The Retrospect; Or, Review of Providential Mercies

Marks, Richard. [pseud. Aliqius.]. : with Anecdotes of Various Characters. From the Seventeenth London Edition. New York: Robert Carter, 1841.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

I know almost nothing about this book, its author, his ship, his pseudonym, or the attribution to him. My guess is he was a British Naval officer, possibly even a chaplain of firm pious and dogmatic conventions. He did resign from the Navy to take orders, presumably in the Anglican Church. This work is part of the genre of hortatory narratives of damnation, salvation, and the workings of providence. Although they grow tedious in time, although possibly inspirational to some, I’ve given a couple of longer narratives here to give the full flavor of the genre. I leave further research to others.

With Byrd at the Bottom of the World: The South Pole Expedition of 1928-1930.

Vaughan, Norman D. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1990.
  • 1928-30 First U.S. Antarctic Expedition (Byrd on City of New York).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This is an adulatory, almost pandering book of Vaughan’s participation in the first Byrd Antarctic expedition (1928-30), by Byrd’s principal dog handler. It reads as compellingly as the Boy Scout accounts. His chapter on life in camp was mostly about the dogs, but also on some psychological troubles, nothing about coping other than card-playing and purloined alcohol.

Life on a Whaler; or, Antarctic Adventures in the Isle of Desolation.

Taylor, Nathaniel William. New London, CT: New London County Historical Society, 1929.
  • 1851-53 Kerguélen Whaling Voyage (aboard Julius Caesar).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Narrative of a whaling voyage from New London, Connecticut to the South Indian Ocean aboard the ship Julius Caesar, August 18, 1851 to June 4, 1853. Taylor was a 28-year-old doctor and the medical officer of the voyage. The manuscript had been prepared for publication in long hand by the author in 1858--including a title page, table of contents, foreword, and chapter headings--but had never been published until this edition, limited to 900 copies, was printed by the New London County Historical Society in 1929. Illustrations by William T. Peters of the U. S. Japan Expedition. Bound in tan cloth over boards with dark brown cloth spine, gilt-stamped spine and upper board, illustrated endpapers. (from ABEBOOKS)

A Voyage of Discovery….

Ross, John, Sir. 2nd ed. Two volumes. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819.
  • 1818 First British Northwest Passage Expedition (John Ross aboard Isabella with the Alexander).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Ross was encouraged to attempt this early expedition searching for the Northwest Passage, but severely criticized by John Barrow for failing in that search. He had some significant accomplishments but this trip effectively ended his career with the Admiralty.

Kalli, the Esquimaux Christian: A Memoir.

Murray, Thomas Boyles, 1798-1860. London: S.P.C.K., 1856.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

p.23: Some books and prints were placed in the hands of the youth, and he expressed the greatest delight in seeing views of ships in the ice, and the figure of an Esquimaux watching for a seal. After gazing for a few minutes at the latter, he uttered a cry of pleasure and said, ‘This one of my people!’ [p. 24 shows an engraving of a seal hunter. Among other places, Kalli was taken to the British Museum, the Crystal Palace (1851), the Horse Guard’s Stables, and finally enrolled at a missionary college in Canterbury, St. Augustine’s.]

A Voyage Towards the North Pole Undertaken by his Majesty’s Command 1773.

Phipps, Constantine John (Lord Mulgrave). London: Bowyer and Nichols, 1774.
  • 1773 British Expedition from Spitsbergen towards the North Pole (commanded by Constantine Phipps with the Racehorse and Carcass).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Phipps was sent to determine the navigability of the North Pole from Spitsbergen, Phipps's expedition was initially hampered by ice. By sailing east and then northward again from Woodfjorden, the expedition attained a new furthest north of 80° 48'N, a record not surpassed until 1806 (by Scoresby). A solid ice wall blocked further progress, and the ships remained off Spitsbergen making scientific observations. The Voyage contains much information relating to Spitsbergen, though not the famous account of a meeting between a polar bear and a young Horatio Nelson, the expedition's midshipman. In spite of the expedition's relative success, other concerns precluded official British involvement in Arctic exploration until the expeditions of 1818 under Ross.

The Last of the Arctic Voyages, Being a Narrative of the Expedition in H.M.S. Assistance …, in Search of Sir John Franklin, during the Years 1852-53-54.

Belcher, Sir Edward. Two volumes. London: Lovell Reeve, 1855.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Belcher’s account is clearly one which he wrote during his voyage, and is interesting in noting his use of books aboard the ship, books we know to be present since they are in the catalogue of the Assistance.

Sport and Travel in the Northland of Canada.

Hanbury, David T. New York: Macmillan, 1904.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A sporting memoir but with good historical material on the “Barron Lands.” Stefansson cites this book most favorably in his My Life with the Eskimo.

Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and Round the World: being personal narratives of attempts to reach the North and South Poles; and of an open-boat expedition up the Wellington Channel in search of Sir John Franklin and Her Majesty’s ships “Erebus” and “Terror,” in Her Majesty’s boat “Forlorn Hope,” under the command of the author. To which are added an Autobiography….

M’Cormick, Robert. In Two Volumes. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1884.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions

The Friendly Arctic: The Story of Five Years in Polar Regions.

Stefansson, Viljhamur. New York: Macmillan, 1921.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Stef’s most famous of many books, admired by many, reviled by some including Amundsen, who said it represented a danger in its claim that adoption of Inuit customs would assure safety in the north. The book is prefaced by testimonials from both Peary and Greely.

Voices in Stone; A Personal Journey into the Arctic Past.

Schledermann, Peter. Calgary, AL: Arctic Institute of North America, 1996.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Voices in Stone is a personal journey of discovery, a portrait and a history of the human presence in the far northern regions of Canada. Archaeological investigations have provided us with a window into the world of the Palaeo- and Neo- eskimos who occupied the High Arctic intermittently for more than 4000 years. The book tells the story of the search for evidence of ancient human settlements on the central east coast of Ellesmere Island and the exciting discovery of Norse artifacts in thirteenth-century Neoeskimo winter houses. In 1818, Sir John Ross made the first recorded Western contact with descendants of the Neoeskimos, the Polar Eskimos or Inughuit of North Greenland. His entry into Baffin Bay led the way for Western whalers, explorers, and North Pole seekers, whose presence turned out to have dramatic consequences for the Inughuit. Voices in Stone is not only an account of the discovery of archaeological materials in the High Arctic, but a story of life in remote, isolated research camps occasionally threatened by sudden, violent storms or curious polar bears.

Along the Labrador Coast.

Townsend, Charles Wendell. Boston: Dana Estes & Company, 1907.
  • 1900? US private Summer Expedition for Birding and Touring the Labrador Coast.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

It is hard to determine from this book or the internet the date of this engaging tourist journal of the Labrador outports. On p. 98 he refers to the 230 years that the Hudson’s Bay Company had been trading furs from the natives; with a founding date of 1670 we can infer a 1900 date for the trip. He also there notes “No wonder the letters have been interpreted “Here before Christ,” for the company generally get ahead of the missionaries.

The Crossing of Antarctica: The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955-58)

Fuchs, Vivian and Edmund Hillary. London: Cassell, 1958.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Fuchs wrote most of this book, including the chapters on the men who crossed from the Weddell Sea Shackleton Base to the Scott Base on the Ross Sea via the South Pole, with chapters on the Ross Sea supporting party written by Hillary who led that group. This is a thoroughly whitewashed version mostly omitting the conflicts between the two leaders. There are very few references to reading, though Hillary does say that “our library was well patronized” (p. 146). Some inferences can be drawn and we do know from Hillary’s other book that they had the paperback Penguin edition of The Worst Journey in the World, which they used to retrace Edward Wilson’s worst journey to Cape Crozier. Otherwise there are only fairly anodyne references such as these:

Sir John Richardson: Arctic Explorer, Natural Historian, Naval Surgeon.

Johnson, Robert E. London: Taylor & Francis, 1976.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 71, when chief surgeon at Royal Naval Hospital Haslar: Richardson “was charged with caring for the hospital’s library and museum…. Between 1840 and 1850, he built up an important facility for research in natural history …and a first-rate library of natural history.” Visitors included Darwin, Lyell, Gray, and Hooker.