p. 38: At least by the nineteenth century, most expeditions of exploration considered a well-stocked library an essential component of their cargo. Obviously, those in ships could afford a greater tonnage; just how many men on Franklin’s two land expeditions hauled books and charts over portages and across the tundra remains a nice question. Certainly, when the first expedition was reduced in the fall of 1821 to a straggling line of men marching back from Bathurst Inlet to the hoped-for refuge of Fort Enterprise, a copy of Samuel Hearne’s A Journey from the Prince of Wales’s Fort, in Hudson’s Bay, to the Northern Ocean, the only book then available about the region, remained part of the load. The party of twenty men lost their way more than once. Were they consulting the charter in the inferior but lighter-weight octavo edition of Hearne’s book, issued in Dublin in 1796? It would have made a more logical traveling companion than the larger quarto first edition (London, 1795). Yet the map in the octavo showed Hearne’s return route across the Barrens differently from the first edition’s map. The discrepancy could have confused Franklin, whose men suffered more than one delay, and contributed to the number of deaths. Certainly, the matter of a book’s size bears materially on this dramatic possibility.
“English Writings about the New World”
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Saga of the White Horizon.
- 1901-04 Swedish Antarctic Expedition (Otto Nordenskjöld).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Olsen was a Norwegian aviator who participated in the Ellsworth/ Trans-Antarctic/Polar Star expedition between 1933 and 1936 as support on the three attempts to make the trip. On one occasion, during the later portion of these trips, the Wyatt Earp anchored at Snow Hill Island and the men visited the place where Otto Nordenskjöld wintered and built a winter house over thirty years earlier.
Fifteen Months in the Antarctic [Voyage of the Belgica].
- 1897-99 Belgian Antarctic Expedition (Gerlache de Gomery aboard Belgica).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This is a judicious, fair-minded, and good book depicting a relatively placid expedition with a tolerant and forgiving crew. Between the lines I detect far more tensions than Gerlache wishes to admit or reveal, at least in this translation.
The North Georgia Gazette, and Winter Chronicle.
- 1819-20 British Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions (Edward Parry aboard Hecla and Griper).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Monday, the 1st of November, 1819, will ever be memorable in the history of literature. On that day appeared, composed, edited, but not printed, within the arctic circle, within fifteen degree of the North Pole of the earth, the first number of the “North Georgian Gazette, or Winter Chronicle;”—a work, take it all in all, without a fellow.
The Search for the North Pole; Or, Life in the Great White World….
- Arctic Reading: General
Baldwin’s papers are at the Library of Congress (q.v.); this book was written before some of his expeditionary work. Interestingly, he seems to have been an ardent Freemason and his chapter XLVI “Lovers of the Arts and Sciences: Free and Accepted Masonry in Arctic Exploration,” lists a number of explorers who shared that association: Kane, Hayes, Greely, Melville, Gilder, and Lt. Peary (with whom he later squabbled. See p. 507-12.)
Gentlemen and Tarpaulins: Officers and Men of the Restoration Navy.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
This is the first scholarly study of the Royal Navy during the reigns of Charles II and James II. Historians have long viewed the Restoration Navy through the eyes of Samuel Pepys, the greatest diarist and naval administrator of the age. Perceptive and intelligent as Pepys was, he presented only a one-sided view of the Navy, that of a bureaucrat attempting to reorganize it. Davies assesses this traditional picture of the Restoration Navy in the light of recent scholarship, using the evidence not only of Pepys but of his contemporaries. He examines the reactions of naval personnel to the demands imposed by Pepys, and analyzes the structure of the service. He also explores the lives and attitudes of the men (the "tarpaulins") and their officers - the quests for promotion, enrichment, and glory; the very different problems posed by peace and war; the nature of life at sea; and the role of the Navy in national life.
An Account of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage by Hudson’s Streights, to the Western and Southern Ocean of America. Performed in the Year 1746 and 1747, in the Ship California, Capt. Francis Smith , Commander. By the Clerk of the California.
- Arctic Reading: General
The little found in these volumes concerning reading and writing has to do with the documents of the expedition itself, as well as the account of earlier voyages.
Russian Expansion on the Pacific 1641-1850. An Account of the Earliest and Later Expeditions Made by the Russians along the Pacific Coast of Asia and North America….
- Arctic Reading: Russia
p. 86: After reading the different accounts of navigation in the Arctic, and the fact that all attempts to sail east of the Koluima have failed, one is almost forced to believe that the cold is greater east of the river than west of it. It is, of course, impossible to prove or disprove this from the insufficient data at hand.
A Time to Speak: An Autobiography.
- 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
A comprehensive story of his life with concentration on his Falklands (FIDS) experience, and the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955-58. He is very judicious in describing his relations with Hillary on the later, but a certain animosity comes through.
Life on the Ocean, Or Thirty-Five Years at Sea, Being the Personal Adventures of the Author.
- Maritime Reading
Captain Paddack from Nantucket spent a long career at sea, first on whaling vessels but mainly on merchant ships sailing throughout the world, including around Cape Horn.
Saga of the “Discovery.
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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.
The Journal of Sergeant William K. Cunningham, R.M. of HMS Terror
- 1839-42 British Antarctic Expedition (James Clark Ross/Terror and Erebus).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
p. 40: Am happy to say Divine Service was performed for the first time; it gave me pleasure to our little Group sitting on Capstan Bars & Buckets on the Quarter Deck listening to our good Captain reading the Word of God. [The good Captain is Francis Crozier]. The ship seldom missed Sunday Divine Service, or the weekly reading of the Articles of War.
The White Betrayal.
- 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Translation of Eisland, a romanticized juvenile novel about the Greely expedition, concentrating on the last year, what he calls “the greatest tragedy in the annals of the Arctic” (pace Franklin, etc).
The Lord’s Librarians: The American Seamen’s Friend Society and their Loan Libraries 1837-1967
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 1 Abstract: "The Lord's Librarians" describes in new detail the activities of the American Seamen's Friend Society in distributing loan libraries to merchant and naval ships for over 130 years. Based on the archives of the Society in the G.W. Blunt White Library at the Mystic Seaport Museum, the study examines the history of the Society in its efforts towards moral improvement of seamen, fostering temperance, reducing licentiousness, encouraging Sabbath worship and observation, countering swearing, and promoting thrift and financial responsibility among sailors. It examines the largely evangelical collection development policies for these compact 40-45 volume library boxes, and attempts to locate the surviving boxes and surviving books from these libraries. It ends with some unanswered questions which deserve further study.
Operation Tabarin: Britain’s Secret Wartime Expedition to Antarctica 1944-46.
- 1944-46 British Covert FIDS Expedition (leaders James Marr and Andrew Taylor).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
A thorough account of the British Secret Operation Tabarin by FIDS attempting to preempt any American or Argentine territorial claims in the Antarctic Peninsula region.This description has only a few indications of reading experiences during a hastily prepared and accident-prone mission.