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 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
Round the Horn before the Mast
Lubbock, Alfred Basil. New York: E. P. Dutton. 1907.
- 1899- American Schooner Voyage from San Francisco to Europe and Round the Horn aboard Royalshire.
- Maritime Reading
Preview
p. 17, after a day of shoveling coal he and his new English friend cleaned up and went to the opera to see “Carmen.”
A Visit to the South Seas, in the U.S. Ship Vincennes, During the years 1829 and 1830; with Scenes in Brazil, Peru, Manila, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena.
Stewart, Charles S. Two Volumes. New York: John P. Haven, 1831.
- 1829-30 US Circumnavigation (W.C.B. Finch aboard USS Vincennes).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
Preview
Stewart was in effect the missionary narrator of this somewhat odd circumnavigation in that it didn’t intend circling the globe until it was already on the Pacific Coast. He began on a different ship and then joined the round the world cruise aboard the Vincennes at Callao, Peru, on July 29th. [Note: there are variant editions of this work, with differing dates and paginations. The Google version of Vol. I does not indicate date but maybe 1832 rather than the first.
Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Lands.
Péron, François, continued by Louis de Freycinet. Second Edition 1824. Translated from the French by Christine Cornell. Introduction by Anthony J. Brown. [Two volumes, plus Atlas]. (Adelaide, Australia: Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 1824).
- 1801-03 French Exploring Expedition to South Seas and Terra Australis (Captain Nicolas Baudin aboard Géographe).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
Preview
To coin a phrase, this could be called a French semi-circumnavigation, from France and back via the Cape of Good Hope. Originally commanded by Nicolas Baudin who died during the expedition, he was replaced by Louis de Freycinet. Curiously Baudin is never mentioned by name in the book (illustrating Péron’s contempt) and his role was widely regarded by the men as a negative one. These volumes are less an official record of the voyage than Péron’s personal account of his naturalist studies framed by the places which they visited.
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.
The Lord’s Librarians: The American Seamen’s Friend Society and their Loan Libraries 1837-1967
Stam, David H. Coriolis: Interdisciplinary Journal of Maritime History III no. 1 (2012) 59 p. Online through Mystic Seaport.
- Whalemen's Reading
Preview
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.
The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen
Bown, Stephen R. . Boston: Da Capo Press, 2012.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Preview
Poorly documented, totally derivative (mainly from NY Times), this book is riddled with errors, but generally an engaging and respectful biography. Repeats story of Amundsen’s teenage reading of everything he could find on polar exploration, but adds something about a voyage from Spain to Florida. He is careful to emphasize Amundsen’s careful reading of fellow explorers and his use of that information to give himself an extra edge. For that Amundsen probably gets insufficient credit.
Last Places: A Journey in the North
Millman, Lawrence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Preview
p. 132-4, on Johann Petursson, keeper of the lighthouse at Hornbjarg: Johann took the Hornbjarg job in 1961 because he figured it would buy time for, and even fuel, the novel he was writing. It was unheard of, he said, for an Icelandic writer to combine teaching with the labor of his pen…. His literary colleagues tended lighthouses, from which they still managed to carry on a lively dialogue with their public, like the Skálavik keeper Oscar Adalstein Gudjónsson, who read sections of his works in progress over shortwave to the fishing fleet. Yet between navigating boats around icebergs, gathering errant fishing floats, and enduring assistants who couldn’t read the cloud charts…, he, Jóhann, had scarcely written a single word in twenty-six years.
The Bibliographical Miscellany.
Petheram, John, ed. 5 numbers printed. (London: John Russell Smith,1859).
- 1812-13 British Naval Expedition in Northwest Passage Search (commanded by Thomas Button aboard Resolution).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
The first three numbers of this journal deal with the North-West Passage and the 1612-13 voyage of Sir Thomas Button.
Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, with a Sketch of Their Habits, Religion, Language and Other Peculiarities….
Rink, Henry. Translated from the Danish by the Author. Edited by Dr Robert Brown. Edinburgh: Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1875.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
Rink’s second volume of Eskimo Tales with his introductory sketch on their culture, based not on ornaments, weapons and other remains: But the time will certainly come when any relics of spiritual life brought down to us from pre- historic mankind, which may still be found in the folk lore of the more isolated and primitive nations, will be valued as highly as those material remains. In this respect the Eskimo may be considered among the most interesting, both as having been almost entirely cut off from other nations and very little influenced by foreign intercourse, and also as representing a kind of link between the aboriginals of the New and the Old World (p. vi). It is a fascinating collection of tales, with brief introductions noting the sources of the stories. Here are a few examples:
A Sequel to the North-West Passage, and the Plans for the Search for Sir John Franklin. A Review.
Brown, John. Second edition.flattered London: E. Stanford, 1860.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
This second edition of Brown updates the summary beyond the significant date of 1859 and McClintock’s report. A final section is an unpaginated “Opinions of the Press,” ending with an encomium to Brown from Alexander von Humboldt (August 16, 1858), on the last printed [but unpaginated] page of the book. An excerpt is included here as a remarkable example of a reading experience from an unusual source:
A Frenchman in Search of Franklin: De Bray’s Arctic Journal, 1852-1854.
De Bray, Emile Frederic. Trans. and ed. by William Barr. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992).
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
De Bray was influenced by Joseph-René Bellot’s service on an English expedition as a volunteer for the Franklin Search with Sir Edward Belcher aboard HMS Resolute. He served in the Arctic from 1852 to 1854, commanded a number of sledge expeditions, and left the Resolute shortly before it was abandoned. He was a friend of Jules Verne who used De Bray’s Arctic knowledge in a novel based on the Franklin Search.
Report of the Executive Committee in Charge of Kane Lodge Reception to Bro. Robert Edwin Peary, U.S.N., and Other Arctic Explorers. At Sherry’s, New York, April 8.
Peary, Robert E. New York: Kane Lodge, No. 454 F. & A.M., l896.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Includes a short address by Peary and his presentation of a Masonic flag that he carried twelve hundred miles through the Arctic; the book is a presentation copy from Joseph L. Little, the committee's chairman, to Joseph Morris Ward, the Treasurer reading in part "... I believe the issuing of this little souvenir volume finishes up the Peary incident as connected with the Lodge...".
The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic expedition.
Alexander, Caroline. New York: Knopf, 1998.
- 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
A succinct and well-illustrated account of the epic voyage, though not without faults (e.g. she doesn’t have Cherry in Scott’s SP journey, there is no index, and citations are wholly inadequate). But she does use Hurley photographs to good effect.
A Black Explorer at the North Pole
Henson, Matthew A. Foreword by Robert E. Peary, Rear Admiral, U.S.N. Introduction by Booker T. Washington. Introduction to Bison Book Edition by Susan A. Kaplan. (Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1989). [First published as A Negro Explorer at the North Pole in 1912; There are many other editions, often with variant titles.].
- 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1908-09 US North Pole Expeditions under Robert E. Peary (aboard Roosevelt).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Mostly from Hensen’s diary with connecting narrative of Peary’s North Pole expedition of 1908-9.