Melville in the South Seas.

Anderson, Charles Roberts. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Melville joined the navy in August 1843, and joined the United States in Honolulu in 1844, spending fourteen months on U.S. naval duty between Honolulu and Boston, arriving there in October 1844.

Narrative of the Wreck of the ‘Favorite’ on the Island of Desolation [Kerguélen Island]

Nunn, John. London: William Painter, 1850.
  • 1825-26 British Sealing Voyage (from London, with Royal Sovereign and Favorite).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 22: …according to the captain’s promise [the whalers] received their extra allowance of grog, with which they retired to their cabins and wiled away the evening in happiness and joviality, telling merry tales and drinking to their absent wives and sweethearts, a prosperous season in the whale and seal fishery, and a happy return to old England!” [The traditional officer’s toast to “wives and sweethearts, may they never meet,” dated appropriately enough from Nelson’s era until January 2014 when it was banned by the Royal Navy.]

[personal journal on the Henry B Hyde]

Russell, William Bennett. Collection of Maine Maritime Museum (Bath).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

The personal journal of William Bennett Russell during his travels on the Henry B Hyde in 1894 includes an account of his discovery of an American Seamen’s Friend Society loan library aboard the ship:

Searching for the Franklin Expedition. The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter.

Carter, Robert Randolph. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Private journal of a cruise in the Brig Rescue in search of Franklin, together with the Advance. Part of US Grinnell Expedition in 1850, one of 12 search vessels that year. Carter was first officer of the Rescue, a small ship that wintered in 1850-51 off Beechey Island in, where the bodies of three of Franklin’s menrs had been found. Clearly Carter is intelligent witty and educated. p. 10: The headquarters [of the expedition] were the luxurious Astor House, whose accommodations were provided by the management; and the Grinnells had already stocked the ships’ libraries with books, many written by earlier Arctic explorers.

The Substance of a Journal during a Residence at the Red River Colony British North America: and Frequent Excursions among the North West American Indians….

West, John. Second Edition. London: L. B. Seele, 1827.
  • 1820-23 British Chaplain Residence at Red River Colony.
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

West was “Late Chaplain to the Hon. The Hudson’s Bay Company” visiting various Forts of the HBC, but mainly serving as chaplain and missionary to the natives at the Red River Colony..

Trip to Alaska. A Narrative of What was Seen and Heard During a Summer Cruise in Alaskan Waters.

Wardman, George. San Francisco: Samuel Carson & Company. 1884.
  • 1879 US Treasury Summer Cruise to Alaska (Captain Bailey aboard Richard Rush).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

p. 79-80, on Russian church services in the 1880s: As you enter, the congregation stands facing the screen, but back from the rotunda. The men stand upon the right, the women on the left. The singers consist of men and boys led by the second priest. In Sitka the choir had a position behind a screen to the right of the rotunda. Here in Onalaska they occupy a narrow gallery, where there is also a bench for visitors.

Seasons with the Seahorses; Or, Sporting Adventures in the Northern Seas.

Lamont, James. New York: Harper, 1861.
  • 1858-59 British Private Journeys of "Sport and Discovery" (James Lamont).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 80, in a description of the cabin: As for reading, it is next to impossible, for I defy any body to read long sitting on a locker nine inches broad; also, the bunks are too dark, and if we try to read in them we generally go to sleep.

Writing the New World: Imaginary Voyages….

Fausset, David. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1993).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 3: the exotic literature of Europe “was most clearly manifested in fiction about the regions that remained unknown the longest….their works, too, would finally be overtaken by history and supplanted by scientific descriptions of the material and social worlds.” (his examples are Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver, Poe, Lovecraft)

The Voyage of the Challenger.

Linklater, Eric. New York: Doubleday, 1972.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Speaks here and there of the boredom of a scientific voyage that dredged ocean bottoms thousands of times through the ocean world. Dredging was known as “drudging” and even some desertions were attributed to boredom.

The Great North Pole Fraud.

Lewin, Walter Henry. London: C. W. Daniel Co, 1935.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1908-09 US North Pole Expeditions under Robert E. Peary (aboard Roosevelt).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An extended case against Peary based on suspicions of fraudulent Peary timings of his polar dash, on previous fabrications, on his probable incitement to the murder of Ross Marvin by the Inuit, all delivered in the guise of pure innocence in search of truth. Fascinating book if overwhelmingly ex parte. Never mentions Cook at all, although a few references imply his name. Crucial to the case is logbooks and observations, or often the lack of them.

Of Whales and Men.

Robertson, R. B. New York: Knopf, 1954.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

A delightful account of a ship’s doctor on an 8-month cruise of a whaling factory ship, with something of a psychological emphasis on the men he was with.

Moby Dick, or The Whale.

Melville, Herman. Illustrated by Rockwell Kent. New York: Modern Library, 1930.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Among so many other things, Moby Dick is a key text on the reading of sailors, especially the quote on p. 159, and this edition with Kent’s wood engravings is especially desirable.