Seamen’s Missions: Their Origin and Early Growth.

Kverndal, Roald. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1986.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 106-7, on the influence of Lieutenant Richard Marks as an evangelical in the Napoleonic Wars who as minister expanded seaboard services on Nelson’s Conquerer including reading of Sunday prayers, a ship’s choir, and on arrival at home ports: Marks obtained Bibles for every mess, and several hundred tracks for distribution. (Henceforth, he seldom went between decks ‘without seeing some of the crew reading them.) He also organized a ship’s library of evangelical books, with over 150 subscribing members.

Captain Cook’s Journal during his First Voyage round the World Made in H.M. Bark “Endeavour” 1768-71….

Cook, James, Captain. Edited by Captain J. L. Wharton. London: Elliot Stock, 1893.
  • 1768-71 British Voyage to the South Pacific (aboard Endeavour commanded by Captain James Cook).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. x: In reading Cook’s Journal of his First Voyage it must be remembered that it was not prepared for publication. Though no doubt the fair copies we possess were revised with the care that characterizes the man, and which is evidenced by the interlineations and corrections in his own hand with which the pages are dotted, it may be supposed, from the example we have in the published account of his Second Voyage, which was edited by himself, that further alternations and additions would have been made, to make the story more complete, had he contemplated its being printed.

The Canadian Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 1893-1898.

Aberdeen and Temair, Ishbel Gordon, Marchioness of. Edited with an Introduction by John T. Saywell. [Vol. 38] Toronto: Champlain Society, 1960. [First published 1916.].
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Ishbel Marie Marjoribanks Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, better known as Lady Aberdeen (1857-1939), was a British social reformer devoted to women’s rights, philanthropy, and other causes. “As Vice-Regal Consort to Governor General John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, from 1893 until 1898, Lady Aberdeen organized the National Council of Women in Canada, became first sponsor of the Women’s Art Association of Canada and helped found the Victorian Order of Nurses” [Canadian Encyclopedia ].

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
 Preview 

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.

The Greatest Show in the Arctic: The American Exploration of Franz Josef Land, 1898-1905.

Capelotti, P. J. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.
  • 1898-1905 US Expeditions to Franz Josef Land (Wellman, Baldwin and Ziegler).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A lengthy study of three incompetent American attempts on the North Pole from Franz Josef Land. The first left two Norwegians, hired by the American Wellman, isolated at Fort McKinley advised by second-in command Evelyn Briggs Baldwin, for the winter of 1898-99 on poor rations and little fuel for cooking or heat.

Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen: Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic.

Thomson, David. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002 [first published 1977].
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 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 explorers.

Two Voyages to the South Seas. Volume II: Astrolabe and Zélée 1837-1840.

D’Urville, Jules S-C. Translated from the French and edited by Helen Rosenman. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press, 1987.
  • 1837-40 French South Seas Voyage of Astrolabe (Jules d’Urville).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

D’Urville proposed this second voyage to the South Seas but it was the French King who suggested that its first goal should be toward the South Pole as ice permitted. Through the Admiral Minister the King “approved everything I asked for.” This volume is taken from D’Urville’s journals of the second voyage with a great deal of connective commentary and paraphrases by the editor. It is her writing that appears in quotes below and his journals without quotes.

How the “Mastiffs” Went to Iceland.

Trollope, Anthony. Introduction by Carol Lansbury. New York: Arno Press, 1981.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

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.

At Anchor: A Narrative of Experiences Afloat and Ashore during the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger from 1872 to 1876.

Wild, John James. London: Marcus Ward, 1878.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

This is a straightforward and rather innocuous account of the three and a half year voyage, emphasizing flora and fauna as well as buildings throughout their shore visits. Pleasant but anodyne. Wild was the official photographer of the expedition. Wikipedia states in the Wild entry: The ship was equipped with a dark room, enabling development of the photographs taken of the lands and peoples encountered. It is thought that this expedition was the first to include routine photography as well as an official artist .

Report of Winfield S. Schley, Commander, U.S. Navy, commanding Greely relief expedition of 1884

U. S. Navy Dept. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely); 1884 Greely Relief Expedition of 1883 (Commander Winfield S. Schley).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

With its extremely detailed accounting of the provisioning of this expedition, the report lists books ordered for the journey on March 1, 1884, for each of the three ships (Alert, Thetis, and Bear) as follows:

Narrative of an Expedition to the Polar Sea, in the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, & 1823. Commanded by Lieutenant, Now Admiral, Ferdinand von Wrangell…

Wrangell, Ferdinand Petrovich, baron. Edited by Major Edward Sabine.London: James Madden and Co., 1840.
  • 1820-23 Russian Journey Exploring Siberia and the Northeast Passage (led by Baron Wrangell).
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

Gives introductory summary of prior expeditions to Northeast and Siberia, before describing Wrangell’s expedition across the entire Northern coast of Siberia, as based on Wrangell’s journals, edited by Sabine, and translated from German by Mrs. Sabine. This journey takes place at the same time as Franklin’s land journey. The travel route was St Petersburgh, Moscow, the Urals, Irkutsk, to the Lena and then by river both to the north, Siberia & Jakuzk, with a view to studying the inland fur trade. The work is a combination of geography, anthropology, and adventure.

A Briefe Historie of Muscovia.

Milton, John. Vol. III. Complete Prose Works. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 524: The discovery of Russia by the northern Ocean, made first, of any Nation that we know, by English men, might have seem’d an enterprise almost heroick; if any higher end than the excessive love of Gain and Traffick, had animated the design. Nevertheless that in regard that may things not unprofitable to the knowledge of nature, and other Observations are hereby come to light, as good events ofttimes arise from evil occasions, it will not be the worst labour to relate briefly the beginning, and prosecution of this adventurous Voiage; until it became at last a familiar Passage.