South Pole By Dr. N. Otto G. Nordenskjöld and Dr. Joh. Gunnar Andersson.

Nordenskjöld, Otto. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1905. [Another edition was published in Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1977.].
  • 1901-04 Swedish Antarctic Expedition (Otto Nordenskjöld).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Nordenskjöld was a Swedish geologist with a genetic link to polar research through his uncle Adolph. The account in this book covers one of the epic narratives of polar survival on an expedition that produced some important geological findings.

The Incredible Great White Fleet.

Carter, Samuel. New York: Macmillan, 1971.
  • 1907-09 US Circumnavigation by the Great White Fleet.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An extreme example of showing the flag in a convoy of fourteen battleships and ancillary vessels with 14,000 enlisted men travelling through the Magellan Straits and the Suez Canal. President Roosevelt welcomed the fleet back to the US at Norfolk in 1909, claiming it as his greatest act in support of peace, though it could have helped start an arms race. It also showed a marked goal of white supremacy, seen in some comments below, shared by Roosevelt and much of the command of the great white fleet. The book is an easy read, but does a good job of balancing the basic jingoism of the voyage with the nautical and diplomatic problems encountered around the world.