Lieutenant Danenhower’s Narrative of the “Jeannette”

Danenhower, John W. Boston: Osgood, 1882.
  • 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A well-written and sympathetic account by the syphilitic officer who actually served fairly well despite his periodic illnesses, and the opprobrium of having concealed his condition in order to join the expedition.

The Hazen Court-Martial: The Responsibility for the Disaster of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition Definitely Established with Proposed Reforms in the Law and Practice of Courts-Martial.

Mackey, Thomas J. New York: Van Nostrand, 1885.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Mackey held Secretary of War Robert T. Lincoln responsible for the tragedy by withholding necessary support because of his animosity to Hazen, Chief Signal Officer. Secondly he blamed Garlington for not following the plan as ordered, a plan on which Greeley depended for survival. (p. 7). On p. 6 Mackey refers to the North Pole as “the crown jewel of the Arctic dome.”

The Whale and the Supercomputer: on the Northern Front of Climate Change.

Wohlforth, Charles P. New York: North Point Press, 2004.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

A traditional Eskimo whale-hunting party races to shore near Barrow, Alaska, while their trapped comrades drift out to sea on ice that should still be solid. Elsewhere, a team of scientists transverses the tundra, measuring the thinning snow every ten kilometers in a quest to understand the effects of albedo the heat-deflecting property of snow that helps regulate the planet's temperature. Journalist and lifelong Alaskan Charles Wohlforth here crystallizes how climate change isn't an abstraction in the far North; it's a reality that has already dramatically altered daily life. He describes how Alaskan Natives and scientists attempt to reconcile their radically different ways of observing changes in the environment, and the implications for us all. (Daedalus Books Description)

From the Deep of the Sea, Being the Diary of the Late Charles Edward Smith M.R.C.S., Surgeon of the Whale-ship

Smith, Charles Edward. Diana of Hull. Edited by his Son. (ondon: A. & C, Black, 1922.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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The whaling voyage of the Diana occurred in 1866-67, during which the ship was trapped in the ice during the winter. Smith was surgeon aboard the whaler, and something of a puritan. In the words of the editor: Here we have an account straight from the pen, while the heart was still palpitating from some narrow escape or from what seemed at the time certain destruction.

Peary: The Man Who Refused to Fail.

Green, Fitzhugh. New York: G.P. Putnam’s, 1926.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A lightly disguised paeon to Peary and his endeavors, by a sometime participant in Peary’s expeditions

Reminiscences of service aboard USS Flasher (SSN 613) as yeoman submariner in 1966-69.

Gleave, Dale.
  • 1966-68 US Deployment of USS Flasher to Kamchatka and Beyond.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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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.

Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827,… Including an Account of the Progress of a Detachment to the Eastward, by John Richardson.

Franklin, John, Sir. London: John Murray, 1828. [Facsimile ed. NY: Greenwood Press, 1969].
  • 1819-22 and 1825-27 John Franklin Overland Journeys with John Richardson.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. xvii, on supplies for the expedition: There was likewise an ample stock of tobacco, a small quantity of wine and spirits, marquees and tents for the men and officers, some books, writing and drawing paper, a considerable quantity of cartridge-paper, to be used in preserving specimens of plants…together with many articles to be used at winter-quarters, for the service of the post, and for the supply of our Indian hunters….

The Frozen Zone and Its Explorers: A Comprehensive History of Voyages, Travels, Adventures, Disasters, and Discoveries in the Arctic Regions….

Hyde, Alexander. Hartford, CT: Columbia Book CO., 1874.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 793-94, concerning the Dutch expedition at Nova Zembla in 1596, describes the Ice House of Berentz found in 1871, a house unvisited for 278 years until 1871, the house included: the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night, two hundred and seventy-eight years ago. The ‘History of China’ points to the goal which Barentz sought, while the ‘Manual of Navigation’ indicates the knowledge which guided his efforts. Stranger evidence never told a more deeply interesting story.

Arctic Justice: On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet, 1923.

Grant, Shelagh D. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002.
  • 1923 Canadian Murder Trial at Pond Inlet.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Fascinating book on the introduction of European-based law into a culture that had no reason to understand it, in its communitarian consensual approach to justice. Well-written and badly proofed, but worth the read.

Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Performed in the Years 1819-20, in his Majesty’s Ships Hecla and Griper.

Parry, William Edward. London: John Murray, 1821. [Harvard copy (Accessions *59-131) has annotations by Captain Matthew Liddon, commander of the Griper.].
  • 1819-20 British Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (Edward Parry aboard Hecla and Griper).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Disappointed at John Ross’s failure to find an open path through the Northwest Passage in 1818, the Admiralty’s John Barrow ordered this important continuation of the search. Continuing explorations eventually morphed into the Franklin Search as well by 1849.

Antarctic Navigation. A novel.

Arthur, Elizabeth. New York: Knopf, 1995.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A novel about Scott’s last expedition, and a modern day female attempt to recreate that expedition

On Greenland’s Closed Shore.

Hutchison, Isobel Wylie. Edinburgh: Wm. Blackwood, 1930.
  • Greenland.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

On this trip Hutchison took a fair number of books with her and she generously shared them with her hosts.

Journey to the Polar Sea

Franklin, Sir John. Koln: Koenemann, 1998.
  • 1819-22 and 1825-27 John Franklin Overland Journeys with John Richardson.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 21: The commander of the vessel [Harmony] gave me a translation of the Gospel of St. John in the Esquimaux language, printed by the Moravian Society in London.