Does Anyone Read Lake Hazen?

Jackson, C. Ian. Edmonton, ALB: Circumpolar Institute, 2002.
  • 1957-58 Canadian International Geographical Year Ellesmere Island Expedition.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Describes a Canadian expedition to northern Ellesmere Island 1957-58 as part of the International Geophysical Year.

Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and Siberian Tartary, from the Frontiers of China to the Frozen Sea and Kamchatka.

Cochrane, John Dundas. Fourth Edition. London: Charles Knight, 1825.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

p. 64-65, walking towards St. Petersburgh: A sigh escaped me as I ejaculated a last farewell, till, startling at the expression of my weakness, I resumed my journey with slow and melancholy steps. It was ten o'clock (for I had now a watch), and I had reached six miles. The night was beautifully clear, though rather cold from the effects of a northern breeze; while the moon was near her full. I looked at the beautiful luminary, and actually asked myself whether I were, as had been asserted, under the baneful influence of that planet. Smiling that I received no reply, I then considered my projects and intentions, and the conduct I ought to follow; and, sitting down at a fountain on the Poulkousky hill, I read to myself a few lessons, which the time and the occasion seemed to inspire. “Go,” said I, “and wander with the illiterate and almost brutal savage—go and be the companion of the ferocious beast!—go and contemplate the human being in every element

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.

Report on Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1883.

Garlington, Ernest A. Washington: Signal Office, 1883. Signal Office Notes No. 10, re the Yantic and Porteus debacle.
  • 1883 Lady Franklin Bay Relief Expedition.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 25-7: Scientific Outfit of the Lady Franklin Bay Relief Expedition of 1883. Memorandum B, includes the following items:

The Two Voyages of the ‘Pandora’ in 1875 and 1876.

Young, Allan. (London: Edward Stanford, 1879).
  • 1875-76 Private Expedition to Magnetic North Pole and North West Passage (Captain Allen Young aboard Pandora).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Mr De Wilde was the artist (hydrographic sketches) and J. A Macgahan the correspondent. Young was commander who earlier was the sailing master on McClintock’s Fox in 1857-59, and wrote the article in Cornhill #1 on the Fox, republished in 1875. By this time, Young was in the Naval Reserve, though this was not a Royal Navy mission. He himself paid for it with the help of Lady Franklin and James Gordon Bennett. Left on June 25 with two bags of letters for Alert and Discovery.

A Strange Discovery. [ How We Found Dirk Peters].

Dake, Charles Romyn. New York: H. Ingalls Kimball, 1899.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

An 1899 novel intended as a sequel to Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pymin which Poe’s character Dirk Peters provides the ending to Poe’s story. The action takes place far from the sea, in Bellevue, Illinois, but is laced with several accounts of reading experiences. The story itself is firmly within the hollow earth tradition.

The Whale and His Captors, Or, The Whaleman’s Adventures, and the Whale’s Biography, as Gathered on the Homeward Cruise of the "Commodore Preble."

Cheever, Henry Theodore. New York: Harper, 1850 [Reprinted Fairfield, WA: Ye Galleon Press, 1991.].
  • 1849 Return Whaling Voyage South Seas to Boston (aboard Commodore Preble).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Author is a pious, anti-papist clergyman travelling in a whaler from South Seas to Boston, observing whaling practices and especially critical of Sabbath breaking customs of whalers.

Marooned: Being a Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Captain Charles H. Barnard, Embracing an Account of the Seizure of his Vessel at the Falkland Islands, &c., 1812-1816.

Barnard, Charles H., Captain. Edited with an introduction by Bertha S. Dodge. Syracuse University Press, 1986 [1979].
  • 1812-16 Barnard Whaling Voyage (aboard Nanina).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

No doubt a most harrowing tale, marred only by the seeming innocence and trusting self-presentation of Barnard and his providential beliefs. The work includes excerpts from the log of Barzillai Pease (originals in Syracuse University Library), a co-partner in Barnard’s endeavor. Barnard’s ship, Nanina, was taken over by mutineers, he himself was abandoned by other shipmates, rescued by the Isabella which in turn was shipwrecked, abandoned again, and among other perils, his ship eventually was declared war bounty by the British during the War of 1812.

Explorers Club Archives II

  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, EC2007-07 [Not all of these files have been carefully reviewed and some await further inspection.]

Narrative of a Voyage of H.M.S. Herald during the Years 1845-51, under the Command of Captain Henry Kellett…being A Circumnavigation of the Globe.

Seemann, Berthold. Two volumes. London: Reeve and Co., 1853.
  • 1845-51 British Voyage of Exploration to the West Coast and the Pacific (Commanded by Henry Kellett aboard HMS Herald).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

This expedition was focused on the US West Coast and Pacific natural history rather than high latitudes though it did reach the Bering Strait. Its focus was chiefly botanical.

The Terror, a Novel.

Simmons, Dan. (New York: Little, Brown, 2007).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A completely fanciful attempt to explain what might have happened to the Franklin expedition.

Antarctica’s First Lady.

Ronne, Edith M. (Jackie). Beaumont, TX: Clifton Seaport Museum, 2004.
  • 1946-48 Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Primarily an account of the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition of 1947-48 in which she accompanied her husband. Based largely on her diaries of that period, she is a staunch defender of Ronne’s leadership, dismissing his critics as merely bitching about his more disciplined Norwegian regimen. The complaints are taken as inevitable and nothing was done to contain them, here or on his later IGY expedition. There is nothing here about reading, even in her chapter on the long winter night where one usually finds some mention of antidotes to boredom. What a contrast to Walton’s book below.

Arctic Exploration.

Hoare, J. Douglas. . London: Methuen & Co., 1906.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 89: Very little that is worthy of note occurred during the first winter. The monotony of the excessively dull season was, however, relieved by the appearance of a party of Eskimos, who proved to be thoroughly friendly, except on one occasion when they nearly assassinated half the party because they imagined that they had caused the death of one of the members of their tribe by witchcraft.

Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic.

Niven, Jennifer. New York: Hyperion, 2003.
  • 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A readable but tendentious biography of the lone survivor of four men and one woman on Stefansson’s Wrangel Island expedition of 1921-23. The author is anti-Stefansson to some extreme, and while she may have some good points it would be difficult to verify them given the inadequacy of the documentation provided. There is no index.

Journals of Samuel Hearne and Philip Turnor.

Hearne, Samuel; Turnor, Philip. Edited with Introduction and Notes by J. B. Tyrrell. Toronto: The Chaplain Society, 1934.
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

This volume is chiefly about the surveyors recruited to the HBC to chart the immense territory of Prince Rupert’s Land in the latter18th century. The Introduction tells of recruiting them through the good offices of mathematician William Wales of Christ’s Hospital London, who recommended Philip Turnor for one of the surveyor posts.