Climbing the Pole: Edmund Hillary & the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1958.

Thomson, John. Norwich, UK: Erskine Press, 2010.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

An excellent book which skewers Hillary for his disingenuous claim that his trip to the South Pole, upstaging Vivian Fuchs, was a spur of the moment decision, while convincingly documenting that it was Hillary’s intent from the outset of his involvement with TAE.

A Voyage Around the World with the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the Years 1815-1818 in the Brig

Chamisso, Adelbert von. Rurik, Captain Otto von Kotzebue. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986).
  • 1815-18 Russian Exploring Expedition (Captain Otto von Kotzebue aboard Rurik).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 27, a paean to Kotzebue as author, the father of this Captain: How often in the far ends of the earth, namely on O-Wahu [O’ahu], Guaján [Guam], etc., have I been praised for my small share in the enterprise of his son, in order to cast a hem of the mantle of his fame over me. Everywhere we heard his name mentioned. American newspapers reported that The Stranger had been performed to extraordinary applause. All the libraries in the Aleutian Islands, as far as I have investigated them, consisted of a single volume of the Russian translation of Kotzebue.”

From Pole to Pole: The Life of Quintin Riley, 1905-1980.

Riley, Jonathan P. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1989.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Quinton Riley was the Quarter Master of the British Graham Land Expedition, and this biography includes one full chapter on his participation in the BGLE (p. 55-95). He is described as a good-natured but argumentative colleague, of firm religious convictions, and a valuable member of the expedition staff.

The Zoology of Captain Beechey’s Voyage, Compiled from the Collections and Notes made by Captain Beechey….1825-28.

Beechey, William Frederick. (London: H. G. Bohn, 1839).
  • 1825-28 British Voyage to Pacific Northwest to Meet Captain Franklin at the Bering Straits.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

After three voyages as a subordinate officer Frederick Beechey was appointed commander of HMS Blossom in 1825 and assigned to the Bering Straits to await the arrival of John Franklin on his second overland expedition to the Mackenzie River Delta and on to the Alaska coast. Although Franklin never arrived (they missed each other by only 200 miles), Beechey and his men employed the time in scientific observation, especially of specimens of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, some from the South Seas but many from the Arctic waters of Kamchatka and Alaska.

The Clipper Ship Era: An Epitome of Famous American and British Clipper Ships, Their Owners, Builders, Commanders, and Crews 1843-1869.

Clark, Arthur H. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 29, on ships of East India Company: On Sunday mornings the crew was mustered and inspected by the chief officer, and then assembled for Divine service, which was read by the commander, as the Court of Directors required the captains “to keep up the worship of Almighty God, under a penalty of two guineas for every omission not satisfactorily accounted for in the log-book.”

Ross in the Antarctic: The Voyages of James Clark Ross in Her Majesty’s Ships Erebus and Terror, 1839-1843.

Ross, M. J. Whitby, Yorks., England: Caedmon of Whitby, 1982.
  • 1839-42 British Antarctic Expedition (James Clark Ross/Terror and Erebus).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

An entire volume devoted to the Ross expedition with substantial chapters on each of the three Antarctic summer voyages, as well as material on each of the antipodean winter sojourns in Hobart, Tasmania, Sydney and New Zealand, and the Falklands.

South with Mawson

Laseron, Charles F. in Antarctic Witness, introduced by Tim Bowden. Sydney, Australia: Angus and Robertson, 2000. (With Frank Hurley’s Shackleton’s Argonauts.).
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

First published in 1947, Laseron’s account of Mawson’s AAE is a gentle and generally optimistic account, even when describing Mawson’s perilous journey.

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
 Preview 

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.

New Land: Four Years in the Arctic Regions.

Sverdrup, Otto. Two volumes. London: Longmans, Green, 1904.
  • 1898-1902 Swedish Ship and Sledging Expedition to Northern Greenland (Led by Otto Sverdrup aboard Fram).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

Volume I:

Fort Monmouth Communications Museum

Fort Monmouth, NJ.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An extensive collection of Greely material, much of it given to Fort Monmouth by Mrs. Stafford in March 1964, shortly before her and her brother’s gifts to the Explorers Club. This included chinaware from Fort Conger (brown floral design) and from the Proteus (2 eggcups), botanical specimens, other artifacts, and a good number of manuscripts and printed material. These were materials retrieved by Peary in 1899 and included letters, condensed meteorological and other observations, etc. The Collection was moved to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, in 2008.

White Horizon

Liversidge, Douglas. London: Odhams Press, 1951.
  • 1948-50 Falkland Islands Dependency Survey Stonington Island, Base E (Vivian Fuchs).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A journalist’s account of Fuchs’ attempt to rescue 11 men stranded for three years at Stonington Island, the southernmost base of the Falklands Survey. A bit of adventure but a poorly written book that doesn’t even bother to say what year he sailed with the John Biscoe [1947].

A Voyage to the South Pacific and Round Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, for the Purpose of Extending the Spermaceti Whale Fisheries….

Colnett, James. London: W. Bennett, 1798.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

James Colnett was an officer of the British Royal Navy, an explorer, and a maritime fur trader. He served under James Cook during Cook's second voyage of exploration. Later he led two private trading expeditions that involved collecting sea otter pelts in the Pacific Northwest of North America and selling them in Canton, China, where the British East India Company maintained a trading post. Wintering in the recently discovered Hawaiian Islands was a key component of the new trade system.

The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776-1780.

Cook, James, Captain. Edited by J. C. Beaglehole. Two volumes. (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1967).
  • 1776-80 British Naval Expedition–Third Voyage (Captain James Cook aboard Discovery and Resolution).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

These volumes cover Cook’s attempt on his third voyage at finding the Northwest Passage from the west but ending in his death. Included in the volume are the surviving journals of officers of the expedition, including various descriptions of the death of Cook.