Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor.

Winton, John. London: Michael Joseph, 1977.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

p. 25-26: In July 1838 the Admiralty sanctioned the supply of libraries to sea-going ships. Large ships were issued with 276 books, small ships with 156. The books were mostly religious or of an ‘improving’ nature. Various societies and private individuals also contributed. As early as 1816 a Lieutenant Baker and a Dr Quarrier supplied the Leander frigate, fitting out from Woolwich, with a library of several hundred books. Mrs Elizabeth Fry later persuaded the Admiralty to issue libraries to naval hospitals and to the coastguard.

Ice and Esquimaux

Wasson, David A. Atlantic Monthly 14 (Dec. 1864) 728-34; 15 (Jan 1865)39-4; (Feb 1865) 201-12; (April 1865) 437-48; (May 1865) 564-72.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

A series of articles on his 1864 voyage to Labrador on the Benjamin S. Wright with artist William Bradford. Passengers included a Colonel: A Greenland voyager, and better read than any man I have met in the literature of Northern travel.

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).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

These volumes cover Cook’s attempt on his third voyage at finding the Northwest Passage as well as 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.

A Man’s Woman.

Norris, Frank. New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1900.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Norris’s turn-of-the-century novel is loosely based on George Washington De Long’s U.S. North Polar expedition aboard the Jeannette (1879-81). It borrows freely from the locale (Wrangell Island and environs), the beset and crushed ship, the forced march on ice and pressure ridges, the heroic commander, the few survivors finally rescued. He adds the love interest, a strong-minded woman who resists the commander, succumbs, marries, and subtly convinces the hero that he is the one who must achieve the North Pole for the United States, knowing his safe return to be doubtful. He sails from New York in a new ship clearly modeled on Nansen’s Fram. Sources in Greely’s expedition and parallels with Robert E. Peary, who had already begun his North Pole quest and was in Northern Ellesmere land at the time of publication, are easily drawn.

The Journal of Post Captain Nicolas Baudin, Commander-in-Chief of the Corvettes, Géographe and Naturaliste. Assigned by the Order of the Government to a Voyage of Discovery.

Baudin, Nicolas. Translated from the French by Christine Cornell. Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1974.
  • 1801-03 French Exploring Expedition to South Seas and Terra Australis (Captain Nicolas Baudin aboard Géographe).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

This is a magnificent edition of Baudin’s expeditionary journal in English translation, including listings of the exploration books on each of the two vessels. There is nothing that I could easily find in this journal about any reading of those books, though there seem to have been no natural occasions for such reading, e.g. a winterover.

John Caldigate.

Trollope, Anthony. Introduction by R. C. Terry. London: The Folio Society, 1995. [First published in book form London: Chapman and Hall, 1879.].
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

A romantic evening second-class deck conversation between a disinherited young gentleman and a mysterious widow (Mrs Smith) in some form of trouble. The talk turns to books, starting with John Caldigate, the deprived gentleman:

Antarctic Destinies: Scott, Shackleton and the Changing Face of Heroism.

Barczewski, Stephanie. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Deals largely with the reversal of reputations of Scott’s decline and Shackleton’s growth throughout the 20th century, and the balancing of the two in the first decade of the 21st century. Unfortunately, this is a long book that should have been a short one. She insists on recounting the set pieces of all the voyages with individual chapters on the English expeditions (Discovery, Nimrod, Terra Nova, and Endurance), with minimal nods to Bruce, Filchner and others less preoccupied with the Pole that the two Englishmen. She tries hard to achieve a balance between the two but seems by the epilogue to be favoring late arguments on behalf of Scott, even when the arguments are weak (e.g. Fiennes claim that only one who has been there can assess Scott in the Antarctic). There is nothing that I found about reading or any non-curricular activity to help keep the men sane, though she suggests that a number went bonkers. A disappointing work which ignores the “destiny” of its title.

Life on the Ocean, Or Thirty-Five Years at Sea, Being the Personal Adventures of the Author.

Paddack, William C. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1893.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Biography of a Nantucket/New Bedford whaleman and merchant seaman who shipped for the Pacific aboard the Planter in 1847. Although a short book it has several references to the monotony of sea life. The following are typical and repetitive. (p.143): Most of the time during the past thirty-five days we have had moderate winds, and nothing has occurred to interrupt the usual routine of duty and the monotony of a sea life. (p. 146): As usual in a long course of fair winds and pleasant weather, nothing occurred to interrupt the monotony except for the excitement produced by the anticipation of our seeing dear friends once more, which served as a general topic of conversation in the forecastle and amongst the officers. (p. 219): During the ten following days, nothing of moment transpired to disturb the monotony which is usual on board a passenger steamship. [Paddack lapses towards the end when he says “There is always something to be seen, and life is never monotonous” (p. 236).

Glimpses of the Northland: Sketches of Life among the Cree and Salteaux Indians.

Santmier, Arthur. Chicago: Published for the Author by S. K. J. Chesbro, 1905.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

p. 28: At God’s Lake the work of teaching a school was of a different character. No missionary or teacher had been stationed there, and parents and children were alike totally ignorant of the nature of a school. I arrived at God’s Lake in early September and at once commenced work. The church was a slimsy structure, very cold, and the roof leaked so badly as to render it untenable in rainy weather. There were no desks, chairs or black boards. A few books and slates I brought from Oxford House. A number of children were orphans. I plainly announced in the preceding Sabbath services that only children of school age, that is, from six to fourteen years, would be received, and that I did not conduct a nursery, nor did I want a wife, and therefore grown-up girls could not attend the school, for their sole object in coming was to impress the school-teacher with their charms and thus win a husband if possible.

Carpenter on Erebus with James Ross Clark: character used by Peter Delpeut in the film Forbidden Quest

Sullivan, C. J. Kew Botanical Gardens Archives [JDH/1/7: Antarctic Expeditions 1842-1903 (J. D. Hooker Papers)].
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

This bound, indexed volume contains the following documents: papers and correspondence dated c.1887-1903 relating the National Antarctic Expedition of the HMS Discovery (1901-1904) including a photograph of the ship; correspondence dated c.1842-1843 by J. Davies, J. Savage and C.J. Sullivan whilst on HMS Erebus and HMS Terror (1839-1843), including some poetry by Sullivan; and a lecture (original manuscript and typed transcript) given by J.D. Hooker on this expedition at the Royal Institution of South Wales, Swansea on 17 June 1846.

Pursuing the Whale: A Quarter-Century of Whaling in the Arctic.

Cook, John A. With an Introduction by Allan Forbes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1926.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Semi-autobiographical homespun yarns by a Provincetown whaleman and his career from 1868 to 1916, aboard many vessels including the Charles W. Morgan. They are interesting stories but not too revealing of the author. Cook’s wife often accompanied him on his journeys. In 1894, he was Captain of the bark Navarch which wintered at Herschel Island during that year in company with other whalers and other women.