Utopia and Other Places.

Eyre, Richard. London: Bloomsbury, 1993.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 14-22, Eyre’s grandfather, Lt. Royds, was on first Scott expedition, and Eyre talks about the journals he owns (now recently published). Royds had a crustacean named after him, Royds is Formosa (p. 18), and read Cook (p. 14). His copy of the Discovery Library Catalogue is now at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, NZ.

An Account of Several Late Voyages & Discoveries to the South and North towards the Streights of Magellan, the South Seas, the Vast Tracts of Land beyond Hollandia Nova, &c.: also towards Nova Zembla, Greenland or Spitsberg, by Sir John Narborough, Captain Jasmen Tasman, Captain John Wood, and Frederick Martin of Hamburgh….

Narbrough, John, Sir. (London: Printed for Sam Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, 1694).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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The purpose of this voyage was to establish trading relations between Britain and South America and the South Seas. Narborough did claim for Britain some territory in Argentina, lost some of his men as hostages in Peru, but failed in his primary mission.

This Accursed Land.

Bickel, Lennard. Melbourne: Macmillan, 1977.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Bickel notes the absence of “heroics” in Home of the Blizzard, betrayed by his journals, however modest. An earlier version of Mawson’s Will, with some additional reading passages.

1908-14 Douglas Mawson book lists

Mawson, Douglas.
  • 1908-09 British Antarctic Expedition; 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition.
  • Maritime Reading
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Included in Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic Diaries is a list of books considered part of the equipment of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1908-09, led by Shackleton aboard Nimrod, and in which Mawson served as “Physicist” of the expedition. The books are mentioned in Mawson’s Antarctic Diaires, ed. By Fred & Eleanor Jacka (Sydney 1988), on p. 6 under the entry for 12 January 1908. The original pencil mss. diary is Notebook 2 (16 December 1908 – 10 February 1909, entitled “Douglas Mawson, his diary of journey from depot on shore of Ross Sea, N of Drygalski Glacier to South Magnetic Pole” (Jacka, p. xiii). The handwritten list is in most cases quite specific about the edition and these have been relatively easy to identify.

Seasons with the Seahorses; Or, Sporting Adventures in the Northern Seas.

Lamont, James. New York: Harper, 1861.
  • 1858-59 British Private Journeys of "Sport and Discovery" (James Lamont).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 80, in a description of the cabin: As for reading, it is next to impossible, for I defy any body to read long sitting on a locker nine inches broad; also, the bunks are too dark, and if we try to read in them we generally go to sleep.

Innocents in the Arctic: The 1951 Spitsbergen Expedition.

Bull, Colin. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 2005.
  • 1951 British Spitsbergen Expedition.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 115: Otherwise, when confined to the tent, they talked and, when all subjects had been exhausted, either slept or read. In addition to a few books they had newspapers galore, generously supplied by a Birmingham dealer for safely wrapping the fossils and rock samples. The newspapers were used for extra insulation and to mop up penetrating precipitation. When the level of water in the tent exceeded the mopping capabilities of the newspapers, the occupants encouraged the water into a sump and made a suitable drain hole in the sewn-in ground sheet. They, and we three in the other inland party, were all much disappointed to find that all of the copies of the newspaper were of the same date and the same edition. Consequently we all learned some of the text by heart.

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.

‘One cannot help but liking them’: Terra Nova meets Fram.

Hooper, Meredith. Polar Record 49 (April 2012) p. 184-191. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247411000271.
  • 1910-12 Norwegian National Antarctic Expedition (Amundsen on Fram); 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 187: Curious eyes ranged over each other's ships. ‘While we are waiting events we have not been by any means idle,’ wrote Priestley on Saturday morning (Priestley: p. 50). Officers and scientists were busy using Terra Nova as a platform for vigorous scientific work for example sounding, hauling the plankton net, taking water samples, and dredging. According to Bruce, ten of Fram's crew including Amundsen lunched on board Terra Nova and ‘were very friendly, but didn't give away much or get much’ (Bruce: 1911c). On a return visit to Fram ‘to have a look round’ according to Browning, Amundsen asked him if there were any spare newspapers on Terra Nova as he had not read any since September. Browning ‘collected all I could get also a few magazines – he was very pleased’ (Browning: 1911). Priestley did not go. Instead, he showed a Norwegian Lieutenant over Terra Nova.

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 Norwegian with Scott: Tryggve Gran’s Antarctic Diary 1910-1913.

Gran, Tryggve. Edited by Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith. Trans. by Ellen Johanne McGhie. London: National Maritime Museum, H.M.S.O., 1984.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 46: I spent some hours in the hut tonight, listening to our first gramophone concert; it was a delight to hear Caruso, Melba, and Tetrazzini, among other famous stars.

A History of Polar Exploration.

Kirwan, L. P. New York: Norton, 1960.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Kirwin’s History is widely considered the classic history of polar exploration.

Journey to the Polar Sea

Franklin, Sir John. Koln: Koenemann, 1998.
  • 1819-22 and 1825-27 John Franklin Overland Journeys with John Richardson.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 21: The commander of the vessel [Harmony] gave me a translation of the Gospel of St. John in the Esquimaux language, printed by the Moravian Society in London.