Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The Story of the Square-Rigged Merchant Marine of British North America, the Ships, Their Builders and Owners, and the Men Who Sailed Them.

Wallace, Frederick William. New York: George Sully & Company, 1924.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Largely an encomium to the British men and ships operating in what is now known as Canada, with emphasis on the maritime provinces. There is a great deal of information about the building and history of Canadian, particularly those of Nova Scotia, but nothing I could find on the provision of reading matter. Probably the officers and men were too busy setting speed records.

Arctic Experiences: Containing Capt. George E. Tyson’s Wonderful Drift on the Ice-floe, A History of the Polaris Expedition, the Cruise of the Tigress, and Rescue of the Polar Survivors. To which is Added a General Arctic Chronology.

Tyson, George Emory. Edited by Euphemia Vale Blake. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A fascinating account of an extraordinary drift on an ice-floe, preceded by “A General Arctic Chronology” by the Editor, E. Vale Blake, (p. 19-74).

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
 Preview 

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….

In the Lena Delta: A Narrative of the Search for Lieut.-Commander DeLong and His Companions; Followed by an Account of the Greely Relief Expedition, and a Proposed Method of Reaching the North Pole.

Melville, George Wallace. Edited by Melville Philips. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1885.
  • 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

This was the crucial expedition in finding the fate of DeLong and the Jeannette.

The Cruise of the Cachalot.

Bullen, Frank (Franklin) Thomas. [Foreword by Curtis Dahl]New York: Dodd, Mead, 1947.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

This fictional description of the whaling life, written in the later 19th-century, should rank with Melville but devoid of Melville’s allegorical meanings. It is arguably a work of fiction by a fairly prolific novelist, though it hardly reads like fiction. Although Cachalot was a maritime pseudonym, the work seems to be an accurate account of the trials and occasional pleasures of whaling. It was published in 1898, probably 25 years after his whaling journeys. Scattered references do show his fairly wide reading, but these likely did not stem from his youthful shipboard reading.

Icebound in the Siberian Arctic: The Story of the Last Cruise of the Fur Schooner Nanuk and the International Search for Famous Arctic Pilot Carl Ben Eielson.

Gleason, Robert J. Anchorage, AK: Alaska Northwest Pub. Co., 1982.
  • 1929 Siberian Journey by Robert Gleason (aboard Nanuk).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A fur trader who wintered over at North Cape when his ship was iced in near the Bering Straits tried to rescue Eielson who died in a Siberian air crash while delivering furs to Chukchi Eskimos in 1929.

Vitus Bering: The Discovery of the Bering Strait

Lauridsen, Peter. Revised by the Author, and Translated from the Danish by Julius E. Olson. With an Introduction to the American Edition by Frederick Schwatka. Chicago: S. C. Griggs, 1889.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

A fascinating biography of the famous Danish-Russian explorer of the Far East of Siberia and the Northern Pacific. The frequent accounts of reading were not from books usedat sea as most of our examples are but are later readings, included here to give some insights into a significant early expedition.

The Crossing of Antarctica: The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955-58)

Fuchs, Vivian and Edmund Hillary. London: Cassell, 1958.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Fuchs wrote most of this book, including the chapters on the men who crossed from the Weddell Sea Shackleton Base to the Scott Base on the Ross Sea via the South Pole, with chapters on the Ross Sea supporting party written by Hillary who led that group. This is a thoroughly whitewashed version mostly omitting the conflicts between the two leaders. There are very few references to reading, though Hillary does say that “our library was well patronized” (p. 146). Some inferences can be drawn and we do know from Hillary’s other book that they had the paperback Penguin edition of The Worst Journey in the World, which they used to retrace Edward Wilson’s worst journey to Cape Crozier. Otherwise there are only fairly anodyne references such as these:

Voyage of Visitation in the Church Ship to the Labrador and East Coast of Newfoundland.

Broderick, Alan. Mss., June 15 – Aug. 19, 1853. (Houghton Library, Tower 120.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Autograph manuscript diary (in the hand of Alan Broderick) of the journey of Edward Feild, the Bishop of Newfoundland of the Church of England, on the church ship Hawk. Includes lists of correspondents written to during the voyage and places visited. The ship sailed to various communities to conduct divine service and holy communion, often to very small audiences (exc. On Sunday July 2nd with an audience of 40, 25 of them children, at Red Bay).

Saga of the “Discovery.

Bernacchi, Louis Charles. London: Blackie, 1938.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Bernacchi was an Australian/Belgian explorer, another veteran of the heroic age of polar exploration, having participated in Borchgrevink’s Southern Cross expedition, Scott’s Discovery expedition, as well as journeys to Africa and Peru. He was also the biographer of Lawrence Oates, who died on Scott’s last expedition.

Marooned: Being a Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Captain Charles H. Barnard, Embracing an Account of the Seizure of his Vessel at the Falkland Islands, &c., 1812-1816.

Barnard, Charles H., Captain. Edited with an introduction by Bertha S. Dodge. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986 [first published 1979].
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

No doubt a most harrowing tale, marred only by the seeming innocence and trusting self-presentation of Barnard and his providential beliefs. The work includes excerpts from the log of Barzillai Pease (originals in Syracuse University Library), a co-partner in Barnard’s endeavor. Barnard’s ship, Nanina, was taken over by mutineers, he himself was abandoned by other shipmates, rescued by the Isabella which in turn was shipwrecked, abandoned again, and other perils, his ship eventually declared war bounty by the British during war of 1812.

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.

Lands Forlorn: A Story of an Expedition to Hearne’s Coppermine River.

Douglas, George M. By George M. Douglas With an Introduction by James Douglas. (New York, G. P. Putnam’s, 1914). [Reprinted Tucson, AZ: Zancudo Press, 2008].
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

p. 45-46, on finding two dead bodies, a dirty note-book, and some carbolic acid: The stench was insufferable, worse than any other form of decomposing animal matter, and blended with it was the peculiarly acrid smell of old smoke from spruce fires. One could remain in that loath some atmosphere only a few minutes at a time; the bodies were in a state of decomposition so advance that it was necessary to break the bunks down and carry them out as they lay. Close to the house on that pleasant point we buried them both in one grave, dug as deep as the frozen ground permitted.