1910-14 Books aboard Fram

As exhibited at the Fram Museum, Oslo, 2015. Contributed by Geir O. Klover, Director of the Fram Museum, Oslo, Norway.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
    Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Books from the library on the Fram (1910–14).

The Voyage of the Discovery.

Scott, Robert Falcon. First published London: Smith Elder, 1905.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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[A new edition with introduction by E.C. Coleman was published in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 2005.]

Little America: Aerial Exploration in the Antarctic; the Flight to the South Pole.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn. New York: Putnam’s, 1930.
  • 1928-30 First U.S. Antarctic Expedition (Byrd on City of New York).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Byrd’s account of his first Antarctic Expedition (1928-30) and the development of the first Little America. Here and elsewhere Byrd seems obsessed with the possibility of failure, though it also seems that he uses that device to heighten the tension of his narrative. Seems a transparent piece of reader manipulation.

The United States Arctic Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay

Greely, Adolphus Washington. Proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society and monthly record of geography, 4 no. 3 (March 1882) p. 171-175.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Greely’s report from Fort Conger in 1881 on the first few months of the expedition, including discovery of fragments from the Nares expedition, and his conviction: …that in my opinion, a retreat from here southward to Cape Sabine, in case no vessel reaches us in 1882 or 1883, will be safe and practicable, although all but the most important records will necessarily have to be abandoned. Abstracts could and would be made of those left. (p. 175)

Diary of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition and New Zealand’s IGY Participation December 1956 to February 1958.

Carlyon, Roy.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Transcript of personal diary of Roy Carlyon, covering the period December 1956-February 1958, which he spent as a member of the New Zealand contingent of a joint British/New Zealand Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It’s unclear from the OCLC entry as to where the original manuscript diary is, but two copies of a transcript are at the University of Canterbury Library (Christchurch) and the University of Waikato Library. Carlyon seems to have been a prodigious reader. While at Scott Base during the first winter months of late April to mid-July, 1957, Carylon mentions the following books:

Annual Report of the Chief Signal-Officer [Albert J. Myer] to the Secretary of War for the Year 1872.

United States. War Department. Signal Corps. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1872.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 87: The library of the Office has been increased from six hundred volumes to one thousand three hundred and forty. These books have been catalogued and arranged conveniently for reference, and form the nucleus of a valuable meteorological library, to which additions may be made from time to time.

German Exploration of the Polar World. A History, 1870-1940.

Murphy, David Thomas. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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p. 46, Karl Koldewey’s Germania sailed with the Hansato Greenland in June 1869, but soon the ships parted. Hard to know which fared the worse. The Hansa sank. Aboard the Germania: Confinement, tension, isolation, darkness, and the exhausting routine of physical labor gradually erode group morale. The psychological health of the men had not been neglected when planning the expedition, and efforts were made to supply healthy diversions. A newspaper was attempted (as would be the case later with subsequent German expeditions to Greenland, but it “died of neglect” after five issues.

1908-14 Douglas Mawson book lists

Mawson, Douglas.
  • 1908-09 British Antarctic Expedition; 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition.
  • Maritime Reading
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Included in Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic Diaries is a list of books considered part of the equipment of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1908-09, led by Shackleton aboard Nimrod, and in which Mawson served as “Physicist” of the expedition. The books are mentioned in Mawson’s Antarctic Diaires, ed. By Fred & Eleanor Jacka (Sydney 1988), on p. 6 under the entry for 12 January 1908. The original pencil mss. diary is Notebook 2 (16 December 1908 – 10 February 1909, entitled “Douglas Mawson, his diary of journey from depot on shore of Ross Sea, N of Drygalski Glacier to South Magnetic Pole” (Jacka, p. xiii). The handwritten list is in most cases quite specific about the edition and these have been relatively easy to identify.

Letters Written during the Late Voyage of Discovery in the Western Arctic Sea.

By an Officer of the Expedition. London: Printed for Sir Richard Phillips, 1821.
  • 1819-20 British Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (Edward Parry aboard Hecla and Griper).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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The letters are ostensibly addressed to a Brother of the officer-author named Thomas, giving in the first paragraph the conclusion “that a practical communication by sea, round the northern coasts of North America, is not to be attained. The letters recount an officer’s view of the second Parry voyage of 1819, which wintered in Winter Harbour, produced work of the Royal Arctic Theatre, and started a ship’s newspaper. This account gives ample evidence of Parry’s benevolent rule over the men and his religious dedication. Possible authors of these letters were officers Matthew Liddon, Edward Sabine, Henry Hoppner, and Frederick Beechey. [Find the author??]

Shackleton’s Boat Journey.

Worsley, Frank Arthur. London: Folio Society, 2015.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Another account by the navigator of the famous boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia, a new edition introduced by Ranulph Fiennes. There is nothing about reading and I suspect that navigation books and charts were the only printed matter aboard the James Caird. Worsley’s account of those materials, however, is compelling. [Somewhere towards the end of this short book Worsley gives a nickname to divine providence, “Old Provi,” with whom there seemed to be a close relationship in times of crisis.]

Antarctic Days: Sketches of the Homely Side of Polar Life by two of Shackleton’s Men.

Murray, James and George Marston. London: Andrew Melrose, 1913.
  • 1907-09 British Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Nimrod).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

By two men of Shackleton’s Nimrod colleagues, and a preface by Shackleton himself. Murray was a biologist who served as chief of the base camp of the 1907-09 Nimrod expedition. George Marston was the official artist for both the Nimrod and the Endurance expeditions and drew illustrations of both. In his introduction Murray says that he did most of the writing and Marston “does the best of the illustrations.” Both were involved in the production of Aurora Australis.

A Briefe Historie of Muscovia.

Milton, John. Vol. III. Complete Prose Works. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 524: The discovery of Russia by the northern Ocean, made first, of any Nation that we know, by English men, might have seem’d an enterprise almost heroick; if any higher end than the excessive love of Gain and Traffick, had animated the design. Nevertheless that in regard that may things not unprofitable to the knowledge of nature, and other Observations are hereby come to light, as good events ofttimes arise from evil occasions, it will not be the worst labour to relate briefly the beginning, and prosecution of this adventurous Voiage; until it became at last a familiar Passage.