Incidents of a Whaling Voyage….

Olmsted, Francis Allyn. New York: Appleton, 1841). (New edition. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1969).
  • Maritime Reading
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Olmsted was a passenger aboard the whaler North American [a temperance ship] in 1839, a trip taken as a kind of rest cure for his chronic nervous debility. He returned to Yale for medical school and in fact graduated but died in 1844 after a second voyage.

Daily Journal. Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (primarily temperature, animal, auroral, and magnetic observations). Explorer’s Club Inventory 2003-007. Each page bears stamp reading: “Recovered by Robert E. Peary, C. E., U.S.N., from Fort Conger, May, 1899, under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club, and by it restored to the United States, December, 1899.

Greely, Adolphus W. These volumes are in good condition and show none of the wear seen in other Fort Conger books.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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The official records of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-84) at the Explorers Club include the Daily Journal, copies of Letters sent, and the Sledge Journal.

Captain Cook’s Journal during his First Voyage round the World Made in H.M. Bark “Endeavour” 1768-71….

Cook, James, Captain. Edited by Captain J. L. Wharton. London: Elliot Stock, 1893.
  • 1768-71 British Voyage to the South Pacific (aboard Endeavour commanded by Captain James Cook).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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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.

The Charles W. Morgan Ship’s Books, 1841

Leavitt, John F. Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport, 1973.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 6: The Morgan sailed on her first voyage September 6, 1841, under command of Captain Norton, with twenty-six-year-old James C. Osborn, also of Edgartown, as second mate and keeper of a journal of the voyage. Osborn must have been literarily inclined for he took a library of over seventy volumes with him, including books on history, travel and memoirs as well as twenty-two volumes of Marryatt’s works.

Papers Relating to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), Director of Kew Gardens (1865-1885)

Sullivan, C. J. Archives: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. JDH/1/7: Antarctic Expeditions 1842-1903.
  • 1839-42 British Antarctic Expedition (James Clark Ross/Terror and Erebus).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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This bound, indexed volume contains the following documents: papers and correspondence dated c.1887-1903 relating the National Antarctic Expedition of the HMS Discovery (1901-04) including a photograph of the ship; correspondence dated c.1842-43 by J. Davies, J. Savage and C. J. Sullivan whilst on HMS Erebus and HMS Terror (1839-1843) including some poetry by Sullivan; and a lecture (original manuscript and typed transcript) given by J.D. Hooker on this expedition at the Royal Institution of South Wales, Swansea on 17 June 1846.

Four Years aboard the Whaleship. Embracing Cruises in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans, in the year 1855, ‘6, ‘7, ‘8, ‘9.

Whitecar, William B. Philadelphia: Lippincott; London: Trubner, 1864.
  • 1855-59 US Whaling Voyage aboard Pacific.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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[From a bookseller’s catalogue on ABEBooks]: Whitecar, an intelligent observer, sailed from New Bedford aboard the Pacific, on a whaling voyage which took him to Antarctic waters, Australia & New Zealand. His narrative gives good details of the whaler's life on ship and ashore from 1855-59, one of the best for the time, including observations & comparisons of whaling equipment and practices. Whitecar includes much on the West Australian coast, visiting the Vasse & Cape Leeuwin a number of times. He spends time in Albany (King Georges Sound), visits Geraldton (Champion Bay), Esperence (the Recherche Archipelago) and the Houtmans Abrolhas. In observing W.A., he comments “I didn't see a glass of spirits drank. ale and beer were however swallowed without regard to quality or quantity.” The majority of the book relates to West Australian waters & anecdotes. A very readable & informative account, one of the best we've read on West Australia. Bookseller Inventory # 8363. [This annotation is partly plagiarized in a Bartfield listing for the same book. Whitecar’s account is quite a charming account of the whaling life, somewhat sanitized for the domestic reader, pointing out the foibles and peccadilloes of sailors on other ships but seeing his ship as something of a model of discipline and benign leadership.]

A History of the Whale Fisheries, from the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date.

Jenkins, J. T. (London: Witherby, 1921).
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 178, [don’t know that this is relevant but worth checking—books here may refer to account books ]: … as they claim to know the procedure of the former company having their books in their possession, they are first in the field and " that the design manifestly tending to the increase of navjgation, and the benefit of all His Majesty's subjects, it is humbly hoped, will receive countenance and encouragement."

Voyages of a Modern Viking.

Hanssen, Helmer. London: George Routledge, 1936.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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For someone who participated in Amundsen’s three major expeditions, went to the South Pole with him in 1910, and was captain of Maud on the later Northeast Passage expedition, Hanssen sounds generally as boring as extreme weather reports, at least in this version. There is no indication of a translator, nor any indication that Hanssen and Amundsen may have had a falling out on the 1918-1920 Northeast Passage trip. So the Fram Museum suggests on its website, citing the journals of other participants as claiming Amundsen fired Hanssen because the designation of Hanssen as captain went to his head. If so, even that excitement is concealed in this book.

The Journal of Rochfort Maguire, 1852-1854: Two Years at Point Barrow, Alaska, aboard HMS Plover in the Search for Sir John Franklin.

Maguire, Rochfort. Edited by John Bockstoce. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1988).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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During the Franklin Search it appeared that Franklin’s ships might well have made it through the Northwest Passage and might be met at the western end of the Passage at Point Barrow or the Baring Strait. The Plover was given the ultimate but fruitless duty of looking for that possibility.

[Journal]

Roggeveen, Jacob. [needs citation].
  • 1721-22 Dutch South Seas Expedition to Australia (Jacob Roggeveen).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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This voyage was intended to confirm earlier knowledge of the Falklands in its path to Australia. It was too hurried to stop at the Falklands but it did find Easter Island before it reached New Ireland (Papua New Guinea) where Roggeveen’s journal ends, 18 July 1722.

Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson’s Bay in His Majesty’s Ship Rosamond Containing some Account of the North-Eastern Coast of America and of the Tribes of That Remote Region.

Chappell, Edward. London: Printed for J. Mawman, Ludgate Street, 1817.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Chappell was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy who published two books on his Newfoundland, Labrador, and Hudson’s Bay voyages. He was one of the first English explorers to spend time with the indigenous peoples, both Indian and Esquimaux. He was rather viciously attacked by William Gifford’s Quarterly Review; his own scathing response is included at the end of some copies of both of his books.

Arctic Exploration.

Hoare, J. Douglas. . London: Methuen & Co., 1906.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 89: Very little that is worthy of note occurred during the first winter. The monotony of the excessively dull season was, however, relieved by the appearance of a party of Eskimos, who proved to be thoroughly friendly, except on one occasion when they nearly assassinated half the party because they imagined that they had caused the death of one of the members of their tribe by witchcraft.