An epic history of the "iron men in wooden boats" who built an industrial empire through the pursuit of whales. "To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme," Herman Melville proclaimed, and this absorbing history demonstrates that few things can capture the sheer danger and desperation of men on the deep sea as dramatically as whaling. Eric Jay Dolin begins his vivid narrative with Captain John Smith's botched whaling expedition to the New World in 1614. He then chronicles the rise of a burgeoning industry - from its brutal struggles during the Revolutionary period to its golden age in the mid-1800s when a fleet of more than 700 ships hunted the seas and American whale oil lit the world, to its decline as the twentieth century dawned. This sweeping social and economic history provides rich and often fantastic accounts of the men themselves, who mutinied, murdered, rioted, deserted, drank, scrimshawed, and recorded their experiences in journals and memoirs. Containing a wealth of naturalistic detail on whales, Leviathan is the most original and stirring history of American whaling in many decades.
Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America.
- Whalemen's Reading
Across Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition.
- 1921-24 Danish Fifth Thule Expedition to Eastern Siberia (led by Knud Rassmussen).
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
From ABEBooks, 9/4/17: Between 1921 and 1924, Knud Rasmussen led a small band of colleagues in a journey of investigation across the top of North America. The full scientific report of that 20,000-mile trek by dog sled from Greenland to Siberia, known to history as the Firth Thule Expedition, fills ten volumes. This single volume, Across Arctic America, is Rasmussen’s own reworking and condensation of his two-volume popular account written in Danish, and gives the essence of his experience of the Arctic and its people. It was the people who most captivated the Greenland-born Rasmussen, who had become a virtual adopted son to the Eskimos of the far northern district still known by the name of the trading post he established there, Thule. His first four Thule Expeditions extended the limits of the known world in Greenland solely, but Rasmussen s Fifth Thule Expedition demonstrated the unity of the Eskimo world from the Atlantic Ocean to the Chukchi Sea, proving the people all shared the same basic language and culture.
The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth, and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
- Whalemen's Reading
From a section of this weird and fascinating book the TLS reviewer (Anne Hardy) of January 18, 2019 (p. 5), has pieced together this bit of maritime medical history:
Across the Sub-Arctics [sic] of Canada. A Journey of 3,200 Miles by Canoe and Snowshoe through the Hudson Bay Region.
- 1893 Canadian Overland Expedition through Hudson Bay Region (James W. Tyrell).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Tyrrell was accompanied by his brother, J. B. Tyrrell, on this 1893 excursion. He was responsible for most of the photographs, and this book is dedicated to him. Not very much on reading during this short expedition.
On Snow-Shoes to the Barren Grounds,
- 1894-95 US Overland Journey of Casper Whitney in the Barren Lands.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
p. 360, on the Chipewyans on Athabaska Lake: It is headquarters of one of the four districts into which this vast fur-bearing land of one million square miles is divided by the Hudson Bay Company; the chief forwarding point for the merchandise which the company sends in for trade, and the fur the Indians send out as pay; a general distributing post-office of the four yearly mails which reach this land, where man is but a mere track upon the snow, and not above one hundred of the roughly approximated ten thousand read English writing. It is the most important North-land mission of the Roman Catholic Oblates Fathers, and it is practically the northern boundary of the Cree and the southern boundary of the Montagnaise Indian family, which in its various branches spreads toward the Arctic Ocean.
Titian Ramsay Peale 1799-1885, and His Journals of the Wilkes Expedition.
- 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This book constitutes a fairly broad biographical introduction to Titian Peale, as well as his journals of the Wilkes expedition, not a happy camper much of the time and bitterly disappointed afterwards, when his work was denigrated and to some extent perverted by other parties. But much of it is fascinating and worth reading, even in the tiny font APS has chosen for this book.
Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River, and Along the Shores of the Arctic Ocean, in the Years 1833, 1834, and 1835.
- 1833-35 British Overland Expedition to the Arctic Sea (led by George Back).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
From ABEBooks: George Back's expedition charted over 1200 miles of new territory and made important observations of Magnetic North and the Aurora Borealis, all while working under appalling conditions. The original purpose of the trek was to determine the fate of the second Ross expedition, which had set out in 1829 and was feared lost in the Arctic Ocean, and incidentally to make scientific observations and survey an unknown section of arctic coast. Back, a veteran of the Franklin expeditions, volunteered to lead an overland expedition north along the Great Fish River, which extends from the Rae Strait to the Great Slave Lake in northern Canada, west of Hudson's Bay. Notified that Ross had returned safely to England, Back was directed to proceed with an expedition of discovery. He found the river (now named for him) "which, after a violent and torturous course of five hundred and thirty geographical miles, running through an iron-ribbed country without a single tree on the whole line of its banks, expanding into fine large lakes with clear horizons, and broken into falls, cascades, and rapids to the number of no less than eighty-three in the whole, pours its waters into the Polar Sea" (p. 390). "As a literary composition this work may rank higher than any former volume produced by the northern expeditions" (Edinburgh Review, Sabin 2613). "Expedition via Montreal overland to north central Canada, traveled by canoe and portage down Slave River to Great Slave Lake, up Hoarfrost River, through Artillery Lake, Clinton Colden Lake, and Lake Aylmer, down the Great Fish River (now Back River) to the arctic coast, thence along Chantrey Inlet to Ogle Point. Descent of Back River was made in July and Aug. 1834. The narrative includes descriptions of the rivers and lakes traversed; ice conditions on the waterways, and in the seas in spring and summer of 1834; general landscapes, including land forms, rock types, and plant and animal life; and the difficulties of canoe transportation. Includes two Yellowknife Indian tales, and account of founding of Fort Reliance and of starving conditions; notes on physical characteristics and facial tattooing of Netsilik Eskimos. And discussion of Hearne's journey" (Arctic Bibliography, 851). p. 171-72: It has been my endeavor to foster this feeling of contentment by general kindness, by a regular observance of the Sabbath (the service being read in English and French,) and by the institution of evening schools for their improvement.
The Frozen Deep.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Short novella which first appeared as an amateur theatrical drama produced and acted by Dickens in 1857, and this version in prose in 1875. It combines arctic exploration (Franklin search vintage) with a love conflict between two explorers on the same expedition, one accepted and another rejected by the same young woman. The woman claims Second Sight to know the outcome of the conflict (she’s wrong), probably reflecting Kane’s experience with the Fox sisters and telepathy.
Notes on a Journey in America, from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois.
- Arctic Reading: General
Birkbeck was an activist abolitionist who came to the US the year before this journey. He helped settle Albion, Illinois.
Tent Life in Siberia and Adventures among the Koraks and Other Tribes in Kamchatka and Northern Asia.
- 1870? US Overland Siberian Journey of George Kennan.
- Arctic Reading: Russia
Kennan traveled by ship over Northern Pacific in abortive attempt to plan a trans-Pacific telegraph cable; covers his encounters with seasickness, native culture, and everything else.
Conquering the Arctic Ice.
- Arctic Reading: General
First edition, with folding map and illustrated throughout with photographs. Mikkelsen's 1906 Anglo-American expedition proved that there was no land north of Alaska. In addition to the scientific data gathered in the expedition, it was noteworthy in its contribution to understanding the Eskimo people. Mikkelsen was awarded a Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographic Society for exploration in the Arctic and for his work in Eskimo resettlement in Greenland.
National Library of Scotland. Archives.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
McClintock Notes : [Murray 12604 1736] McClintock to Murray, generally showing McClintock’s involvement in every detail of the publication of his work.
“‘Heroism displayed’: revisiting the Franklin Gallery at the Royal Naval Exhibition, 1891.”
- Arctic Reading: General
Excellent article on the use by Clements Markham and others to reignite interest in Arctic exploration through a blockbuster exhibition of 1891, reinforcing romantic, patriotic, heroic, and other ideals from past British history.
Explorers Club Archives I
- 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, EC2007-07
Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac…1831-34.
- 1831-34 US Circumnavigation (Downes aboard Potomac ).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This voyage spent a little time in the Falklands and saw a few icebergs but it was not an Antarctic voyage. Reynolds, however, is an interesting character who influenced Poe with Mocha Dick and Poe died with delirious shouts of Reynolds name, espoused Symmes theory of the hollow earth, and almost single-handedly pushed for the U.S. Exploring Expedition, whose command eventually went to Wilkes. Here Reynolds asks for a strong navy in defense of American commerce, dedicated the work to Secretary and Officers of the Navy (with whom he later fought). His incisive and sharply sardonic style is best scene in his “Correspondence” a few years later with Harlan Davidson, Secretary of the Navy, whom he attacks for his delaying tactics over the expedition, which was approved 4 or 5 years before its departure.