A delightful account of a ship’s doctor on an 8-month cruise of a whaling factory ship, with something of a psychological emphasis on the men he was with.
Of Whales and Men.
Robertson, R. B. (New York: Knopf, 1954).
- Maritime Reading
Preview
Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, being an Account of Various Observations Made during the Voyage of H.M.S. “Challenger”… 1872-1876.
Moseley, Henry N. London: Macmillan, 1879.
- 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
Preview
Moseley views most things from the viewpoint of a naturalist but brings a sympathetic humanity to everything he observes. One would have been fortunate to travel on the Challenger with him.
The Arctic Problem, And Narrative of the Peary Relief Expedition of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Heilprin, Angelo. Philadelphia, PA: Contemporary Publishing Co., 1893.
- 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1891-97 and 1898 US Northern Greenland and North Pole Expeditions (Commanded by Robert E. Peary).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Preface [n.p.]: The interest which at the present moment centres about Polar exploration is perhaps broad enough to permit of a few additional pages being added to the lengthening literature of the subject, even though they be wantng in a recital of those mishaps and hard ships which have made Arctic reading so fascinating.
Manuscripts and Archives Division, Library of Congress.
Clay Family Papers.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Henry [Harry] Clay, of the Howgate Preliminary Expedition on the Gulnare, was the grandson of the famous Henry Clay of Lexington, KY. Materials about him and by him are in Section II. Box 46, and probably elsewhere in the Library of Congress manuscript collections.
A Woman’s Way through Unknown Labrador: An Account of the Exploration of the Nascaupee and George Rivers.
Hubbard, Mrs. Leonidas. New York: McClure Co., 1908.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
Preface: This book is the result of a determination on my part to complete Mr. Hubbard's unfinished work, and having done this to set before the public a plain statement, not only of my own journey, but of his as well. For this reason I have included the greater part of Mr. Hubbard's diary, which he kept during the trip, and which it will be seen is published exactly as he wrote it, and also George Elson's account of the last few days together, and his own subsequent efforts.
Journals of Samuel Hearne and Philip Turnor.
Hearne, Samuel; Turnor, Philip. Edited with Introduction and Notes by J. B. Tyrrell. Toronto: The Chaplain Society, 1934.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
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.
A Voyage to the Arctic in the Whaler Aurora
Lindsay, David Moore. Boston: Dana Estes, 1911.
- 1884 Whaling Voyage to Greenland (aboard Aurora).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
This voyage was in 1884 to Greenland fisheries via Newfoundland. His introduction is prescient: I cannot imagine it being read by many, as the subject can only interest a few who have themselves gone down to the sea in ships. (p. 11). Lindsay was a lively reader but more in retrospect than in this book.
A Man-of-War Library
Melville, Herman. White-Jacket, or The world in a Man-of-War. (New York: Library of America, 1983) p. 522-24:.
- Maritime Reading
Preview
Chapter 41 A Man-of-War Library
The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule.
Kavenna, Joanna. London: Viking/Penguin Books, 2005.
- Greenland.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
Joanna Kavenna went north in search of the Atlantis of the Arctic, the mythical land of Thule. Seen once by an Ancient Greek explorer and never found again, mysterious Thule came to represent the vast and empty spaces of the north. Fascinated for many years by Arctic places, Kavenna decided to travel through the lands that have been called Thule, from Shetland to Iceland, Norway, Estonia, and Greenland. On her journey, she found traces of earlier writers and travellers, all compelled by the idea of a land called Thule: Richard Francis Burton, William Morris, Anthony Trollope, as well as the Norwegian Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen . . . The Ice Museum is a mesmerising story of idealism and ambition, wars and destruction, survival and memories, set against the haunting backdrop of the northern landscape. Bookseller Inventory #0670913952
The Polar Rosses: John and James Clark Ross and their Explorations.
Dodge, Ernest S. (New York: Harper & Row, 1973).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
These two Rosses, respectively uncle and nephew, were arguably the major forces in Polar exploration from Barrow’s initial enthusiasm in the 1810s through to the successful findings of the Franklin Search, that despite Barrow’s loathing for Sir John after the failure of Ross’s first search for the North West Passage. This is an excellent and well-written biography of the two men and their era of discovery.
Diaries and Notebooks
Ferrar, Hartley. 10 vols. SPRI MS 1264.
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
p 18: During the first six months, we find him poring over Drygalski, an author to whom he and several others frequently returned. In rapid succession we find him reading Ball’s The Cause of an Ice Age, Morley’s Challenger Notes, Judd’s Volcanoes, Gregory’s Great Rift Valley, Nansen’s First Crossing of Greenland, Scoresby’s Arctic Regions, Greely’s Handbook of Arctic Observation, Mill’s The Realm of Nature, Ross’s Voyage to the Southern Seas, and Howorth’s The Glacial Nightmare.
The Voyages of the ‘Morning’
Doorly, James G. S. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1995. [First published London: Smith, Elder, 1916].
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
The Morning was a relief ship for Scott’s Discovery expedition. Notable for its piano, given by Clements Markham (the carpenter cut it in half to get it into the wardroom), for the song texts given in the book, apparently composed by Doorly, and the key role of the piano. Doorly was a close friend of Teddy Evans and it was Evans’s influence on Clements Markham that helped get him posted to the Morning and involved in freeing Discovery from the heavy ice of McMurdo sound. Doorly wrote a readable autobiography called In the Wake, which devotes a couple of chapters to his Discovery experience.
Shackleton’s Boat Journey.
Worsley, Frank Arthur. London: Folio Society, 2015.
- 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Another account by the navigator of the famous boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia, a new edition introduced by Ranulph Fiennes. There is nothing about reading and I suspect that navigation books and charts were the only printed matter aboard the James Caird. Worsley’s account of those materials, however, is compelling. [Somewhere towards the end of this short book Worsley gives a nickname to divine providence, “Old Provi,” with whom there seemed to be a close relationship in times of crisis.]
Wanderings and Adventures of Reuben Delano, Being a Narrative of Twelve Years Life in a Whale Ship!
Delano, Reuben. Worcester, MA: Thomas Drew, Jr., 1846.
- Whalemen's Reading
Preview
Born in Nantucket and moved to New Bedford, both whaling communities. Father died in a shipwreck near Fairhaven when Reuben was 11. He soon took to sea with his elder brother. His style is aphoristic and cliché-ridden. Whatever the nature of his final conversion, it seems clear that he was never a member of a reading community.
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
Preview
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.”