Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Arctic Islands and the Hudson Strait on Board the C.G.S. “Arctic” 1906-1907.

Bernier, J. E. By Captain J. E. Bernier, Canada. Dept. of Marine and Fisheries. Ottawa, CAN: Govt. Printed by C. H. Parmelee…, 1909.
  • 1906-07 Canadian Expedition to Arctic Islands and the Hudson Strait (aboard Arctic commanded by J. E. Bernier).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Part of the purpose of this expedition was to make territorial land claims for Canada “asserting Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic regions which are territory of this Dominion by right of cession made to Canada by the imperial government” (p. 3). It also restored a memorial tablet in honour of Sir John Franklin on Beechey Island.

The Charles W. Morgan.

Leavitt, John F. Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport, 1973.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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The Morgan, fully restored in 2016, is now the flagship of Mystic Seaport. It is thought to be the last surviving whaler.

Playing Dead: A Contemplation Concerning the Arctic.

Wiebe, Rudy. Edmonton, ALB: NeWest, 1989.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 21: Young Midshipman Robert Hood is unaccustomed to both the nightly ‘dismal serenade’ of the ‘cowardly, stupid and ravenous’ sled dogs and to the lazy winter lives of the traders, ‘few of [whom] have books, and the incidents of their lives do not furnish much subject for thought.’ Hood decides: ‘in such a state one might be disposed to envy the half year’s slumber of the bears.’

The Journal of Jacob Roggeveen.

Roggeveen, Jacob. Edited by Andrew Sharp. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.
  • 1721-22 Dutch West Indies Company Expedition to the South Seas (commanded by Jacob Roggeveen aboard).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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p. 9: Jan Roggeveen (brother?): referred to a book of charts shown by him previously by Jacob in Vere, saying that he had put such a book in Jacob’s chest for the voyage. The charts studied by them no doubt contained representations of islands…, and were mere spots of land separated by vast tracks of ocean….

Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition.

Beattie, Owen, and John Geiger. Vancouver, B.C., GreyStone Books, 1987.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A rather lacklustre book about the exhumation of three Franklin sailors in 1984. Spectacular for its pictures of the corpses; less so for a few things about books.

No Latitude for Error.

Hillary, Sir Edmund. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1961.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Re Trans Antarctic Expedition of 1956-57, with Vivian Fuchs. Unlike their joint book, Hillary’s at least shows some interior pictures with shelves of books, incl. one opposite p. 97 with one title legible, Into China.

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

Dr. Kane’s Voyage to the Polar Lands.

Villarejo, Oscar M. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 23: Amos Bonsall, the last living survivor of the Kane expedition, was the officer of the brig ‘Advance’ who was in charge of making daguerreotypes for the expedition. Although the U.S. Navy had provided the ‘Advance’ with the apparatus for taking daguerreotypes of the arctic scenes which Bonsall and his companions were to encounter at unprecedented latitudes, the labors of Bonsall as the ship’s photographic chronicler came to a disastrous end in the year 1855. As Bonsall says…, the results of his work ‘were lost on our return. The box containing the daguerreotypes was put upon a sledge on the ice, and was carried away, together with the whole collection of Arctic birds, which had been prepared with great care for the Academy of Natural Science. This was an irreparable loss, and one to this day I have never ceased to regret.’ [See Rudolf Kersting, The White World, “After Fifty Years.”]

Count Benyowsky; Or The Conspiracy of Kamtschatka: A Tragic-Comedy.

Kotzebue, August von. Translated by Wilhelm Render. Second Edition. London: Printed for W.J. and J. Richardson, 1798.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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Kotzebue, a German dramaist wrote this play about Benyovzky in 1798.In 1769, while fighting for the Polish armies under theBar Confederation, he was captured by the Russians and exiled toKamchatka. He subsequently escaped and returned to Europe viaMacauandMauritius, arriving in France.

Sledge: The British Trans-Greenland Expedition 1934.

Lindsay, Martin. London: Cassell, 1935.
  • 1934 British Trans-Greenland Expedition (commanded by Martin Lindsay).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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An account of the traversal of the Greenland Ice-Cap, between Jakobshaven, near Disco Island on the west coast, and Angmagssalik on the east coast.

Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition.

Murdoch, John. Introduction by William W. Fitzhugh. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1988. [First published 1892.].
  • 1881-83 International Physical Year US Expedition to Point Barrow Alaska (Ray).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. xvii, re IPY cruise on Golden Fleece to Point Barrow, Aug 8, 1881, Murdoch to Richard Rathbun at Smithsonian: The hold and the deck are filled with our stuff, while we are so crowded in the cabin that we are only able to keep out the simple necessary articles and a few books. … I had hoped to have things so that I might do some work on the voyage up, but the vessel is so small and we have so much material that it is entirely out of the question…. They feed us well and by reading, writing, eating and sleeping we manage to fill up the time.

A Book of Book Lists.

Johnson, Alex. London: British Library, 2017.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 63-66, Scott’s Discovery Library, 1901. A listing of the major polar titles from the Catalogue of the Discovery, from Scott’s first expedition, together with brief commentary, plus a list of books present on his cabin shelves aboard Endurance(1914-17).;

I Am Just Going Outside: Captain Oates—Antarctic Tragedy.

Smith, Michael. Staplehurst, Kent, UK: Spellmount [2002].
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Interesting if not well-written biography of Titus Oates, emphasizing his patrician background, his dyslexia and reading and examination problems, his love for horses, and his distaste for Scott. The Oates family gave no cooperation to the book, presumably because it ends with “A second tragedy”, the story of an illegitimate daughter about whom Oates knew nothing. He clearly didn’t do a lot of reading but he had Napier’s History of the Peninsular War and was an admirer of Napoleon (see p. 102 and 245) and had his portrait at Cape Evans.