ABEBooks Description: First edition. Delano, an American mariner and author from Duxbury, Massachusetts, made several voyages to various parts of the Pacific including Hawaii, Palau, the Galapagos Islands, Manila, Canton and Macao, New Guinea, Australia, the East Indies, Chile and Peru. His ".opportunity for fame and fortune came in 1790. A new ship, the "Massachusetts", weighing 900 tons and 116 feet long, had been built at Quincy to engage in the recently opened and much-talked-about China trade. Delano booked on as second officer and began keeping the journal that would form the basis of his [this book]. He published this lengthy--about 600 pages--yet readable and frequently exciting story in Boston, and it was reprinted several times in the nineteenth century" (DNB). "A Narrative." reveals Delano's open-minded curiosity and respect for the diverse cultures he encountered. It includes a unique account of the "Bounty" and Captain Bligh, accompanied by the map and views of Pitcairn's Island. The source for Herman Melville's short story, "Benito Cereno" is taken from one of Delano's adventures in which a Spanish ship is overrun by the slaves it was transporting.
A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres: Comprising Three Voyages Round the World; together with a Voyage of Survey and Discovery, in the Pacific Ocean and Oriental Islands.
- Whalemen's Reading
The Humorous Side of Arctic Exploration: Laughable Incidents that Break the Monotony of the Hard and Dangerous Work above the Arctic Circle, the Eskimos’ Sense of Humor, and Some Amusing Anecdotes of Northern Life.
- Arctic Reading: United States
p. 1, on departures for the North Pole: Some one of the crew inadvertently mentioned the fact to one of these scribes (reporters) that we had no reading matter on board for the long Arctic nights…. In the next morning’s issue the fact was called to the attention of the kind people of New York. That afternoon a stream of books was flowing down East 23 Street to the Recreation Pier, carried by young, middle aged, and old, and even trucks. It was the most cosmopolitan library ever assembled, for there was everything, with one exception…and that exception a Bible—not a one. Peary wondered where they all came from & intended to throw them overboard when out to sea.
Crevasse Roulette: The First Trans-Antarctic Crossing 1957-58.
- 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Secrets of Polar Travel.
- Arctic Reading: United States
A chapter on winter quarters describes lodges he built for wintering in Greenland.
Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape.
- Arctic Reading: General
This is simply one of the best-written books of Arctic history and description: This is a land where airplanes track icebergs the size of Cleveland and polar bears fly down out of the stars. It is a region, like the desert, rich with metaphor, with adumbration. In a simple bow from the waist before the nest of the horned lark, you are able to stake your life, again, in what you dream. (Preface, p. xxix.)
The Strange and Dangerovs Voyage of Captaine Thomas Iames, in His Intended Discovery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea….
- Arctic Reading: General
p. 606, in a list of instruments provided for his voyage are a number of books: A Chest full of the best and choicest Mathematicall bookes that could be got for money in England; as likewise Master Hackluite and Master Purchase, and other books of Journals and Histories.
From Pole to Pole: The Life of Quintin Riley, 1905-1980.
- 1920-22 British Graham Land Expedition.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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.
“Consider the Hedgehog” London Review of Books (24 October 2019) p. 35
- Maritime Reading
Pliny the Elder was not an easy man. He reprimanded his nephew, Pliny the Younger, for walking instead of letting himself be carried, thereby wasting hours when he could have been reading.
Journals of Samuel Hearne and Philip Turnor.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
This volume is chiefly about the surveyors recruited to the HBC to chart the immense territory of Prince Rupert’s Land in the latter18th century. The Introduction tells of recruiting them through the good offices of mathematician William Wales of Christ’s Hospital London, who recommended Philip Turnor for one of the surveyor posts.
The Cabin Boy’s Log: Scenes and Incidents on a New Bedford Whaler, Written from the Journal as Kept by the Lad on a Three Years’ Voyage in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 18: Nov. 1866, preparations for the trip of this 15-year old included writing material, a New Testament, and the Episcopal Prayer Book. No indication throughout that he ever used them. Elsewhere there are several passages about pastimes, scrimshaw, boat models but nothing about reading. Notable for the cruelty of the captain to the cabin boy and the sailors.
A Tenderfoot with Peary.
- 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1908-09 US North Pole Expeditions under Robert E. Peary (aboard Roosevelt).
- Arctic Reading: United States
p. 6: …as we were leaving Hawkes’ Harbor, the Commander put the Doctor and us [Borup and Macmillan], the tenderfeet of the expedition, to work sorting the hundreds of magazines which were down in the lazarette and were filling every available space. There were fairly complete files of all the principle ones back to January, 1907 [as of June 1908], and as some one has said, ‘If the serial stories weren’t good, the cereal advertisements were,’ and so for that matter were the open-work yarns in the ladies’ journals.
List of books recommended to be taken on the Expedition [US Exploring Expedition 1838-42] for the Use of the Officers and Scientific Company.
- 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Transcript of Memo, possibly from Jeremiah Reynolds: List of Books recom.d to be taken on the Expedition for the Use of the Officers, and Scien-tific Corps.
Northward over the ‘Great Ice’: A Narrative of Life and Work along the Shores and Upon the Interior Ice-cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-1897
- 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Volume I:
Annual Report of the Chief Signal-Officer [Albert J. Myer] to the Secretary of War for the Year 1872.
- 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
- Arctic Reading: United States
p. 87: The library of the Office has been increased from six hundred volumes to one thousand three hundred and forty. These books have been catalogued and arranged conveniently for reference, and form the nucleus of a valuable meteorological library, to which additions may be made from time to time.
Nova Zembla (1596-1597). The Barents Relics, Recovered in the Summer of 1876, by Charles L. W. Gardiner, Esq. and Presented to the Dutch Government.
- Arctic Reading: Russia
Preface by translator: The first discoveries of vestiges of the Barents Voyage were made by Capt. Elling Carlsen in 1871, the first to enter Ice Haven since Barents in 1596. Discoveries were made on Sept. 9 and 11, 1871. He found the Barents “Behouden-huis” or house of safety and some relics, but was intent on circumnavigating the island. The 80 items described in de Jonge’s first report (see the 1873 Hakluyt volume on Barents’ voyages) included some books bought by an English tourist, Ellis C. Lister Kay, but the Dutch government went after them, and obtained them for the same price. They were placed in the Naval Department at the Hague where a replica of the house (with open front) houses the relics.