A summer pleasure expedition by a few American young men that ended in the shipwreck of the Miranda off the Greenland coast. Reads like a young adult adventure, introducing young readers to the realities of Arctic exploration.
Shipwrecked in Greenland.
- 1894 US Expedition to Greenland aboard Miranda.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Narrative of a Voyage to the South Seas, and the Shipwreck of the Princess of Wales Cutter, with an Account of Two Years Residence on an Uninhabited Island.
- 1820-22 British South Seas Sealing Voyage (Princess of Wales).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Account of a sealing voyage (starting May 1820) off the Cape of Good Hope which led to shipwreck and abandonment (in Crozet Islands). Curious blend of adventure, piety, and natural history (esp. birds). The unpaginated preliminaries include a preface, index (contents), opinions of the press, and lengthy subscriber lists organized by place and edition.
Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870
- Arctic Reading: United States
This book has some smatterings of women’s reading matter but most of it is ashore. An exception:
Cruising in the Antarctic.
- 1952-53 Russian Whaling Voyage.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Recounts a whaling journey from Odessa to Antarctica in 1952-53 in a flotilla of 16 ships. Rather typical Soviet narrative with great harmony, a few problems heroically overcome, and excellent discipline:
The Southwest Pacific since 1900: A Modern History.
- Heroic Age 1901-1921.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This survey of the history of Australia, New Zealand, The Islands, and Antarctica includes a substantial chapter on “The Heroic Age” (p. 561-91), a derivative but very serviceable summary. Unlike some others he ends the Heroic Age with the completion of Shackleton’s Endurance debacle in 1916 rather than with Shackleton’s death on South Georgia in 1922 during the Quest expedition. His summary of the age rings true: “Thus ended the Heroic Age in a wild burst of blazing ambition, disaster, valor, fortitude, squalor, squabbles, and tragedy” (p. 591).
The Flag Ship: Or A Voyage Around the World, in the United States Frigate Columbia; Attended by Her Consort The Sloop of War John Adams, and Bearing the Broad Pennant of Commodore George C. Read.
- 1838-39 American Circumnavigation (aboard Columbia commanded by George Campbell Read).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
p. 154-55: Previous to our leaving the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, I preached in the English chapel. The congregation was very respectable. The English chaplain who has charge of the congregation, and the chaplain of the Stag [a Brazilian naval ship], were present—the former reading the service.
Deep Freeze I and Deep Freeze II, 1955-1957: A Memoir.
- 1957- Operation Deep Freeze.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
McCormick was a Seabee who worked on projects at both McMurdo and South Pole.
Herman Melville’s Charles and Henry Book List, 1849
- Maritime Reading
“Hardly the carefully ordered reading program of a university, but since Melville declared in Moby-Dick (Chapter 24) that ‘a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard,’ this little library should be taken into account among his early formative influences.”
Lord Anson’s Voyage Round the World: Performed in the Years 1740, 41, 42, 43, and 44.
- 1740-44 English Naval Voyage to South Seas and Round the World (under George Anson aboard Centurion).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
Four Years aboard the Whaleship. Embracing Cruises in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans, in the year 1855, ‘6, ‘7, ‘8, ‘9.
- 1855-59 US Whaling Voyage aboard Pacific.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
[From a bookseller’s catalogue on ABEBooks]: Whitecar, an intelligent observer, sailed from New Bedford aboard the Pacific, on a whaling voyage which took him to Antarctic waters, Australia & New Zealand. His narrative gives good details of the whaler's life on ship and ashore from 1855-59, one of the best for the time, including observations & comparisons of whaling equipment and practices. Whitecar includes much on the West Australian coast, visiting the Vasse & Cape Leeuwin a number of times. He spends time in Albany (King Georges Sound), visits Geraldton (Champion Bay), Esperence (the Recherche Archipelago) and the Houtmans Abrolhas. In observing W.A., he comments “I didn't see a glass of spirits drank. ale and beer were however swallowed without regard to quality or quantity.” The majority of the book relates to West Australian waters & anecdotes. A very readable & informative account, one of the best we've read on West Australia. Bookseller Inventory # 8363. [This annotation is partly plagiarized in a Bartfield listing for the same book. Whitecar’s account is quite a charming account of the whaling life, somewhat sanitized for the domestic reader, pointing out the foibles and peccadilloes of sailors on other ships but seeing his ship as something of a model of discipline and benign leadership.]
Ice-Pack and Tundra: An Account of the Search for the Jeannette and a Sledge Journey through Siberia.
- 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
- Arctic Reading: United States
A chatty and often witty account of the 1881 Jeannette search aboard the Rodgers by a reporter for the New York Herald.
Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
A rather lacklustre book about the exhumation of three Franklin sailors in 1984. Spectacular for its pictures of the corpses; less so for a few things about books.
Shackleton’s Last Voyage: The Story of the Quest… From the Official Journal and Private Diary Kept by Dr. A. H. Macklin.
- 1921-22 Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton/ Wild).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Wild as second in command took over the expedition after Shackleton’s death in South Georgia in 1921.
Under Scott’s Command: Lashly’s Antarctic Diaries
- Heroic Age 1901-1921.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Lashly was a leading stoker on the Discovery and the Terra Nova, and was part of the South Pole expedition, making all but the final cut. He comes across well in a jingoistic book, e.g. Fuchs introduction: “This book is a further contribution to our knowledge of the happy atmosphere which pervaded two polar expeditions. It was the combination of great leadership and loyal support which added an epic to our history” (p. 10). The book certainly shows loyal support, esp. from Lashly, but scarcely hides the inadequacy of Scott’s leadership.
Writing the New World: Imaginary Voyages….
- Arctic Reading: General
p. 3, the exotic literature of Europe: … 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. [Fausset’s examples are Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver, Poe, Lovecraft.]