Under Scott’s Command: Lashly’s Antarctic Diaries

Lashly, William. Ed. by A. R. Ellis…, with an Introduction by Sir Vivian Fuchs. New York: Taplinger, 1969.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Lashly was a leading stoker on the Discovery and the Terra Nova, and was part of the South Pole expedition, making all but the final cut. He comes across well in a jingoistic book, e.g. Fuchs introduction: “This book is a further contribution to our knowledge of the happy atmosphere which pervaded two polar expeditions. It was the combination of great leadership and loyal support which added an epic to our history” (p. 10). The book certainly shows loyal support, esp. from Lashly, but scarcely hides the inadequacy of Scott’s leadership.

Among Unknown Eskimo: An Account of Twelve Years Intimate Relations with the Primitive Eskimo of Ice-bound Baffin Land: with a Description of Their Way of Living, Hunting Customs & Beliefs.

Bilby, Julian W. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1923.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

A detailed description of Baffin Island and the Inuit way of life, with an appendix of Eskimo deities, including the vampiric Aipalookvik who 'Has a large head and face, human in appearance but ugly like a cod's. Is a destroyer by desire and tries to bite and eat the kyakers.' (p.266). His account is also notable for descriptions of euthanasia: a blind man is willingly led to an ice hole where 'He went right under, then and there under the ice and was immediately drowned and frozen. A handy piece of ice served to seal the death trap, and all was over. Nandla had died on the hunt, and had entered the Eskimo heaven like the other valiant men of his tribe, and taken his place with the doughtiest of them, where there would be joy and plenty for evermore.' (p. 153) [From John Bockstoce collection catalogue, item 10, from McGahern Books, 2019.]

Fighting the Icebergs.

Bullen, Frank (Franklin) Thomas. London: James Nesbet & Co., 1910.
  • Maritime Reading
    Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

A novel about a whaleman and his foundling ‘son’ who learns everything about whaling from his ‘father’: the book is a good fictional introduction to whaling, a teetotaler tract (the father becomes sober as soon as he has responsibility for the boy), and a tearjerker. Towards the end of the book the author says that the boy was inculcated at an early age in the habit of reading. But there is a little bit of everything here: a happy crew converted from alcoholism, the mendacity of the owners, the death of the captain/father, the nip and sinking of their vessel, the success of the son, and his final marriage to a petticoat sailor.

Among Unknown Eskimo: An Account of Twelve Years Intimate Relations with the Primitive Eskimo of Ice-bound Baffin Land: with a Description of Their Way of Living, Hunting Customs & Beliefs.

Bilby, Julian W. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1923.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A detailed description of Baffin Island and the Inuit way of life, with an appendix of Eskimo deities, including the vampiric Aipalookvik who 'Has a large head and face, human in appearance but ugly like a cod's. Is a destroyer by desire and tries to bite and eat the kyakers.' (p.266). His account is also notable for descriptions of euthanasia: a blind man is willingly led to an ice hole where 'He went right under, then and there under the ice and was immediately drowned and frozen. A handy piece of ice served to seal the death trap, and all was over. Nandla had died on the hunt, and had entered the Eskimo heaven like the other valiant men of his tribe, and taken his place with the doughtiest of them, where there would be joy and plenty for evermore.' (p. 153) [From John Bockstoce collection catalogue, item 10, from McGahern Books, 2019.]

The Arctic Whalers.

Lubbock, Basil. (Glasgow: Brown, Son and Ferguson, 1937).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

An engaging history of Arctic whaling.

Proceedings of the “Proteus” Court of Inquiry on the Greely Relief Expedition of 1883.

United States. War Department. Proteus Court of Inquiry. 48th Congress, 1st Session, Ex. Doc. No. 100. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1884.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

p. 77, part of government inquire into the failure of the relief expedition of 1883 and the Proteus. The witness here is Lieut John C. Colwell:

The Ambitions of Jane Franklin, Victorian Lady Adventurer.

Alexander, Alison. (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2013).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A fairly balanced account of Lady Jane, with heavy emphasis on her role in Van Dieman’s Land where she clearly manipulated her husband’s performance as Governor General while always denying any involvement in the politics of the island. It comes across as an indictment of an ineffectual and easily swayed Sir John and a controlling Lady Jane. Alexander dwells somewhat on Franklin’s prim Protestantism, Sabbatarianism, and Scriptural grounding while Jane comes across as much less concerned about such matters. Disappointingly little about the James Clark Ross visit to Hobart, or about Franklin’s interactions with some North American political convicts.

Griffith Taylor: Visionary Environmentalist Explorer.

Strange, Carolyn and Alison Bashford. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 2008.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Taylor was born in England but went to Australia at age 12, where he was a student of Edgeworth David, before studying in Cambridge 1907-09 (Emmanuel College). This biography presents him as a brilliant scientist but irascible, vain glorious, and sometimes mean-spirited. A geologist turned geographer he became an ardent geographic determinist, seeing both nature and man determined by their natural environment. He went on the Terra Nova expedition with Scott, and wrote about it in his With Scott: the Silver Lining, the silver lining being the scientific accomplishments of the expedition.

The Cruise of the Florence; Or, Extracts from the Journal of the Preliminary Arctic Expedition of 1877-78.

Tyson, George E. Edited by Captain H. W. Howgate, U.S.A. Washington, DC: James J. Chapman, 1879.
  • 1877-78 US Preliminary Arctic Expedition for IPY 1881-84 (led by Howard Howgate).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

This expedition had three stated objectives, preparation for a colony at Lady Franklin Bay, collection of scientific data, and commercial whaling (p. 8-9). Despite Howgate’s description of books aboard Florence (see below), there are no references to reading in Tyson’s abstracts, though he has an engaging and easy-going style.

Eight Men in a Crate; the Ordeal of the Advance Party of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1957. Based on the Diary of Rainer Goldsmith.

Arnold, Anthea. Norwich, UK: Erskine Press, 2007.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Because of goods unloaded too hastily at the beginning of the expedition, eight men had to spend an Antarctic winter in a large packing crate and a few tents while they gradually built their main hut during the winter. The italic passages below are from Goldsmith’s diary, the others from Arnold’s connective prose.

Reminiscences of Adventure and Service. A Record of Sixty-Five Years.

Greely, Adolphus W. New York: Scribner’s, 1927.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A sanitized, somewhat saccharine autobiography which delves shallowly into the IPY expedition of 1881-84 ( p. 120-51), and doesn’t even mention his one-time friend Henry W. Howgate, without whom the expedition never would have happened. Although descended from British settlers from 1623, Greely was a working-class boy, educated through high school (including Latin). He enlisted as a private in 1861, served in a number of battles (incl. Antietam) before being promoted to lieutenant at age 18 to command a black infantry regiment. For the Greely Arctic expedition he emphasizes the scientific purposes of the IPY over pole-seeking adventure. At Fort Conger (p. 122) “needful relief from scientific labors was had by the celebration of festive occasions, the issue of a newspaper, the training and coddling of our dogs, the devising of contests and games. So, work and play marked our lives in the comfortable home, where well-cooked meals, warm quarters and plentiful reading matter were duly enjoyed.” Such was not the case at Camp Clay at Cape Sabine at the end of their retreat. Greely does deal with the execution of Private Henry but not the cannibalism allegations, nor with his bad relations with officers and men.

Shackleton’s Forgotten Men: The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic. [1914-17].

Bickel, Lennard. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Lord Shackleton. New York, Thunder’s Mouth Press and Balliett & Fitzgerald, 2000. (Adrenaline classics).
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 72, May 6, 1915: Outside, they heard the bluster grow to gale force winds. Irvine Gaze and Stevens went early to their bunks. Spencer-Smith, as ever, was reading a book by the light of the acetylene lamp.

Hell on Ice: The Saga of the “Jeannette“

Ellsberg, Edward. .” New York: Dodd, Mead, 1938.
  • 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

p. viii-ix, Preface: Reading what I could get my hands on concerning it [the Jeannette expedition], I soon enough saw that De Long's early failure was a more brilliant chapter in human struggle and achievement than the later successes of Peary and of Amundsen.