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
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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.

Journal of the lst 2 months Dec 1910, Jan 1911 of the Terra Nova expedition

Taylor, Griffith. some of which was published in the Melbourne Argus.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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[Griffith] Taylor Collection. “Journal of the lst 2 months Dec 1910, Jan 1911 of the Terra Nova expedition, some of which was published in the Melbourne Argus, and in fact he was composing this journal with that publication in mind (see p. 34).

Race for the Pole.

Weems, John Edward. Preface by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York: Henry Holt, 1960.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Generally a whitewash of the Peary legend and legacy (mainly about the 1908-09 expedition) written as a homely narrative based according to Weems on thorough documentation. Although there is a decent bibliography one can’t find documentation for any given passage.

The Belgian Antarctic Expedition under the Command of Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery. Summary Report of the Voyage of “Belgica” of 1897–1898–1899.

Gerlache de Gomery, Adrien de. Brusselles: Hayez, 1904.
  • 1897-99 Belgian Antarctic Expedition (Gerlache de Gomery aboard Belgica).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 11: The forecastle for the crew was spacious, well-ventilated and lighted by a large skylight. It contained sixteen berths, supplied with good mattresses and warm woolen blankets.

The Lure of the Labrador Wild: The Story of the Exploring Expedition Conducted by Leonidas Hubbard, Jr.

Wallace, Dillon. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1905.
  • 1903 US Personal Exploring Expedition to Labrador by Leonidas Hubbard Jr. and Dillon Wallace.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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As a young lawyer Wallace met Hubbard, an editor of Outing magazine, in 1900 and in 1903 they departed New York to explore the wilder and hitherto unexplored parts of Labrador. It was a difficult journey in which Hubbard died of starvation and Wallace managed to survive and go on to further explorations and successful books. Hubbard’s wife Mina felt that Wallace had disparaged her husband by implying that Leonidas caused the failure—she went on to her own career as successful competitor of Wallace as a Labrador explorer in the “great race of 1905.” All the reading that I could find was Scriptural and from The Book of Common Prayer.

Two Years before the Mast. A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea.

Dana, Richard Henry, Jr. New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1840.
  • Maritime Reading
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Depicts the life of the forecastle seaman on a merchant vessel in 1840. Published anonymously, Dana was an educated gentleman who presented himself as a common seaman intending to “present the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is,—the light and dark together.” (p. 4)

The Maracop Deep

Doyle, Arthur Conan. (1929) in The Treasury of Science Fiction. Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1954.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 68: …I have not spoken of the object of this voyage because I have, for my own reasons, desired it to be secret. One of those reasons was that I feared to be forestalled. When scientific plans get about one may be served as Scott was served by Amundsen. Had Scott kept his counsel as I have done, it would be he and Amundsen who would have been the first at the South Pole. For my part, I have quite as important a destination as the South Pole, and so I have been silent. But now we are on the eve of our great adventure and no rival has time to steal my plans. To-morrow we start for our real goal.

The Southern Ice-continent: The German South Polar Expedition aboard the Gauss 1901-1903.

Drygalski, Erich von. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1989.
  • 1901-03 German South Polar Expedition (Drygalski on Gauss).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Drygalski led the first German Antarctic Expedition in 1901-03, as part of Germany’s growing status in the international community with its own colonial aspirations. Its emphasis was scientific research and its chosen region the southern Indian Ocean as centered on the Kerguélen Islands.

A Voyage to the South Sea, Undertaken by Command of His Majesty, for the Purpose of Conveying the Bread-Fruit Tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty’s Ship The Bounty, Commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh….

Bligh, William. London: Printed for George Nicol, 1792.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 156, in the course of the mutiny: The boatswain and seamen, who were to go in the boat, were allowed to collect twine, canvas, lines, sails, cordage, an eight and twenty gallon cask of water, and Mr. Samuel got 150 lbs. of bread, with a small quantity of rum and wine, also a quadrant and compass; but he was forbidden, on pain of death, to touch either map, ephemeris, book of astronomical observations, sextant, time-keeper, or any of my surveys or drawings.

Four Against the Arctic. Shipwrecked for Six Years at the Top of the World.

Roberts, David. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
  • 1740? Russian Expedition to Svalbard.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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More an account of Roberts’s search for the story of four Russian sailors stranded on Svalberg for six years in the 1740s, ending only with circumstantial speculations that they were likely to have spent almost seven years on small Halfmoon Island in southeast Svalberg. They were probably illiterate Mezeners (Pomori from Mezen, Russia) who had no books with them, and Roberts speculates on how then spent time fighting “cabin fever” and keeping healthy: endless knot tying, mending nets, repairing clothes, carving driftwood, some games, etc. (see p. 208-16 on the phenomenon of cabin fever). The title puns on the four who went to spend two weeks on Halfmoon Island, with the polar bears, etc., looking for the remains of the story.

The Ice and the Inland: Mawson, Flynn, and the Myth of the Frontier.

Hains, Brigid. Melbourne, AU; Melbourne University Press, 2002.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A comparative study of two frontiersmen, Douglas Mawson’s work in Antarctica (mostly 1911-14) and John Flynn, a Presbyterian minister of the Australian Inland Mission. Concentrating on the AAE (1911-14) Hains has gone through many if not all of the diaries of participants, taking special note of their books and reading, more so than any expedition I know of.

Reminiscences of Adventure and Service. A Record of Sixty-Five Years.

Greely, Adolphus W. New York: Scribner’s, 1927.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A sanitized, somewhat saccharine autobiography which delves shallowly into the IPY expedition of 1881-84 ( p. 120-51), and doesn’t even mention his one-time friend Henry W. Howgate, without whom the expedition never would have happened. Although descended from British settlers from 1623, Greely was a working-class boy, educated through high school (including Latin). He enlisted as a private in 1861, served in a number of battles (incl. Antietam) before being promoted to lieutenant at age 18 to command a black infantry regiment. For the Greely Arctic expedition he emphasizes the scientific purposes of the IPY over pole-seeking adventure. At Fort Conger (p. 122) “needful relief from scientific labors was had by the celebration of festive occasions, the issue of a newspaper, the training and coddling of our dogs, the devising of contests and games. So, work and play marked our lives in the comfortable home, where well-cooked meals, warm quarters and plentiful reading matter were duly enjoyed.” Such was not the case at Camp Clay at Cape Sabine at the end of their retreat. Greely does deal with the execution of Private Henry but not the cannibalism allegations, nor with his bad relations with officers and men.