Notes from Discovery Journal & Sledging Diaries of R W Skelton

Skelton, Reginald W. Extracts concerning the reading of books. prepared by Judy Skelton, his grand-daughter.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Ms Skelton subsequently published her grandfather’s diaries as The Antarctic Journals of Reginald W. Skelton: “Another Job for the Tinker. (Cheltenham, UK: Reardon Publishing, 2004):

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.

How the “Mastiffs” Went to Iceland.

Trollope, Anthony. Introduction by Coral Lansbury. (New York: Arno Press, 1981). [First published London, 1878].
  • 1878 British Voyage to Iceland (aboard Mastiff).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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The Mastiff was a yacht owned by John Burns (Lord Inverclyde) who took a group of men aboard his yacht on a trip to the Faroes and Iceland in 1878. Trollope wrote this story of the voyage and published it privately in the same year. Although hardly Polar, Iceland is certainly an interesting exemplar of the print culture of the North. Rather sardonic account of summer trip to Iceland in 1878 aboard the Mastiff, Trollope calling the passengers the Mastiffs.

The Eventful Voyage of H. M. Discovery Ship “Resolute” to the Arctic Regions in Search of Sir John Franklin.

McDougall, George F. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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McDougall was master of the Resolute, under Captain Henry Kellett to whom the book is dedicated. Quite fascinating journal of the second Arctic voyage of Resolute which ended in abandonment, and rediscovery after its long float. Some of its timber eventually wound up in the President’s White House desk.

The Arctic Regions: Illustrated with Photographs Taken on an Art Expedition to Greenland.

Bradford, William. Michael Lapides, Editor. Boston, MA: David R. Godine, in association with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, 2013.
  • 1869 US Greenland Expedition of William Bradford (aboard Panther).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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The narrative of Bradford’s 1869 original is all but unreadable in its original elephant folio format. This version offers a readable Bradford at last, with reduced text format and all the illustrations. The text is a fairly straightforward account of the Greenland voyage, with some good coverage of the natives encountered and especially of the Danish hospitality in several outports. Bradford proudly says at the outset that his ship, the Panther, was a temperance ship for all crew and passengers.

The Winter Night Trip to Advance Base Byrd Antarctic Expedition II 1933-35.

Poulter, Thomas Charles. Mimeograph. “Copyrighted 1973 by Thomas C. Poulter.” 1914.
  • 1933-35 Byrd Second Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Poulter was in command of Little America while Byrd spent his four months alone at Advance Base. Poulter was chosen by Byrd over the older Harold June and Paul Siple. Byrd thought Siple less mature and June unable to stay away from or hold his liquor. This book consists of notes from Poulter’s diaries and memos that passed among the men while at Little America or Advance base. A good deal is about Poulter’s problems in controlling liquor consumption, including his draining many gallons onto the ice.

Under Ice: Waldo Lyon and the Development of the Arctic Submarine.

Leary, William M. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1999.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 149, on scattering of ashes of Hubert Wilkins at North Pole from the submarine Skate: While two men held red flares, Calvert [commander of Skate] read from the Book of Common Prayer, then paid a personal tribute to Wilkins….

Griffith Taylor: Visionary Environmentalist Explorer.

Strange, Carolyn and Alison Bashford. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 2008.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Taylor was born in England but went to Australia at age 12, where he was a student of Edgeworth David, before studying in Cambridge 1907-09 (Emmanuel College). This biography presents him as a brilliant scientist but irascible, vain glorious, and sometimes mean-spirited. A geologist turned geographer he became an ardent geographic determinist, seeing both nature and man determined by their natural environment. He went on the Terra Nova expedition with Scott, and wrote about it in his With Scott: the Silver Lining, the silver lining being the scientific accomplishments of the expedition.

At the Mountains of Madness

Lovecraft, H. P. in At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels. (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1964).
  • Maritime Reading
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First published in 1931, this phantasmagoric combination of science fiction and horror novel is located on the high plateau of Antarctic, reached by airplane, but discovering the world’s highest mountains and remains of an ancient ‘civilization’ come back to life and destructive of the expedition.

Torrey’s Narrative, Or, The Life and Adventures of William Torrey. Written by Himself.

Torrey, William. Boston, MA: Press of A.J. Wright, 1848.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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p. 152, on conflicts between missionaries and Marquesas natives: The Otaheitean and Marquisian languages are so nearly alike they could converse without an interpreter. Mr. Daylia, in one of his meetings, said much about the good land and a bad land, telling them if they would be good and pray they would go to the good land, when they died. This he explained in a manner suited to their understanding. One of the chiefs jumped up and asked if the missionary who died at Nukuhivah (an English missionary who died about two years before) had gone to that good land. Mr. Daylia assured them he had, when, unwilling to believe it, they sent four men to that island, (about fifty miles) to get some of the bones. At the expiration of five or six days they returned, bringing bones with them; and at the next meeting, when Daylia was again telling of the good land, they set up a shouting, calling him a liar and showed him the bones. They told him he had been driven from his own land and had come to live with them, and he might stop preaching about his good land and his bad land, for they would not believe him. In vain were his remonstrances with them. They told him if he would climb a lofty cocoa-nut tree, which stood near, and jump among the rocks unhurt, they would believe him.