Elephant Island: An Antarctic Expedition.

Furse, Chris. Shrewsbury, UK: Anthony Nelson, 1979.
  • 1976-77 British Elephant Island Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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This was a BAS sponsored survey of the birdlife of the Elephant Island group of islands of the South Shetlands. Despite a detailed listing of all supplies and equipment for the expedition, there is no mention of books or reading.

The Real Story of the Whaler: Whaling, Past and Present.

Verrill, Alpheus Hyatt. New York: D. Appleton, 1916.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

A general history of New Bedford and its whalers. The book is both a useful compendium of knowledge about New Bedford, and a sentimental threnody for its whalers and whalemen.

A Very Gallant Gentleman.

Bernacchi, Louis Charles. London: Thornton Butterworth, 1935 [first published 1933] See supra, p. 174.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Bull, Colin. Email message to David Stam, August 31, 2005:

The Incredible Great White Fleet.

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

Opposite Poles

McKenzie, Douglas. London: Robert Hale, 1963.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A light and half-hearted defense of Hillary’s determination to get to the Pole ahead of Fuchs, despite his dissembling on his motives. The title emphasizes the conflict. McKenzie, a NZ journalist drove one of the Ferguson tractors enroute to the S.P. between depot 450 and 700.

The Cruise of the Florence; Or, Extracts from the Journal of the Preliminary Arctic Expedition of 1877-78.

Tyson, George E. Edited by Captain H. W. Howgate, U.S.A. Washington, DC: James J. Chapman, 1879.
  • 1877-78 US Preliminary Arctic Expedition for IPY 1881-84 (led by Howard Howgate).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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This expedition had three stated objectives, preparation for a colony at Lady Franklin Bay, collection of scientific data, and commercial whaling (p. 8-9). Despite Howgate’s description of books aboard Florence (see below), there are no references to reading in Tyson’s abstracts, though he has an engaging and easy-going style.

Sea of Glory: America’s Voyage of Discovery. The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. New York: Viking, 2003.
  • 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 11, when in 1821 Charles Wilkes was assigned to the Franklin for a cruise to the Pacific: The Franklin proved to be just the ship for an officer of Wilkes’s interests. On the gun deck there was a library, and Wilkes, with the help of an assistant became the librarian.

A Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook. With an Account of His Life, During the Previous and Intervening Periods.

Kippis, Andrew. London: Bickers and Son, 1883.
  • 1768–79 British Naval Expeditions of Captain James Cook.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 223: Soon after our commander had come to this determination [to sail to the Cape of Good Hope], he demanded of the officers and petty officers, in pursuance of his instructions, the log books and journals they had kept; which were delivered to him accordingly, and sealed up for the inspection of the Admiralty. He enjoined them also, and the whole crew, not to divulge where they had been, till they were permitted to do so by their lordships; an injunction, a compliance with which might probably be rendered somewhat difficult from the natural tendency there is in men to relate the extraordinary enterprises and adventures wherein they have been concerned.

In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times.

Nansen, Fridtjof. Translated by Arthur G. Chater. Two volumes. London: William Heinemann, 1911.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

Nansen’s second major work, this book covers only the earliest period of Northern exploration and could well be titled “In Northern Myths.” He is certainly among the earliest and most scholarly, literary, and research-oriented writers of exploration history, the work verges little upon the subject of our inquiry.

Lands Forlorn: A Story of an Expedition to Hearne’s Coppermine River.

Douglas, George M. By George M. Douglas With an Introduction by James Douglas. (New York, G. P. Putnam’s, 1914). [Reprinted Tucson, AZ: Zancudo Press, 2008].
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 45-46, on finding two dead bodies, a dirty note-book, and some carbolic acid: The stench was insufferable, worse than any other form of decomposing animal matter, and blended with it was the peculiarly acrid smell of old smoke from spruce fires. One could remain in that loath some atmosphere only a few minutes at a time; the bodies were in a state of decomposition so advance that it was necessary to break the bunks down and carry them out as they lay. Close to the house on that pleasant point we buried them both in one grave, dug as deep as the frozen ground permitted.

A History of the American Whale Fishery.

Tower, Walter S. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, 1907. [Publications of the University of Pennsylvania Series in Political Economy and Public Law No. 20].
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Tower tells us nothing about reading provision aboard whalers of the American fleet. The book, however, does provide an excellent account of the history and bibliography of whaling for its time and its decline by the end of the nineteenth century.

To the Sixth Continent: The Second German South Polar Expedition.

Filchner, Wilhelm. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1994.
  • 1911-13 Second German Antarctic Expedition (Filchner).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Filchner’s original plans mirrored Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition a few years later, with two ships and men starting from both the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea then meeting mid-way. Shackleton and Nordenskjöld helped him get a ship, the Deutschland, but he could get only one and went only to the Weddell Sea. He named the iceshelf after Kaiser Wilhelm II, but the Kaiser renamed it after Filchner. The ship was trapped in ice but was freed in the austral summer of 1912. The expedition is noted for its animosities, hostility not indicated in the passages here.

Travel and Exploration sale. 27 September 1996.

Christie’s, London. London: Christie’s, 1996.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Item 169: copy of New Testament owned by Oates, given to him in Dunedin by H. R. Falconer, a Seamen’s Missionary, Nov. 1910, and present on the Terra Nova expedition. Items 171-75 are George Marston paintings.

The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore.

Hutchinson, John Robert. London: Eveleigh Nash, 1913.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

p. 42-3, description of life of impressed seaman: With books he was for many years ‘very scantily supplied.’ It was not till 1812, indeed, that the Admiralty, shocked by the discovery that he had practically nothing to elevate his mind but daily association with the quarter-deck, began to pour into the fleet copious supplies of literature for his use. Thereafter the sailor could beguile his leisure with such books as the Old Chaplain’s Farewell Letter, Wilson’s Maxims, The Whole Duty of Man, Secker’s Duties of the Sick, and, lest returning health should dissipate the piety begotten of his ailments, Gibson’s Advice after Sickness. Thousands of pounds were spent upon this improving literature, which was distributed to the fleet in strict accordance with the amount of storage room available at the various dockyards. [Footnote: Ad. Accountant-General, Misc. (Various), No. 106—Accounts of the Rev. Archdeacon Owen, Chaplain-General to the Fleet, 1812-7.]