Chappell was part of a program to send Boy Scouts on Antarctic expeditions, in his case to Operation Deep Freeze II when he was a winterover at Little America. Paul Siple was an earlier participant who became an important American explorer and encouraged this young man who later went to Princeton. The writing is wooden and generally sanctimonious, betraying the author’s youth. Reading is minimal, mostly confined to the Bible (p. 81), though he does find a copy of Murphy’s Oceanic Birds of South America to help his pursuit of ornithology, and he did participate in Little America’s “University of the Antarctic.” At those sessions he studied Morse code and did manage to send off a sample message. He ends with a rather fundamentalist homily based on Matt 28:20: “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Chappell does not appear to have published anything else.
Antarctic Scout
- 1957- Operation Deep Freeze.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Americans in Antarctica, 1775-1948.
- 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
With some anomalies, this is a remarkably sound guide to American exploration in the Antarctic.
Foothold on Antarctica: The First International Expedition (1949-1952) through the Eyes of its Youngest Member.
- 1949-52 Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition (NBSX or NBSAE) based at Maudheim.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Swithinbank was a member of this largely Norwegian expedition. He’s not a natural writer but the story has its share of adventure and danger which he reports in a rather dry style. He gives some information about reading among his colleagues but nothing on what he himself read.
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.
‘One cannot help but liking them’: Terra Nova meets Fram.
- 1910-12 Norwegian National Antarctic Expedition (Amundsen on Fram); 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
p. 187: Curious eyes ranged over each other's ships. ‘While we are waiting events we have not been by any means idle,’ wrote Priestley on Saturday morning (Priestley: p. 50). Officers and scientists were busy using Terra Nova as a platform for vigorous scientific work for example sounding, hauling the plankton net, taking water samples, and dredging. According to Bruce, ten of Fram's crew including Amundsen lunched on board Terra Nova and ‘were very friendly, but didn't give away much or get much’ (Bruce: 1911c). On a return visit to Fram ‘to have a look round’ according to Browning, Amundsen asked him if there were any spare newspapers on Terra Nova as he had not read any since September. Browning ‘collected all I could get also a few magazines – he was very pleased’ (Browning: 1911). Priestley did not go. Instead, he showed a Norwegian Lieutenant over Terra Nova.
Roald Amundsen’s Belgica Diary: The first Scientific Expedition to the Antarctic.
- 1897-99 Belgian Antarctic Expedition (Gerlache de Gomery aboard Belgica).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This first English publication of Amundsen’s daybook from the Belgica trip, together with connective commentary by the editor about each segment of the trip, is a surprising volume for a number of reasons. It presents a rather different picture of Amundsen than the more affectless hero of his later works. Here is the second mate, concerned about the welfare of ship and crew, even-headed except when learning of Gerlache’s deceit excluding him of the potential captaincy of the expedition. Much of the book goes along monotonously with routine weather reports that are interspersed with moments of real excitement and danger. His friendship with Doctor Cook comes across very clearly, but his rather frequent acknowledgment of God and his benign guidance is unexpected. There appears to be nothing about any reading he may have done during the trip, but he does describe briefly the pinup contest that Gerlache makes much of. The book gives some excerpts from diaries of other officers, including this from Henryk Arctowski:
The Arctic in the Middle Ages,
- Arctic Reading: General
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 Forgotten Explorer: Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink
- 1898–1900 British Antarctic Expedition (Carsten Borchgrevink on Southern Cross).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Account of one of the first to set foot on Antarctica (Cape Adare Jan. 1895). Points out a good number of Borchgrevink’s claims for which there is no evidence, allowing the inference that Borchgrevink was a great liar.
“The Mirny Diary” 12 February 1958–7 February 1959
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This detailed diary was contributed by Morton Rubin's brother Harry. He gives credit to Mr. and Mrs. Martin Sponholz for painstakingly deciphering and transcribing Morton's original hand-written manuscript. It is a fascinating glimpse of winterover life at an IGY Russian station.
“As the Wolf from the Dog”; American Overseas Exploration and the Compartmentalization of Humankind: 1838-1859.
- 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Examples used are the Charles Wilkes’ US Exploring Expedition 1838-43, and Elisha Kent Kane’s search for Franklin in 1859.
Assault on Eternity: Richard Byrd and the Exploration of Antarctica, 1946-47.
- 1946-48 US Operation Highjump, Byrd’s Fourth Expedition to Little America (aboard USS Mount Olympus).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This is a true tale of daring and romance, of tedium and tragedy, of folly and heroism, of adventure enjoyed and adventure endured one-third of a century ago by some forty-seven hundred men in thirteen ships at the bottom of the earth.
Outfits for a Whaling Voyage.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 3: outline has as its last item: “Ship’s library”:
The Journal of Annie Holmes Ricketson on the Whaleship A. R. Tucker, 1871-1874. (
- 1871-74 American Whaling Expedition to Indian Ocean (aboard A. R. Tucker).
- Maritime Reading
One of the honeymoon voyages, complete with child born in Fayal, and dead within a day, then rounding the Cape of Good Hope, sailing 3500 miles to Australia, and two years cruising in the Molucca Passage. The voyage ended after four months cruising in the mid-Atlantic to bring back a full cargo of whale oil. Ricketson took two more voyages. She is a reader but as so often in women’s journals mentions no titles.
A Voyage to Terra Australis, Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country….
- Antarctic Reading: General
Vol. I, p. 6: Among the books on this voyage were 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 the use of all the officers.” Every Admiralty chart for Australia was copied for them.
Books Afloat & Ashore: A History of Books, Libraries, and Reading Among Seamen During the Age of Sail.
- Arctic Reading: General
p. 4: In 1631, when Captain Thomas James fitted out his vessel in Bristol for a voyage in search of the Northwest Passage, he purchased ‘A Chest full of the best and choicest Mathematicall bookes that could be got for money in England; as likewise Master Hackluite and Master Purchase, and other books of Journals and Histories. [See C. Miller, ed. Voyages of Captain Luke Fox of Hull, Hakluyt Soc. London 1894, p. 265-67, 606 p.]