p. 335, John Barrow: the English geographer, who credited only those discoveries that were made by officers of the Royal Navy.
Smith Sound and its Exploration.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Titian Ramsay Peale 1799-1885, and His Journals of the Wilkes Expedition.
- 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This book constitutes a fairly broad biographical introduction to Titian Peale, as well as his journals of the Wilkes expedition, not a happy camper much of the time and bitterly disappointed afterwards, when his work was denigrated and to some extent perverted by other parties. But much of it is fascinating and worth reading, even in the tiny font APS has chosen for this book.
English Writings about the New World,
- Whalemen's Reading
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.
Explorers Club Archives I
- 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, EC2007-07
[personal journal on the Henry B Hyde]
- Maritime Reading
The personal journal of William Bennett Russell during his travels on the Henry B Hyde in 1894 includes an account of his discovery of an American Seamen’s Friend Society loan library aboard the ship:
New Lands within the Arctic Circle. Narrative of the Discoveries of the Austrian Ship “Tegetthoff” in the Years 1872-1874.
- 1872-74 Austrian Expedition to North Pole (aboard Tegetthoof commanded by Julius Payer with Commander Weyprecht).
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Volume I:
Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer.
- Heroic Age 1901-1921.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This full-scale biography of Shackleton, though not terribly well written is a well-balanced combination of adulation and judicious criticism of Shackleton the man, his psychological difficulties always moderated during times of crisis. The book often lacks the drama of the best Shackleton narratives and yet is well worth reading.
The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768-1771.
- 1768-71 British Voyage to the South Pacific (aboard Endeavour commanded by Captain James Cook).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Maritime Reading
Captain Cook’s first voyage rounded Cape Horn but came no closer to Antarctica. His second voyage was marked by his complete circumnavigation of the Antarctic continent, and his pessimistic statements that no one was likely to get any closer than he did through the impenetrable ice and fog.
Logbook for Grace: Whaling Brig
- Whalemen's Reading
An engaging account by a 25-year-old naturalist of a whaling voyage to South Georgia in 1912, taking the form of a log written to and for his new wife, Grace. Witty and reflective, including lots of material on his own reading and library, mostly during the ship’s passage through the tropics.
Russians in the Arctic: Aspects of Soviet Exploration and Exploitation of the Far North, 1937-57
- Arctic Reading: Russia
Includes the remarkable story of the drift of the Sedov , 3800 miles and 800 days, covering some of the Fram route. In addition to schooling in engineering and navigation, there were also classes of ideological indoctrination. In its third year adrift members of the crew were nominated for political positions in Murmansk, and presumably as the only candidates were elected.
The Race.
- 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
A fictional account of the Scott-Amundsen race for the South Pole, which mentions Scott’s use of the Bible twice: p. 144-6: “His desk was a couple of old crates which he had covered with oilcloth. A Bible lay on the desk, and two other books, paper and pens…. He held a service every Sunday. It was the only time the other ranks also congregated in the officers’ room. It wasn’t a matter of choice. No one was allowed to absent himself. Every man clasped his hands, even though some fingers were covered in frostbite sores. A meeting with God prescribed a sanctity here as back home in England. He read from the Bible in a clear, well-modulated voice, and prayed using ordinary familiar words. Outside the blizzard raged.”
To the Sixth Continent: The Second German South Polar Expedition.
- 1911-13 Second German Antarctic Expedition (Filchner).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Filchner’s original plans mirrored Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition a few years later, with two ships and men starting from both the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea then meeting mid-way. Shackleton and Nordenskjöld helped him get a ship, the Deutschland, but he could get only one and went only to the Weddell Sea. He named the iceshelf after Kaiser Wilhelm II, but the Kaiser renamed it after Filchner. The ship was trapped in ice but was freed in the austral summer of 1912. The expedition is noted for its animosities, hostility not indicated in the passages here.
“Antarctic” zwei Jahre in Schnee und Eis am Südpol.
- 1901-04 Swedish Antarctic Expedition (Otto Nordenskjöld).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
The German edition of Nordenskjöld’s book contains several photographs of reading spaces, esp. opp. p. 210, the author at his worktable.
A Two Years’ Cruise off Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, Patagonia, and the River Plate: A Narrative of Life in the Southern Seas.
- 1854-56 British Patagonian Mission Society Expedition to Southern Atlantic (Captain William Park Snow aboard Allen Gardiner).
- Maritime Reading
A fraught voyage with conflicting commands for sea matters and spiritual matters, to which Captain Snow took umbrage.
The Lord’s Librarians: The American Seamen’s Friend Society and their Loan Libraries 1837-1967
- Maritime 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.