The Journal of Jacob Roggeveen.

Roggeveen, Jacob. Edited by Andrew Sharp. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.
  • 1721-22 Dutch West Indies Company Expedition to the South Seas (commanded by Jacob Roggeveen aboard).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

p. 9: Jan Roggeveen (brother?): referred to a book of charts shown by him previously by Jacob in Vere, saying that he had put such a book in Jacob’s chest for the voyage. The charts studied by them no doubt contained representations of islands…, and were mere spots of land separated by vast tracks of ocean….

Seamen’s Missions: Their Origin and Early Growth.

Kverndal, Roald. (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1986).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

An important aspect of the provision of reading materials to seamen throughout the world was the work of religious organizations such as the American Seamen’s Friend Society and many others to present small libraries to both naval and merchant ships. The movement began in Scotland but quickly was established in the United States. I’ve aggregated the material on mission libraries and books here under Great Britain.

Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741-1742.

Steller, Georg Wilhelm. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

p. 189: Footnote: Among the essential items [on Bering’s expedition] were three quadrants, one chronometer, one compass, one spyglass, eleven books of navigation, one bundle of charts, two bundles of calculations, and seven maps. [See Bancroft 90: n 14.]

The Bibliographical Miscellany.

Petheram, John, ed. 5 numbers, all printed. London: John Russell Smith, 1859.
  • 1612-13 British North-West Passage Expedition (led by Sir Thomas Button, aboard Resolution and Discovery).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

First three numbers deal with the North-West Passage and the 1612 voyage of Sir Thomas Button.

Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor.

Winton, John. London: Michael Joseph, 1977.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 25-26: In July 1838 the Admiralty sanctioned the supply of libraries to sea-going ships. Large ships were issued with 276 books, small ships with 156. The books were mostly religious or of an ‘improving’ nature. Various societies and private individuals also contributed. As early as 1816 a Lieutenant Baker and a Dr Quarrier supplied the Leander frigate, fitting out from Woolwich, with a library of several hundred books. Mrs Elizabeth Fry later persuaded the Admiralty to issue libraries to naval hospitals and to the coastguard.

The Heart of the Antarctic, Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909.

Shackleton, Ernest Henry, Sir. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott, 1909. Another edition appeared under the title Shackleton in the Antarctic (London: William Heinemann, 1911).
  • 1907-09 British Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Nimrod).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

[From ABEBooks description] Shackleton's narrative of the "Nimrod" voyage and expedition of 1907-1909 is not only one of the classics of Polar exploration, but a great read in its own right. Shackleton had three goals for the mission and divided the company into three groups: one would set out to reach the Pole, another to plant a flag at the South Magnetic Pole, and the third to explore the Ross Barrier. This ambitious program was kept faithfully in the foreground, and although it was not possible to fulfill every detail of it, the mission is regarded as a triumphant success. "Men go out into the void spaces of the world for various reasons. Some are incited simply by a love of adventure, some have a keen thirst for scientific knowledge, and others are drawn away from trodden paths by the ‘lure of little voices,’ the mysterious fascination of the unknown. I think that in my own case it was a combination of these factors that determined me to try my fortune once again in the frozen south.

To the Pacific and Arctic with Beechey: The Journal of Lieutenant George Peard of H.M.S. ‘Blossom’

Peard, George. Edited by Barry M. Gough. (Cambridge, UK: Hakluyt Society, 1973).
  • 1825-28 British Voyage to Pacific Northwest to Meet Captain Franklin at the Bering Straits.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

George Peard, the first lieutenant of the Blossom, gives detailed descriptions of the places visited and the inhabitants, among them Pitcairn Island and the Gambier, Tahitian and Hawaiian groups. No less valuable are his accounts of Kamchatka, California, the Northwestern extremity of North America, and various parts of South America. Peard had an inquisitive, scientific mind, and he wrote a clear discursive narrative which shows that British exploration in the early Pax Britannica bore many fruits - scientific, commercial and strategic. It also showed that the Northwest passage had again eluded the British, in spite of the careful planning of the Admiralty, the Colonial office and the Hudson's Bay Company and the painstaking execution of orders by such naval officers as Parry, Franklin, Beechey and Peard himself. Two of the plates are now printed at the end of the book. [Description from Google Books, 10/7/17.]

Antarctica: Both Heaven and Hell.

Messner, Reinhold. Translated by Jill Neate. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers, 1991.
  • 1989-90 Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Messner and Arved Fuchs).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

On the two-person Transantarctic expedition of 1989-90, including visit to South Pole, and which included a number of days stranded in their tent. The trek was 2,800km on foot.

Explorer: The Life of Richard A. Byrd.

Rose, Lisle A. Columbia, Mo: University of Missouri Press, 2008.
  • 1928-56 Expeditions of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

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.