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.
The Voyage of the Beagle
- Maritime Reading
Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler.
- 1865-66 US Whaling Journey to Greenland (aboard Perseverance).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Rather charming and humorous writer who was a compositor, Civil War soldier, printer, etc., and nearly blind, before shipping to Greenland in May 1865-66.
The Search for the North Pole; Or, Life in the Great White World….
- Arctic Reading: General
Baldwin’s papers are at the Library of Congress (q.v.); this book was written before some of his expeditionary work. Interestingly, he seems to have been an ardent Freemason and his chapter XLVI “Lovers of the Arts and Sciences: Free and Accepted Masonry in Arctic Exploration,” lists a number of explorers who shared that association: Kane, Hayes, Greely, Melville, Gilder, and Lt. Peary (with whom he later squabbled. See p. 507-12.)
English Writings about the New World,
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 38: At least by the nineteenth century, most expeditions of exploration considered a well-stocked library an essential component of their cargo. Obviously, those in ships could afford a greater tonnage; just how many men on Franklin’s two land expeditions hauled books and charts over portages and across the tundra remains a nice question. Certainly, when the first expedition was reduced in the fall of 1821 to a straggling line of men marching back from Bathurst Inlet to the hoped-for refuge of Fort Enterprise, a copy of Samuel Hearne’s A Journey from the Prince of Wales’s Fort, in Hudson’s Bay, to the Northern Ocean, the only book then available about the region, remained part of the load. The party of twenty men lost their way more than once. Were they consulting the charter in the inferior but lighter-weight octavo edition of Hearne’s book, issued in Dublin in 1796? It would have made a more logical traveling companion than the larger quarto first edition (London, 1795). Yet the map in the octavo showed Hearne’s return route across the Barrens differently from the first edition’s map. The discrepancy could have confused Franklin, whose men suffered more than one delay, and contributed to the number of deaths. Certainly, the matter of a book’s size bears materially on this dramatic possibility.
The Life of Captain James Cook.
- 1768–79 British Naval Expeditions of Captain James Cook.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This biography together with Beaglehole’s five-volume edition of Cook’s Journals constitute the definitive source on Cook’s voyages and work.
Explorer: The Life of Richard A. Byrd.
- 1928-56 Expeditions of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This is an appreciative but critical biography of a man who, despite notable achievements, comes across as an egomaniacal, depressive, ambitious, narcissistic, vindictive, white supremacist, a sometimes petty man, yet one who could be generous, brave, physically courageous. He is almost a model of the lonely depressive hero.
Looking both ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiq People.
- Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
p. 60-61: “Forgotten Literacy” by Lydia Block: Literacy in the Alutiq language developed in the early 19th century thanks to Russian American schools, parish and secular (1741-1867). Some youth were taken to Okhotsh and Irkutsz in Siberia and a school started in Kodiak by monks of the First Mission. A text of the Lord’s Prayer in Alutiq survives (printed 1816); a Catechism of 1847; also a primer and Gospel of St Matthew (parallel Alutiq and Slavonic, printed in St Petersburg in 1848).
Moby Dick, or The Whale.
- Whalemen's Reading
Among so many other things, Moby Dick is a key text on the reading of sailors, especially the quote on p. 159, and this edition with Kent’s wood engravings is especially desirable.
Midnight to the North: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition.
- 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Recounting the Polaris debacle from the perspective of Tookoolito, a fairly compelling narrative with not much new added, and a good deal of sentimental slush.
Cruises in the Bering Sea: Being Records of Further Sport and Travel .
- 1906 German Hunting Expedition in Alaska and Siberia.
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
The German author hunted bear and sheep in Alaska and Siberia and his book is now especially current as he hunted on the fabled Kamchatka Peninsula where hunting has just been opened. The author bagged many brown bears and snow sheep.
New Land: Four Years in the Arctic Regions
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Volume I:
Come North with Me: An Autobiography.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Balchen, Bernt, 1899-1979—Norwegian/American Explorer and Pilot. From a very early age Balchen was fascinated by the allure of the Polar regions and the prospect of using aviation to explore them. From 1925 until well after World War II he was involved in many of the most dramatic and often dangerous exploits of many of the Polar explorers and he knew most of them: Amundsen, Nobile, Ellsworth, Byrd, etc. and he is widely believed to be the first person to fly over both Poles, with Amundsen in the North and Byrd in the South. He held dual citizenship of both Norway and the United States, and served in the US Army Air Force in secret operations supporting the Norwegian resistance during the World War II.
An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour: Drawn up from the Journals which were Kept by the Several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, esq.; by John Hawkesworth … Illustrated with Cuts, and a Great Variety of Charts and Maps.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Hawkesworth’s introduction (p. xix) has a brief but controversial discussion of Providence and natural events. p. xx: “it will always be found that Providence interposes too late, and only moderates the mischief which it might have prevented.” In final passage he says he honors God but doubts his intervention in natural events.
Captain Cook’s Journal during his First Voyage round the World Made in H.M. Bark “Endeavour” 1768-71….
- 1768-71 British Voyage to the South Pacific (aboard Endeavour commanded by Captain James Cook).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
p. x: In reading Cook’s Journal of his First Voyage it must be remembered that it was not prepared for publication. Though no doubt the fair copies we possess were revised with the care that characterizes the man, and which is evidenced by the interlineations and corrections in his own hand with which the pages are dotted, it may be supposed, from the example we have in the published account of his Second Voyage, which was edited by himself, that further alternations and additions would have been made, to make the story more complete, had he contemplated its being printed.
Life on the Ocean, Or Thirty-Five Years at Sea, Being the Personal Adventures of the Author.
- Whalemen's Reading
Biography of a Nantucket/New Bedford whaleman and merchant seaman who shipped for the Pacific aboard the Planter in 1847. Although a short book it has several references to the monotony of sea life. The following are typical and repetitive. (p.143): Most of the time during the past thirty-five days we have had moderate winds, and nothing has occurred to interrupt the usual routine of duty and the monotony of a sea life. (p. 146): As usual in a long course of fair winds and pleasant weather, nothing occurred to interrupt the monotony except for the excitement produced by the anticipation of our seeing dear friends once more, which served as a general topic of conversation in the forecastle and amongst the officers. (p. 219): During the ten following days, nothing of moment transpired to disturb the monotony which is usual on board a passenger steamship. [Paddack lapses towards the end when he says “There is always something to be seen, and life is never monotonous” (p. 236).