Two Years before the Mast. A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea.

Dana, Richard Henry, Jr. New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1840.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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Depicts the life of the forecastle seaman on a merchant vessel in 1840. Published anonymously, Dana was an educated gentleman who presented himself as a common seaman intending to “present the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is,—the light and dark together.” (p. 4)

Ice Pilot: Bob Bartlett.

Sarnoff, Paul. New York: Julian Messner, 1966.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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A juvenile audience intended here, but a good overview and a few things wrong.

Russian Expansion on the Pacific 1641-1850. An Account of the Earliest and Later Expeditions Made by the Russians along the Pacific Coast of Asia and North America….

Golder, Frank Aldred. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1914.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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p. 86: After reading the different accounts of navigation in the Arctic, and the fact that all attempts to sail east of the Koluima have failed, one is almost forced to believe that the cold is greater east of the river than west of it. It is, of course, impossible to prove or disprove this from the insufficient data at hand.

The Life of Sir John Franklin, R.N.

Traill, Henry Duff. London: John Murray, 1896.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 57-58: Traill cites Beechey’s Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole of the Dorothea and Trent in which Franklin sailed: It is a most spirited narrative of a voyage the interest of which as a series of maritime adventures considerable exceeded its scientific results…. But considered as a record of manifold dangers and difficulties encountered with unflinching courage and overcome by brilliant seamanship, the story of their voyage must always hold a high place in the history of Arctic adventure.

The South Polar Trail.

Joyce, Ernest Edward Mills. London: Duckworth, 1929.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A participant’s account of Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party, the party assigned to place depots between the Beardmore Glacier and Cape Evans, for Shackleton’s proposed transit from the South Pole to the Ross Sea. The depots were placed successfully but the transit never happened. Three men died on this part of Shackleton’s expedition, thus placing an asterisk on the frequent claim that Shackleton never lost a man.

A Voyage Around the World 1826-1829.

Litke, Frederic. Edited by Richard A. Pierce. Kingston, ONT: Limestone Press, 1987.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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Trip on Seniavin to survey coast of Kamchatka, the Okhotsk Sea, and the Shantar Islands. Travels from Kronstadt to Portsmouth, Rio, Valparaiso, Sitka, & Kamchatka. Stop in Sitka to observe the Russian colonies there under the Russian-American Company in New Archangel. Baron Wrangell was governor and the fort itself had been rebuilt after being destroyed by the Americans.

A Woman’s Trip to Alaska, Being an Account of a Voyage through the Inland Seas of the Sitkan Archipelago in 1890.

Collis, Septima M. New York: Cassell Publishing, 1890.
  • 1890 US Tourist Voyage to Alaska (Septima Collis).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An unusual woman’s trip for the time, written to encourage other women to abandon their grand tours in favor of this northern one. Miss Collis proves to be a self-indulgent, spoiled wealthy New Yorker, with no sympathy for the natives who “should be coerced into good behavior” (p. 15). She was a Jewish southerner who married a Philadelphia soldier, a general in the Civil War. She travelled with him during the war and wrote a book about her experiences in a divided family. That may be a better book than this self-indulgent one.

Typescript Diary, Apr. 24, 1923.

Blackjack, Ada.
  • 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Blackjack was the only survivor of the Wrangel expedition organized by Stefansson. Diary original and typescript is in STEF MSS. 8

Private Journal of George Comer while on the Relief Schooner George B. Cluett for the Crocker Land Expedition Party at Etah, North Greenland, 1915-1917

Comer, George. RB Coll: GG-4 at AMNH Lib.
  • 1915-17 Crocker Land Expedition Relief Schooner Cluett (George Comer).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Expedition Outline: August 12, 1915 Upernavik to North Star Bay p. 13-38 Sept. 13, 1915 North Star Bay p. 39-43 Sept. 24, 1915 Parker Snow Bay p. 44-87 Dec. 26, 1915 North Star Bay p. 88-163 (Land party of Comer, Peter?, Dr. Hunt & 5 natives for long Winter at North Star Bay) Sept. 8, 1916 Etah until 8/3/17 p. 164-302 Aug. 4, 1917 On Neptune returning to Sydney p. 303-318

The Seaman’s Library Manual.

Howe, Herbert L. Prepared by Herbert L. Howe, Librarian. New York: American Merchant Marine Library Association, 1939. unpaged.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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Intro. By Christopher Morley: I have seen the Green Box [American Seamen’s Friend Society library boxes] in use aboard American ships at sea, and I know what it means…to the reader off duty.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket….

Poe, Edgar Allan. New York: Library of America, 1984. p. 1003-1182.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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Fictional account of mutiny on Grampus, June 1827, followed by rescue by a whaler which sailed nearly to the South Pole. Very little about books, but the cabin of Pym’s friend Augustus contained “a table, a chair, and a set of hanging shelves full of books, chiefly books of voyages and travels” (p. 1021). When Pym, a stowaway, was first hidden before departure he describes his hideaway on p. 1024: “I now looked over the books which had been so thoughtfully provided, and selected the expedition of Lewis and Clarke to the mouth of the Columbia. With this I amused myself for some time, when growing sleepy, I extinguished the light with great care, and soon fell into a sound slumber.” That seems to be the last mention of books in this exciting and inventive tale.

Sir John Franklin’s Last Arctic Expedition: The Franklin Expedition; A Chapter in the History of the Royal Navy

Cyriax, Richard J. Plaistow & Sutton Coldfield, UK: The Arctic Press, 1997.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 43-4: Research work was planned in magnetism, geology, botany, and zoology, and all the necessary instruments were supplied. Great importance was attached to magnetic observations, for the taking of which an elaborate and very comprehensive outfit was provided. Colonel Sabine gave special instruction in magnetism to several of the officers. Furthermore, a library was supplied to each ship, the one in the Terror comprised twelve hundred volumes, and the one in the Erebus was probably at least as large—Commander Fitzjames described it as a ‘very capital library’. The books included not only those in the ‘Seamen’s Library’ ordinarily issued to every ship, but also technical treatises on the management of steam engines, narratives of previous Arctic expeditions, geographical journals, and some lighter literature, such as Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, The Ingoldsby Legends, Charles O’Malley, and volumes of Punch. Seventy slates, slate pencils, two hundred pens, ink, paper, and some ‘Common Arithmetic’ books, were supplied expressly for use in the schools which Sir John Franklin intended to hold for the men during the winter months. He was very anxious that every man should be adequately supplied with devotional works, and shortly before he sailed requested the Admiralty to furnish a hundred Bibles, Prayer Books, and Testaments, for sale on board the ships at cost price to all who applied for them. The Admiralty took immediate steps to comply with this request, but friends and various societies presented so many religious books that those furnished by the Admiralty were not needed and were, therefore, returned.