The Gateways to the Pole,

[Maury, J. B.]. Putnam’s Magazine N.s. IV No. 23 (Nov. 1869) 521-537; “The Dumb Guides to the Pole” N.s. IV No. 24 (Dec. 1869) 727-40.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An extended and approving study of Silas Bent’s theories of the open polar sea and thermal currents, saying that previous explorers have ignored the natural paths of warm currents & that Bent’s purpose is the humane one of saving lives in fruitless attempts on the North Pole.

A Forgotten Explorer: Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink

Evans, Hugh Blackwall. Polar Record 17 (1984) 221-35.
  • 1898–1900 British Antarctic Expedition (Carsten Borchgrevink on Southern Cross).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Account of one of the first to set foot on Antarctica (Cape Adare Jan. 1895). Points out a good number of Borchgrevink’s claims for which there is no evidence, allowing the inference that Borchgrevink was a great liar.

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.

Hen Frigates: Wives of Merchant Captains under Sail

Druett, Joan. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.
  • Maritime Reading
    Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

This is a rather delightful book, based on the diaries and journals of women “sailors” accompanying their husbands on sea voyages. The women and the locations of their manuscripts (largely in maritime and historical museums) are listed in an Appendix. One assumes that most of these women were both educate and of a fairly independent streak for their times.

Round the Horn before the Mast

Lubbock, Alfred Basil. New York: E. P. Dutton. 1907.
  • 1899- American Schooner Voyage from San Francisco to Europe and Round the Horn aboard Royalshire.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 17, after a day of shoveling coal he and his new English friend cleaned up and went to the opera to see “Carmen.”

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
 Preview 

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)

Realms and Islands: The World Voyage of Rose de Freycinet in the Corvette Uranie. From Her Journal and Letters….

Bassett, Marnie. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.
  • 1817-20 French Exploring Expedition (aboard Urania commanded by Louis de Freycinet).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Rose de Freycinet was smuggled aboard her husband, Captain Louis de Freycinet's corvette 'Uranie', about to sail on a scientific expedition round the world. She played a gallant and gracious part in the adventure which took her to many islands and countries. Her presence aboard, officially forbidden at the outset, had been condoned by the authorities long before she returned, and she was welcomed home as the heroine she had proved herself to be. [Summary from Aquila Books, ABEBooks, 3/1/17.]

Gold Hunting in Alaska as Told by Joseph Grinnell.

Grinnell, Joseph. Edited by Elizabeth Grinnell… Dedicated to Disappointed Gold-Hunters the World Over. Elgin, IL., David C. Cook Publishing Company, 1901.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A youthful tale, claimed to be true, edited and published by Grinnell’s mother, intended merely for “the folks at home.”

Nimrod of the Sea; Or, The American Whaleman.

Davis, William M. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

p. 93, on facilities for seamen in Honolulu, providing a reading-room, a good library, and help in writing home: And let me here alarm the Christian hearts of the American people by informing them that in no other Christian port on the west coast of America was there a door to welcome or a roof to shelter the sixteen thousand souls engaged in whaling, other than that of a gaming-house, a grog-shop, or a brothel.

Fourteen Men: The Story of the Antarctic Expedition to Heard Island

Scholes, Arthur. New York: Dutton, 1952.
  • 1947-49 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (Heard Island and Macquarie Island).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

An expedition of scientific research, chiefly meteorological and magnetic, but with an interest in Australian claims in Antarctica. Stokes was a radioman but also one of the “mets.” The Captain of the ship was Lt. Cmd. George Dixon; the leader of the shore party for Heard Island was Stuart Campbell. The ship was Ellsworth’s Wyatt Earp, where the officers and men were separated even for the alternate night movies. The trip to Heard Island (4000 kilometers southwest of Australia) was so full of weather-related dangers that references to reading do not occur until one third of the way into the book, and then not very many. Most winterover books have a central winter chapter (July/August) that discusses what the men did to pass the time. This lacks such a chapter, never talks about what the author himself read, and mainly recounts weather-related adventures during that period. Most of the last 150 pages deals with the fauna of Heard Island.

The Incredible Great White Fleet.

Carter, Samuel. New York: Macmillan, 1971.
  • 1907-09 US Circumnavigation by the Great White Fleet.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An extreme example of showing the flag in a convoy of fourteen battleships and ancillary vessels with 14,000 enlisted men travelling through the Magellan Straits and the Suez Canal. President Roosevelt welcomed the fleet back to the US at Norfolk in 1909, claiming it as his greatest act in support of peace, though it could have helped start an arms race. It also showed a marked goal of white supremacy, seen in some comments below, shared by Roosevelt and much of the command of the great white fleet. The book is an easy read, but does a good job of balancing the basic jingoism of the voyage with the nautical and diplomatic problems encountered around the world.

The Lure of the Labrador Wild: The Story of the Exploring Expedition Conducted by Leonidas Hubbard, Jr.

Wallace, Dillon. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1905.
  • 1903 US Personal Exploring Expedition to Labrador by Leonidas Hubbard Jr. and Dillon Wallace.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

As a young lawyer Wallace met Hubbard, an editor of Outing magazine, in 1900 and in 1903 they departed New York to explore the wilder and hitherto unexplored parts of Labrador. It was a difficult journey in which Hubbard died of starvation and Wallace managed to survive and go on to further explorations and successful books. Hubbard’s wife Mina felt that Wallace had disparaged her husband by implying that Leonidas caused the failure—she went on to her own career as successful competitor of Wallace as a Labrador explorer in the “great race of 1905.” All the reading that I could find was Scriptural and from The Book of Common Prayer.