Tom Cringle’s Log.

Scott, Michael. Two Volumes. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1833.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Early maritime fiction, sometimes compared to Marryat’s work. There is a good deal of material, not very respectful, about black sailors. Not much reading amidst the swashbuckling, except for burials. An example:

War, Ice & Piracy: The Remarkable Career of a Victorian Sailor. The Journals and Letters of Samuel Gurney Cresswell.

Cresswell, Samuel Gurney. Edited by Dominick Harrod. (London: Chatham Publishing, 2000).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Cresswell was a Royal naval officer aboard both the James Clark Ross and Robert McClure expeditions of the Franklin Search, and can claim to be the first to cover the entire Northwest Passage. He was also a notable water-colourist of these expeditions. The letters reproduced here are primarily to his Parents.

Journeyman Taylor: The Education of a Scientist.

Taylor, Griffith. London: Hale, 1958.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Has three or four short chapters on his participation in Scott’s Terra Nova expedition.

The Greatest Show in the Arctic: The American Exploration of Franz Josef Land, 1898-1905.

Capelotti, P. J. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.
  • 1898-1905 US Expeditions to Franz Josef Land (Wellman, Baldwin and Ziegler).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A lengthy study of three incompetent American attempts on the North Pole from Franz Josef Land. The first left two Norwegians, hired by the American Wellman, isolated at Fort McKinley advised by second-in command Evelyn Briggs Baldwin, for the winter of 1898-99 on poor rations and little fuel for cooking or heat.

To the South Polar Regions: Expedition of 1898-1900.

Bernacchi, Louis Charles. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1991. [Facsimile of London 1901 edition.].
  • 1898–1900 British Antarctic Expedition (Carsten Borchgrevink on Southern Cross).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Hardly the most scintillating of Antarctic narratives, but fascinating for the way in which Bernacchi ignores the presence of Borchgrevink, referring to him only as the commander (almost never by name), never giving him any role in the expedition. See Janet Crawford’s edition above for a more candid account of the expedition. Bernacchi’s emphasis was always on science and much of this account is a description of what he and his colleagues found, indicating other avenues of exploration. There are many literary allusions and quotations, but little indication of what he read aboard ship or while wintering at Cape Adare.

Arctic Meeting at Chickering Hall. Plan for Exploration of the Arctic Regions,

Howgate, Henry W. Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York 10 (1878) 276-98.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Includes meeting commentary by William Cullen Bryant, Bayard Taylor, Lord Dufferin, and Isaac Hayes. Hayes approved Howgate’s plan but recommended the mouth of Smith Sound rather than Lady Franklin Bay because he wasn’t confident that the later could be reached every year. He was right.

Farther North than Nansen. Being the voyage of the Polar Star.

Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo di Savoia. Two Volumes. London: Howard Wilford Bell, 1901.
  • 1899-1900 Italian North Polar Expedition (aboard Polar Star commanded by the Duke of Abruzzi and Umberto Cagni).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

Abruzzi’s expedition divides neatly into the two parts described in these volumes. The first volume deals with the sea voyage of the Polar Star, the second with Umberto Cagni’s sledging journey toward the North Pole. Much of the second volume is by Cagni who had taken over command because of Abruzzi’s injuries.

The Belgian Antarctic Expedition under the Command of Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery. Summary Report of the Voyage of “Belgica” of 1897–1898–1899.

Gerlache de Gomery, Adrien de. Brusselles: Hayez, 1904.
  • 1897-99 Belgian Antarctic Expedition (Gerlache de Gomery aboard Belgica).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 11: The forecastle for the crew was spacious, well-ventilated and lighted by a large skylight. It contained sixteen berths, supplied with good mattresses and warm woolen blankets.

John West and His Red River Mission

Heeney, William Bertal. Toronto: Musson Book Company, 1920.
  • 1820-23 British Chaplain Residence at Red River Colony.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A rather simple description of John West, an Anglican clergyman, who as chaplain to the HBC established a Mission School at Red River in 1821.

The Ice Child.

McGregor, Elizabeth. [Novel]. (New York, Dutton, 2001).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Fictional account of the Franklin search and an obsessive Franklin searcher.

[Review]. “Account of the Proceedings of H. M. S. Enterprise from Behring Strait to Cambridge Bay.” By Capt. R. Collinson.

Back, George. Journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London 25 (1855) p. 194-206.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

The Enterprise and the Investigator set sail together in 1850 to establish the North Pacific arm of the Franklin Search, hoping to meet the by-then missing Franklin as he emerged from the Northwest Passage. It was not to be: the ships were separated after successfully navigating the straights of Magellan only to be met by high seas that separated them forever. This paper was communicated to the RGS by Sir George Back, from Captain Collinson of the Enterprise.

A World of Men: Exploration in Antarctica.

Herbert, Wally. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1968.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Herbert was in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year and other times, starting in Dec. 1955 with the Falkland Islands Dependency Survey (FIDS). This is an account of his romance with the ice, which seems to have been a strictly masculine affair as the title implies.