p. viii-ix, Preface: Reading what I could get my hands on concerning it [the Jeannette expedition], I soon enough saw that De Long's early failure was a more brilliant chapter in human struggle and achievement than the later successes of Peary and of Amundsen.
Hell on Ice: The Saga of the “Jeannette“
Ellsberg, Edward. .” New York: Dodd, Mead, 1938.
- 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
- Arctic Reading: United States
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Diary of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition and New Zealand’s IGY Participation December 1956 to February 1958.
Carlyon, Roy.
- 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Transcript of personal diary of Roy Carlyon, covering the period December 1956-February 1958, which he spent as a member of the New Zealand contingent of a joint British/New Zealand Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It’s unclear from the OCLC entry as to where the original manuscript diary is, but two copies of a transcript are at the University of Canterbury Library (Christchurch) and the University of Waikato Library. Carlyon seems to have been a prodigious reader. While at Scott Base during the first winter months of late April to mid-July, 1957, Carylon mentions the following books:
Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen: Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic.
Thomson, David. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002 [1977].
- Heroic Age 1901-1921.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
A revision of a pre-Huntford critical work on Scott, though he says he didn’t know he was writing a “debunking” biography in 1977. Doesn’t have the acerbic bite of Huntford, but has something critical to say about all three of his subjects.
Shackleton’s Forgotten Men: The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic. [1914-17].
Bickel, Lennard. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Lord Shackleton. New York, Thunder’s Mouth Press and Balliett & Fitzgerald, 2000. (Adrenaline classics).
- 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 72, May 6, 1915: Outside, they heard the bluster grow to gale force winds. Irvine Gaze and Stevens went early to their bunks. Spencer-Smith, as ever, was reading a book by the light of the acetylene lamp.
Twelve Came Back.
Brown, Peter Lancaster. London: Robert Hale, 1957.
- 1952-53 Australian Heard Island Expedition.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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An account of an Australian expedition (1952-53) to Heard Island between Kerguélen Islands and the Antarctic continent, in which two of fourteen members died (one frozen, another drowned). A rather pedestrian account but there are a few interesting passages:
How the “Mastiffs” Went to Iceland.
Trollope, Anthony. Introduction by Carol Lansbury. New York: Arno Press, 1981.
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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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.
A History of the Whale Fisheries, from the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date.
Jenkins, J. T. (London: Witherby, 1921).
- Maritime Reading
Preview
p. 178, [don’t know that this is relevant but worth checking—books here may refer to account books ]: … as they claim to know the procedure of the former company having their books in their possession, they are first in the field and " that the design manifestly tending to the increase of navjgation, and the benefit of all His Majesty's subjects, it is humbly hoped, will receive countenance and encouragement."
A New Voyage Round the World Describing Particularly the Isthmus of America, Several Coasts and Islands in the West Indies, the Isles of Cape Verd, the passage by Terra del Fuego, the South Sea Coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico, the Isle of Guam One of the Ladrones, Mindanao, and Other Philippine and East-India Islands near Cambodia, China, Formosa, Luconia, Celebes, &c., New Holland, Sumatra, Nicobar Isles, the Cape of Good Hope, and Santa Hellena: Their Soil, Rivers, Harbours, Plants, Fruits, Animals, and Inhabitants: Their Customs, Religion, Government, Trade, &c.
Dampier, William. Illustrated with Maps and Draughts. Three Volumes. (London: Printed for James Knapton ..., 1697-1703). [The following notes are taken from a new edition: New York: Dover, 1968].
- 1679-91 British Buccaneer Journey (William Dampier aboard Cygnet et al).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
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p.252-3, in Mindanao: We did all earnestly expect to hear what Captain Swan would propose and therefore were very willing to go aboard. But unluckily for him, two days before this Meeting was to be, Captain Swan sent aboard his Gunner, to fetch something ashore out of his Cabbin. The Gunner rummaging to find what he was sent for, among other things took out the Captain’s Journal from America to the island Guam, and laid down by him.This Journal was taken up by one John Read, a Bristol Man, whom I have mentioned in my 4th Chapter. He was a pretty Ingenious young Man, and of a very civil carriage and behavior. He was also accounted a good Artist, and kept a Journal, and was now prompted by his curiosity, to peep into Captain Swan’s Journal, to see how it agreed with his own; a thing very usual among the Seamen that keep Journals, when they have an opportunity, and especially young Men, who have no great experience. At the first opening of the Book he light on a place in which Captain Swan had inveighed bitterly against most of his Men, especially against another John Reed a Jamaica Man. This was such stuff as he did not seek after: But hitting so pat on this Subject, his curiosity led him to pry further, to look over at his leisure. The Gunner having dispatch’d his business, lock’d up the Cabbin-door, not missing the Book, and went ashore. Then John Reed showed it to his namesake, and to the rest that were aboard, who were by this time the biggest part of them ripe for mischief; only wanting some fair pretence to set themselves to work about it. Therefore looking on what was written in this Journal to be matter sufficient for them to accomplish their Ends, Captain Teat, who as I said before, had been abused by Captain Swan, laid hold on this opportunity to be revenged for his Injuries, and aggravated the matter to Commander, in hopes to have commanded the Ship himself. As for the Sea-men they were easily perswaded to any thing; for they were quite tired with this long and tedious Voyage, and most of them despaired of ever getting home, and therefore did not care what they did, or whither they went. …therefore they consented to what Teat proposed, and immediately all that were aboard bound themselves by Oath to turn Captain Swan out, and to conceal this Design from those that were ashore, until the ship was under Sail…. [Goes onto recount a successful mutiny that left 36 of the richer men of the ship ashore, many to be poisoned by the natives.]
Finding Franklin: The Untold Story of a 165-Year Search.
Potter, Russell A. (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016).
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
p. 11: McClintock found one of these [Franklin whale]boats abandoned on the western shore of the island; in it were two skeletons along with an astonishing array of materials—silver forms and spoons, tea, chocolate, lead sheeting, carpet slippers, dozens of books (including bibles, prayer books, and a copy of The Vicar of Wakefield), and much other such bric-a-brac, which McClintock regarded as “a mere accumulation of dead weight” that would have made hauling the oak-and-iron sledge even more exhausting.
Of Whales and Men.
Robertson, R. B. New York: Knopf, 1954.
- 1950-51 British Whaling Expedition (aboard Southern Venturer).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
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, and several references to his shipborn reading.
The Great Frozen Land (Bolshaia Zemelskija Tundra). Narrative of a Winter Journey across the Tundras and a Sojourn among the Samoyads.
Jackson, Frederick George. Edited from his Journals by Arthur Montefiore. London: Macmillan and Co, 1896.
- 1893-94 British Russian Journey between White Sea and Kara Sea.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Purpose to test newly developed equipment in severe conditions, but also to “visit and, for some months, to live with that primitive group of the human family, the Samoyads of the Great Frozen Tundra of Arctic Russia; to dwell in their tents, to eat of their food, to go and come with them in their daily life, to share their labour and their rest; to mark their ways and seek their motives, to note their relations to one another, and to learn, if possible, something of their sense of a higher influence” (p. ix).
Newspaper clipping
New Zealand Press. SPRI MS 7354/1 BPC leaf 13.
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Clipping from this newspaper in SPRI speaking of the “pretentious library” aboard Discovery, and noting that Shackleton had organized it. Probably from the period when Discovery was in Lyttleton, NZ November 1901. See above under Discovery.
Writing the New World: Imaginary Voyages….
Fausset, David. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1993).
- Maritime Reading
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p. 3: the exotic literature of Europe “was most clearly manifested in fiction about the regions that remained unknown the longest….their works, too, would finally be overtaken by history and supplanted by scientific descriptions of the material and social worlds.” (his examples are Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver, Poe, Lovecraft)
Letters Written During the Late Voyage of Discovery in the Western Arctic Sea.
Parry, William Edward. By an Officer of the Expedition. London: Printed for Sir Richard Phillips, 1821.
- 1819-20 British Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (Edward Parry aboard Hecla and Griper).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Letters from the Parry Expedition, 1819-1820, describing the voyage and the wintering at Winter Harbour, Melville Island, the Canadian Arctic waters and their ice, the Arctic night, the activities of the crews. Although anonymous, internal evidence shows the officer to have been one of the midshipmen on the Griper; either A.M. Skene or William Nelson Griffth.
Alone to the South Pole.
Kagge, Erling. Oslo: Cappelens Forlag, 1993.
- 1992-93 Norwegian Solo Expedition to South Pole.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
An unsupported sledging and ski trip from the Ronne Ice Shelf near the Ellsworth Mountains to the South Pole, ca. 1300 km, with use of GPS and maps. He provides one of the best synopses of expedition reading, at a time when books and reading are being replaced in Antarctica by videos, albeit with a small group of titles.