Here Are the Books Ernest Shackleton Brought on His Final Antarctic Expedition

Debosak, Michelle. found on the Internet 4/15/16 at http://mentalfloss.com/article/76170/here-are-books-ernest-shackleton-brought-his-final-antarctic-expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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Sir Ernest Shackleton's final polar expedition was also his most ambitious. In 1915, he and his crew set off aboard the Endurance with the goal of becoming the first men to cross the Antarctic continent. Though ultimately unsuccessful, their mission lasted 21 months from departure to return. Luckily, Shackleton had plenty of books on board to pass the time, the BBC reports.

The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776-1780.

Cook, James, Captain. Edited by J. C. Beaglehole. Two volumes. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1967.
  • 1776-80 British Naval Expedition–Third Voyage (Captain James Cook aboard Discovery and Resolution).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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These volumes cover Cook’s attempt on his third voyage at finding the Northwest Passage as well as ending in his death. Included in the volume are the surviving journals of officers of the expedition, including various descriptions of the death of Cook.

The Journal of Rochfort Maguire, 1852-1854: Two Years at Point Barrow, Alaska, aboard HMS Plover in the Search for Sir John Franklin.

Maguire, Rochfort. Edited by John Bockstoce. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1988).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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During the Franklin Search it appeared that Franklin’s ships might well have made it through the Northwest Passage and might be met at the western end of the Passage at Point Barrow or the Baring Strait. The Plover was given the ultimate but fruitless duty of looking for that possibility.

Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure.

Worsley, Frank A. Preface by Patrick O’Brien. New York: Norton, 1999. [First published in 1931.].
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Frank Worsley was a New Zealand sailor who captained Endurance until it sank in the Weddell Sea. Later he was the skipper of the James Caird when it made its 850-mile marathon from Elephant Island to South Georgia, a feat of magnificent navigation. He also participated in Shackleton’s final Quest expedition in 1920-21.

In the Strange South Seas.

Grimshaw, Beatrice. London Hutchinson & Co., 1903.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 10-11: So, to The Man Who Could Not Go, I address this book ---to the elderly, white-waistcoated city magnate, grave autocrat of his clerkly kingdom (never lie to me, sir what was your favourite reading in the sixties, and why were you a very fair pistol shot, right up to the time when you were made junior manager ?)—to the serious family solicitor, enjoying his father’s good old practice and house, and counting among the furnishings of the latter, a shelf of Marryats, Mayne Reids, and Michael Scotts, wonder fully free of dust—to the comfortable clergyman, immersed in parish cares, who has the oddest fancy at times for standing on dock-heads, and snifling up odours of rope and tar—to all of you, the army of the brave, unwilling, more or less resigned Left Behinds, who have forgotten years ago, or who will never forget while spiring masts stand thick against blue skies, and keen salt winds wake madness in the brain—to all I say: Greeting l and may the tale of another’s happier chance send, from the fluttering pages of a book, a breath of the far-off lands and the calling sea.

Polar Castaways: The Ross Sea Party (1914-17) of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

McElrea, Richard and David Harrowfield. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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An earnest and thorough review of Shackleton’s Ross Sea relief party that successfully planted supply depots for Shackleton, though he never reached or needed them.

Trial by Ice: The True Story of Murder and Survival on the 1871 Polaris Expedition.

Parry, Richard. New York: Ballantine Books, 2001.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A rather pedestrian and purple account of the Polaris expedition of 1871, the death of Charles F. Hall, the separation of the ship from several of the crew, the stranded sailors’ remarkable survival, and the whitewash of the inquiry into the fate of Hall and the expedition.

Keep the Mind Alive: Literary Leanings in the Fur Trade.

Cole, Jean Murray. Journal of Canadian Studies16 no. 2 (1981) p. 87-93.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Fur traders in the 1830s showed strong need for newspaper and periodical literature, which the Company refused to ship inland with other supplies because of their weight. Though starved for news, books would sometimes help. Scotsmen favored Ossian, Burns, and Scott, but there was also demand for classic English literature, Shakespeare and Dickens.

The Natural History of the Sperm Whale…, to which is Added, a Sketch of a South-Sea Whaling Voyage.

Beale, Thomas. London: John van Voorst, 1839.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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Part I is a scientific and fairly analytic description of the sperm whale, from physiology to diet to reproductive systems. Part II on the voyage begins in October 1830, observing no land between England and Cape Horn, where the Fuegians despite the gloomy terrain and wretched conditions “seem to possess a considerable share of that inestimable blessing—happiness” (p. 200). It is both charming and frightening in its description of certain adventures, and very good at describing the extremes of ennui and excitement.

A Man’s Woman.

Norris, Frank. New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1900.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Norris’s turn-of-the-century novel is loosely based on George Washington De Long’s U.S. North Polar expedition aboard the Jeannette (1879-81). It borrows freely from the locale (Wrangell Island and environs), the beset and crushed ship, the forced march on ice and pressure ridges, the heroic commander, the few survivors finally rescued. He adds the love interest, a strong-minded woman who resists the commander, succumbs, marries, and subtly convinces the hero that he is the one who must achieve the North Pole for the United States, knowing his safe return to be doubtful. He sails from New York in a new ship clearly modeled on Nansen’s Fram. Sources in Greely’s expedition and parallels with Robert E. Peary, who had already begun his North Pole quest and was in Northern Ellesmere land at the time of publication, are easily drawn.