Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
A Visit to the South Seas, in the U.S. Ship Vincennes, During the years 1829 and 1830; with Scenes in Brazil, Peru, Manila, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena.
- 1829-30 US Circumnavigation (W.C.B. Finch aboard USS Vincennes).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
Stewart was in effect the missionary narrator of this somewhat odd circumnavigation in that it didn’t intend circling the globe until it was already on the Pacific Coast. He began on a different ship and then joined the round the world cruise aboard the Vincennes at Callao, Peru, on July 29th. [Note: there are variant editions of this work, with differing dates and paginations. The Google version of Vol. I does not indicate date but maybe 1832 rather than the first.
The Autobiography of a Seaman.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
This author is one very aristocratic sailor who had his troubles with the Royal Navy and the British government in the early nineteenth century. Suffice it to say that this is not a voice from the forecastle, but of petulant complaints concerning the “injustice and folly” of the government court (p. 493). There is nothing I could find in this book about polar reading, or any reading at all.
Reminiscences of service aboard USS Flasher (SSN 613) as yeoman submariner in 1966-69.
- 1966-68 US Deployment of USS Flasher to Kamchatka and Beyond.
- Arctic Reading: United States
The sub adopted as its honorary submariner the novelist Louis L'Amour, author of Western thrillers. Dale was the yeoman who corresponded with him, sent him a letter when they crossed the equator, and L'Amour in turn sent signed copies of all his work to the ship.
The Horizontal Everest: Extreme Journeys on Ellesmere Island.
- Arctic Reading: General
An autobiographical/historical account of his and various explorer’s travels in Ellesmere.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket….
- Whalemen's Reading
Fictional account of mutiny on Grampus, June 1827, followed by rescue by a whaler which sailed nearly to the South Pole. Very little about books, but the cabin of Pym’s friend Augustus contained “a table, a chair, and a set of hanging shelves full of books, chiefly books of voyages and travels” (p. 1021). When Pym, a stowaway, was first hidden before departure he describes his hideaway on p. 1024: “I now looked over the books which had been so thoughtfully provided, and selected the expedition of Lewis and Clarke to the mouth of the Columbia. With this I amused myself for some time, when growing sleepy, I extinguished the light with great care, and soon fell into a sound slumber.” That seems to be the last mention of books in this exciting and inventive tale.
Edge of the World: Ross Island Antarctica: A Personal and Historical Narrative.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Neider tells much of the history of Antarctic exploration by focusing on the geographic area of Ross Island and the Ross Sea. The book has a good series of maps which helped me understand what I have often found a confusing place. The book itself is highly derivative, including long passages quoted from some very familiar works of the explorers, from Ross onwards, including Scott and Shackleton, but it also recounts the author’s own experiences and near disasters on his Deep Freeze expeditions to McMurdo and travels elsewhere in Antarctica.
Ancestral Voices.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 31-32, describes a visit to Lord & Lady Kennet's home in 1942: Lord Kennet was luckily in bed with bronchitis so we were alone. K [Scott’s widow] as outgiving as ever. The first glimpse of her showed how she is ageing. Her figure is noticeably spread, and not mitigated by the shapeless, sacklike garments she always wears. She is the worst-dressed woman I know; and rejoices in a sort of aggressive no-taste in clothes and house.
The Night Side of Dickens.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 544, Dickens library contained many volumes on Arctic voyages and several on Franklin.
Elephant Island and Beyond: The Life and Diaries of Thomas Orde Lees.
- 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
A selection from the meticulous diaries of Orde Lees, who as chief of supplies and provisions was the least popular member of the Shackleton Endurance expedition, but nonetheless a fair, scrupulous, and fastidious store-master on the journey. Traces his aristocratic background and some of its effect on fellow crew members who could deride his chronic sea-sickness, or even accuse him of cowardice. Apart from his sometimes fawning attitude to Sir Ernest, it is a responsible piece of work.
The Ice Child.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Fictional account of the Franklin search and an obsessive Franklin searcher.
I Am Just Going Outside: Captain Oates—Antarctic Tragedy.
- 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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.
Hudson’s Bay Copy Booke of Letters Commissions Instructions Outward 1688-1696.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
This is a miscellaneous collection of letters of the HBC on the early history of the Company and its early tribulations.
Hunting with the Eskimos: The Unique Record of a Sportsman’s Year among the Northernmost Tribe….
- Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
Whitney traveled with Peary to Greenland in 1908 and spent the year only with Eskimos north of Etah at Annootok, while Peary was making his north pole attempt. Whitney is the complete hunter, rich and well-provided, and demonstrates some intellectual curiosity about the natives and about the natural resources, and does try to master their language, but he evidently reads little except under the duress of prolonged inactivity.
Lands Forlorn: A Story of an Expedition to Hearne’s Coppermine River.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
p. 45-46, on finding two dead bodies, a dirty note-book, and some carbolic acid: The stench was insufferable, worse than any other form of decomposing animal matter, and blended with it was the peculiarly acrid smell of old smoke from spruce fires. One could remain in that loath some atmosphere only a few minutes at a time; the bodies were in a state of decomposition so advance that it was necessary to break the bunks down and carry them out as they lay. Close to the house on that pleasant point we buried them both in one grave, dug as deep as the frozen ground permitted.