Summary [from ABEBooks]: In becoming "a useful man" on the maritime stage, Matthew Fontaine Maury focused light on the ills of a clique-ridden Navy, charted sea lanes and bested Great Britain's admiralty in securing the fastest, safest routes to India and Australia. He helped bind the Old and New worlds with the laying of the transatlantic cable, forcefully advocated Southern rights in a troubled union, and preached Manifest Destiny from the Arctic to Cape Horn. Late in life, he revolutionized warfare in perfecting electronically detonated mines. Maury's eagerness to go to the public in person and in print on the questions of the day riled powerful men in business and politics, and the U.S., Confederate and Royal navies. They dismissed him as the "Man on the Hill." Over his career, Maury more than once ran afoul of Jefferson Davis, and Stephen R. Mallory, secretary of the Confederate States Navy. He argued against eminent members of the nation's emerging scientific community in a decades-long debate over science for its own sake versus science for the people's sake. Through the political, social and scientific struggles of his time, however, Maury had his share of powerful allies, like President John Tyler; but by the early 1870s they, too, were in eclipse or in the grave.
Matthew Fontaine Maury, Father of Oceanography: A Biography, 1806-1873.
- Maritime Reading
The Life of Sir Clements R. Markham.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Pure hagiography by his cousin, also a naval officer. Clements had a short but early naval career which included service as the only midshipman on the Assistance on its 1850-51 search for John Franklin. He contributed to the Aurora Borealis and other papers of the voyage.
Round the Horn before the Mast
- 1899- American Schooner Voyage from San Francisco to Europe and Round the Horn aboard Royalshire.
- Maritime Reading
p. 17, after a day of shoveling coal he and his new English friend cleaned up and went to the opera to see “Carmen.”
‘One cannot help but liking them’: Terra Nova meets Fram.
- 1910-12 Norwegian National Antarctic Expedition (Amundsen on Fram); 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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.
A Journey to the North Pole.
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Novel about an American proposal to auction all territory north of the 84th parallel. The sale was to take place in Baltimore with all proceeds to be divided among underbidders. The English strongly opposed an American purchase, since “The North Pole belonged to them.” The plan itself was to turn the globe on its axis to melt the Pole and extract the coal, while changing the torrid zones as well; but the calculation of the equation to do it proved faulty and the earth was saved. The satire chiefly involves the French poking fun at the US for its North Pole obsession.
The Diary of Lieutenant Charles W R Royds. RN Expedition to the Arctic 1901-1904.
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Royds was the First Lieutenant on Scott’s Discovery expedition, and was involved in virtually all operations of the ship and the expedition, including ship’s discipline. It’s a rather ponderous (and heavy) tome but full of information about the expedition. He mentions the Cap’t. frequently but I didn’t seem to learn much about Scott from it. He frequently played the piano or pianola for a couple hours at a time. He was clearly a steady reader and names titles but gives little insight into his reactions to the books he read. Here are some examples of reading and related matters:
A Thousand Days in the Arctic…with a Preface by Admiral Sir. F. Leopold McClintock.
- 1894-97 British Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition to Franz-Josef Land.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
This is the expedition which Nansen found (or vice versa) when returning from his North Polar trip, June 17, 1896. Jackson’s ship was the Windward which took Nansen back to Norway, returning the following July to return the whole Jackson expedition.
The Frozen Zone and Its Explorers: A Comprehensive History of Voyages, Travels, Adventures, Disasters, and Discoveries in the Arctic Regions….
- Arctic Reading: General
p. 793-94, concerning the Dutch expedition at Nova Zembla in 1596, describes the Ice House of Berentz found in 1871, a house unvisited for 278 years until 1871, the house included: the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night, two hundred and seventy-eight years ago. The ‘History of China’ points to the goal which Barentz sought, while the ‘Manual of Navigation’ indicates the knowledge which guided his efforts. Stranger evidence never told a more deeply interesting story.
The Narrative of Captain David Woodard and Four Seamen, who Lost Their Ship while in a Boat at Sea, and Surrendered Themselves up to the Malays, in the Island of Celebes; …Holding Out a Valuable Seaman’s Guide… .
- 1793-96 British Officer Voyage. Shipwreck of America and Survival (Captain David Woodard).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
Introduction by William Vaughan is a veritable guide to reading for seamen. On January 20, 1793, Woodard, an English officer, “sailed as chief-mate in the American ship Enterprise, captain Hubbard, from Batavia, bound to Manila” (p. 2). In seeking provisions, Woodard in a small rowing boat with sail, and with five other sailors, was soon separated from his ship with no water, food, or compass. After other misadventures they fought with some Malays who killed one of their men and then stole the boat, leaving five men stranded and fleeing into the jungle. The Narrative is the rest of the story, plus a series of appendices telling other shipwreck tales.
The Arctic Whalers.
- Maritime Reading
An engaging history of Arctic whaling.
A Voyage to Hudson’s-Bay, by the Dobbs Galley and California, in the Years 1746 and 1747, for Discovering a North West Passage
- Arctic Reading: Canada
This volume is credited with definitively disproving Arthur Dobbs theory of a North-West Passage through Hudson’s Bay. It is an important early source on the customs and nature of the Inuit. Ellis does quote from various books but none read during his travels.
The Lord’s Librarians: The American Seamen’s Friend Society and their Loan Libraries 1837-1967
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 1 Abstract: "The Lord's Librarians" describes in new detail the activities of the American Seamen's Friend Society in distributing loan libraries to merchant and naval ships for over 130 years. Based on the archives of the Society in the G.W. Blunt White Library at the Mystic Seaport Museum, the study examines the history of the Society in its efforts towards moral improvement of seamen, fostering temperance, reducing licentiousness, encouraging Sabbath worship and observation, countering swearing, and promoting thrift and financial responsibility among sailors. It examines the largely evangelical collection development policies for these compact 40-45 volume library boxes, and attempts to locate the surviving boxes and surviving books from these libraries. It ends with some unanswered questions which deserve further study.
Typed transcript of Endurance journal, 1914-15 and 1915-16.
- 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
p. 7, Nov 3, 1915 Wedn, after smashup: At the ship I entered Clark’s cabin which is just above water and got some books for him.
The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 42-3, description of life of impressed seaman: With books he was for many years ‘very scantily supplied.’ It was not till 1812, indeed, that the Admiralty, shocked by the discovery that he had practically nothing to elevate his mind but daily association with the quarter-deck, began to pour into the fleet copious supplies of literature for his use. Thereafter the sailor could beguile his leisure with such books as the Old Chaplain’s Farewell Letter, Wilson’s Maxims, The Whole Duty of Man, Secker’s Duties of the Sick, and, lest returning health should dissipate the piety begotten of his ailments, Gibson’s Advice after Sickness. Thousands of pounds were spent upon this improving literature, which was distributed to the fleet in strict accordance with the amount of storage room available at the various dockyards. [Footnote: Ad. Accountant-General, Misc. (Various), No. 106—Accounts of the Rev. Archdeacon Owen, Chaplain-General to the Fleet, 1812-7.]
Writing the New World: Imaginary Voyages….
- Arctic Reading: General
p. 3, the exotic literature of Europe: … most clearly manifested in fiction about the regions that remained unknown the longest….their works, too, would finally be overtaken by history and supplanted by scientific descriptions of the material and social worlds. [Fausset’s examples are Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver, Poe, Lovecraft.]