Operation Tabarin: Britain’s Secret Wartime Expedition to Antarctica 1944-46.

Haddelsey, Stephen. By Stephen Haddelsey, with Alan Carroll. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2014.
  • 1944-46 British Covert FIDS Expedition (leaders James Marr and Andrew Taylor).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A thorough account of the British Secret Operation Tabarin by FIDS attempting to preempt any American or Argentine territorial claims in the Antarctic Peninsula region.This description has only a few indications of reading experiences during a hastily prepared and accident-prone mission.

Dr. Kane’s Voyage to the Polar Lands.

Villarejo, Oscar M. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 23: Amos Bonsall, the last living survivor of the Kane expedition, was the officer of the brig ‘Advance’ who was in charge of making daguerreotypes for the expedition. Although the U.S. Navy had provided the ‘Advance’ with the apparatus for taking daguerreotypes of the arctic scenes which Bonsall and his companions were to encounter at unprecedented latitudes, the labors of Bonsall as the ship’s photographic chronicler came to a disastrous end in the year 1855. As Bonsall says…, the results of his work ‘were lost on our return. The box containing the daguerreotypes was put upon a sledge on the ice, and was carried away, together with the whole collection of Arctic birds, which had been prepared with great care for the Academy of Natural Science. This was an irreparable loss, and one to this day I have never ceased to regret.’ [See Rudolf Kersting, The White World, “After Fifty Years.”]

Arctic Meeting at Chickering Hall. Plan for Exploration of the Arctic Regions,

Howgate, Henry W. Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York 10 (1878) 276-98.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Includes meeting commentary by William Cullen Bryant, Bayard Taylor, Lord Dufferin, and Isaac Hayes. Hayes approved Howgate’s plan but recommended the mouth of Smith Sound rather than Lady Franklin Bay because he wasn’t confident that the later could be reached every year. He was right.

With Peary Near the Pole…

Astrup, Eivind. Translated from the Norwegian by H. J. Bull. London: C. Arthur Pearson, 1898.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Astrup participated in two of Peary’s early Greenland expeditions.

An Arctic Boat Journey, in the Autumn of 1854

Hayes, Isaac I. New Edition. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1871.
  • 1854 US North Pole Mission of Charles Francis Hall.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Hayes participated in Charles Hall’s 1854 attempt to reach the North Pole, and contributed a couple of versions of his account before completing this 1860 version, closely following publication of Hayes’s The Open Polar Sea.

The Voyage of the Beagle

Darwin, Charles. Introduction by Catherine A. Henze. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. xv-xvi, Introduction: During this eventual circumnavigation of the globe, most of the time was spent first on the east, and secondarily on the west coasts of South America. With Darwin signed on as the captain’s companion, the vessel’s senior surgeon, Robert McCormick, was its naturalist. However, after only four months at sea, McCormick returned to England, because it was obvious that Darwin, nicked named “Philos,” short for “Ship’s Philosopher,” was FitzRoy’s preferred naturalist. Darwin brought with him the works of Shakespeare and Milton (taking Paradise Lost with him on his land excursions), and, more importantly, numerous scientific texts, including Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology. (As subsequent volumes were published, Darwin had them sent from England). The tiny cabin FitzRoy and Darwin shared contained a library of some 245 volumes. Even though Darwin missed England, he was not cut off from its newspapers and journals which arrived regularly, and as much as possible, letters from home.

Mark Well the Whale! Long Island Ships to Distant Seas.

Schmitt, Frederick P. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1971.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A rather light bit of local history re Cold Spring Harbor and whaling out of Long Island, incl. Sag Harbor, and descriptions of voyages and disasters.

Marginalia.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Bollingen Edition. Five? Volumes. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 19-- .
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Volume I:

The View from the Masthead: Maritime Imagination and Antebellum American Sea Narratives.

Blum, Hester. Chapel Hill NC: University Press of North Carolina, 2008.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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As much literary history as exploration narratives, this fascinating study examines both several classics of American fiction and the reading habits of sailors. Blum has gathered a great deal of information about the working-class forecastle men and their interest in reading. For transcripts of their reading reactions, their dealing with ennui, and the production of literature for their use see entries in these anthologies for Cheever, Colnett, Dana, Delano, Little, Mercier, Porter, and several other whalemen.

Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Performed in the Years 1821-22-23, in His Majesty’s Ships Fury and Hecla, Under the Orders of Captain William Edward Parry, R.N/. F.R.S., and Commander of the Expedition.

Parry, William Edward. London: John Murray, 1824.
  • 1821–23 Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage (in Fury and Hecla, under William Edward Parry).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Parry’s second voyage involved two year’s of winterovering in Winter Harbour, including a number of interactions with natives. There is little here on reading,unlike Lyon’s earlier private journal.

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.

Bob Bartlett: Master Mariner.

Green, Fitzhugh. New York: Putnam’s, 1929.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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A juvenile account of Bartlett’s life up to his late 20s. Chapters include introduction on Bartlett’s own skepticism about books in general and on him in particular; his abortive Methodist College divinity studies in St. John’s at age 15; his first command of a fishing boat; sealing; his maritime certification; Peary’s Windward in 1898; Ootark and building snow igloos; the first and nearly disastrous Roosevelt trip when they had to cannibalize the ship for fuel returning to Newfoundland; the polar sledging trip; Dr. Cook, the “faker”; Karluk; Morissey; and a final tribute to the natives: I feel that men like Ootark, Seegloo, and Inughitag should have their pictures and stories go into permanent form…. If he [Ootark] can’t go into the Hall of Fame, he at least ought to have his name on the vestibule list. (p. 208-09).