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.

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.

Such is the Antarctic.

Christensen, Lars. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1935.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Christensen was from a Norwegian whaling family who took three expeditions to Antarctica to study conditions of the whaling industry at the time. He owned his own whaling ship, the M.T. Thorshaven, which he used for these trips. It is an engaging account from the perspective of a businessman, sentimentally attached to whaling. There is little about reading on these trips but a few indications of materials available. The book is notable for its discussions of the history of Bouvet and Norwegian attempts to occupy the island, despite its unsuitability for any whaling purposes and its only apparent use as a meteorological station. He also discusses the exploration of Enderby Land, and Riiser-Larsen’s discovery of Queen Maud Land.

Shackleton’s Boat Journey.

Worsley, Frank Arthur. London: Folio Society, 2015.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Another account by the navigator of the famous boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia, a new edition introduced by Ranulph Fiennes. There is nothing about reading and I suspect that navigation books and charts were the only printed matter aboard the James Caird. Worsley’s account of those materials, however, is compelling. [Somewhere towards the end of this short book Worsley gives a nickname to divine providence, “Old Provi,” with whom there seemed to be a close relationship in times of crisis.]

The Home of the Blizzard, Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914.

Mawson, Sir Douglas. Philadelphia: Lippincott; London: Heinemann, [1915].
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Mawson is certainly one of the legendary explorers of the Heroic Age, one who participated in a number of important expeditions, starting with Shackleton’s Nimrod journey. His expeditions were also among those best supplied with books and other reading matter.

1910-14 Books aboard Fram

As exhibited at the Fram Museum, Oslo, 2015. Contributed by Geir O. Klover, Director of the Fram Museum, Oslo, Norway.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
    Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Books from the library on the Fram (1910–14).

Frozen Ships: The Arctic Diary of Johann Miertsching, 1850-1854.

Miertsching, Johann. Translation and introduction by L. H. Neatby. New York: St. Martin’s Pres, 1967.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Quite a riveting account of the Investigator Franklin search expedition by a German Moravian minister, pious but human, who was assigned primarily as an interpreter. His reading naturally centers around scripture and tracts, but he has a healthy interest in most shipboard doings.

Barrow’s Boys

Fleming, Fergus. . (London, Granta Books, 1998).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 37, concerning the Parry and Ross Northwest Passage expedition on Isabella and Alexander, 1818: The officers, meanwhile, were supplied with a twenty-five-volume library of Arctic reference books, to which the Naval and Military Bible Society added ninety uplifting tracts to be shared between both ships.

The Winter Night Trip to Advance Base Byrd Antarctic Expedition II 1933-35.

Poulter, Thomas Charles. Mimeograph. “Copyrighted 1973 by Thomas C. Poulter.” 1914.
  • 1933-35 Byrd Second Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Poulter was in command of Little America while Byrd spent his four months alone at Advance Base. Poulter was chosen by Byrd over the older Harold June and Paul Siple. Byrd thought Siple less mature and June unable to stay away from or hold his liquor. This book consists of notes from Poulter’s diaries and memos that passed among the men while at Little America or Advance base. A good deal is about Poulter’s problems in controlling liquor consumption, including his draining many gallons onto the ice.

James Eights, 1798-1882: Antarctic Explorer, Albany Naturalist, His Life, His Times, His Works.

McKinley, Daniel L. Albany, NY: State Education Department, 2005. New York Museum Bulletin 505.
  • 1829-30 First Preliminary US Exploring Expedition (Annawan and Seraph with Captains Nathaniel Palmer and Benjamin Pendleton).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Eights was listed as “Naturalist and Surgeon” on the Annawan Antarctic voyage of 1829-1831 and there are fragmentary results of his work on natural history in the published record, but he is an enigmatic figure, excluded like Reynolds from the Wilkes ExEx in 1838. I see no signs of his readings in the impressive library he helped create for the preliminary expedition.

A Voyage to the South Seas in His Majesty’s Ship the Wager in the Years 1740-1741.

Bulkeley, John and John Cummings. Gunner and Carpenter of the Wager. New York: Robert M. McBride, 1927. [First edition, 1743; Second edition, 1757].
  • 1740-41 English Naval Voyage to the South Seas (aboard Wager).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Fascinating account of a shipwreck, a potential mutiny, and a Warrant Officer who took it on himself to advise incompetent officers in how to save the lives of the crew. His advice was dependent upon one volume he borrowed from the ship’s Captain.

South with Endurance: Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition 1914-1917, the Photographs of Frank Hurley.

Hurley, Frank. London: Bloomsbury, 2001.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This book has a wider focus than the title implies, including more material on Hurley’s photographic career than his Antarctic photographs. But it covers the Antarctic work well, from archives of RGS, the State Library of New South Wales, and of SPRI, Cambridge.

The Blizzard. Newspaper of the Discovery

May 1902. SPRI MS 859. Illus.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Title page: Never mind The Blizzard I’m all right.

The Voyage of the Chelyuskin.

Chelyuskin. By Members of the Expedition. New York: Macmillan, 1935.
  • 1934 Russian Voyage of the Cheluyskin (commanded by Captain Schmidt).
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

The Chelyuskin was beset and sank near the Bering Strait in 1934. The book has contributions by many of the crew, including captain Schmidt, and presents a most idealistic view of Bolshevik sacrifice.