Seamen’s Missions: Their Origin and Early Growth.

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

Down the Mackenzie and Up the Yukon in 1906.

Stewart, Elihu. London: The Bodley Head; New York: John Lane, 1913.
  • 1906 Canadian Overland Journey of Elihu Stewart.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Stewart in this book seems to dwell on monotony. The monotony of the treeless plains (p. 34); of the river journey which made him fall asleep (p. 131); “we had left behind us the misery and want as well as the dull monotony of civilized life” (p. 152); “…the white man acts as if there were no tomorrow,” while the native is never in a hurry: “The dull monotony of life at a trading post in unsettled Canada could hardly fail to have this effect. Procrastination is common enough everywhere, but the complacent way in which these people, The dull monotony of life at a trading post in unsettled Canada could hardly fail to have this effect. Procrastination is common enough everywhere, but the complacent way in which these people…” (p. 250-51); all this “to break the dull monotony of their lives” even with the danger of sleepiness (p. 256).

From Pole to Pole: The Life of Quintin Riley, 1905-1980.

Riley, Jonathan P. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1989.
  • 1920-22 British Graham Land Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Quinton Riley was the Quarter Master of the British Graham Land Expedition, and this biography includes one full chapter on his participation in the BGLE (p. 55-95). He is described as a good-natured but argumentative colleague, of firm religious convictions, and a valuable member of the expedition staff.

A Voyage to Spitzbergen. [The Gateway to the Polynia].

Wells, John Campion. From the Journal of John C. Wells. New and Cheaper Edition. London: Henry S. King & Co., 1876.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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Although the author, an “untraveled Englishman,” is motivated by sport, the main thrust of his book is that Spitsbergen is the best route to the north: for it’s whaling riches, for the benefits of geographical exploration, and for the most economical route of scientific inquiry. Wells himself is described as an old whaling captain in an introductory survey of Arctic exploration that doesn’t reveal its author. I assume the editor was a fellow traveler on a vessel captained by Wells, but I’ve not studied the matter. A most engaging volume.

A Report on the Resources of Iceland and Greenland.

Peirce, Benjamin Mills, compiler. Washington, DC: GPO, 1868.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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This is a report commissioned by William H. Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State, on the desirability of acquiring Iceland and Greenland for the US, just as the U.S. had acquired a few Caribbean islands and Alaska.

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….

Golder, Frank Aldred. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1914.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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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.

Ship’s Libraries; Their Need and Usefulness.

Pierson, John S. New York: American Seamen’s Friend Society, 1878. 33 p.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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p. no page: After you’ve done everything to assure the physical and spiritual welfare of the sailor, “the only way left to reach him is by the printed truth—The Bible, the tract, the good book. Just here then comes in the ship’s library with its indispensable offices,--the last important advance made in the line of religious work among seamen,--the ‘missing link,’ I think we may call it, in the chain of evangelical agencies for their benefit.”

Pilgrims on the Ice: Robert Falcon Scott’s First Antarctic Expedition.

Baughman, T. H. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 27: for the Discovery expedition, the Executive Committee of the RGS commissioned an Antarctic Manual, “an idea that hearkened back to the British Arctic expedition of 1875. Edited by George Murray, it dealt with fields of science to be investigated, and was well received.”

Roughing It in the Bush; Or, Life in Canada.

Moodie, Susanna. Two volumes. New York: George P. Putnam, 1852.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Mrs. Moodie (nee Strickland) sailed on an immigrant ship of mainly Scots headed to Canada in 1832. She writes with a refreshing candour about the trials and tribulations of life in the Canadian bush, direct enough to warrant a Norton Critical Edition in 2007, with extensive supporting material about her life and work.

Smith Sound and its Exploration.

Bessells, Emil. Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute X 3 (1884) p. 333-447.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 335, John Barrow: the English geographer, who credited only those discoveries that were made by officers of the Royal Navy.

Shackleton Discovery Diaries. Vol. 1 Dec. 1901-1902.

Shackleton, Ernest. SPRI Ms 1537/3/4/1 and 2.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 5, Thursday [Dec] 26th: One of the officers of the “Ringarooraa” sent me Swinburne’s “Songs before Sunrise” and two volumes of the Poems and Ballads, but I don’t think there will be much time to read these during the summer; during the long winter far away from the teeming life of the great world one may calmly criticize his rather erotic lines.

The Big Sea: An Autobiography….

Hughes, Langston. (New York: Hill & Wang, 1963). [First published in 1940.].
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 3: Melodramatic maybe, it seems to me now. But then it was like throwing a million bricks out of my heart when I threw the book into the water. I leaned over the rail of the S.S. Malone and threw the books as far as I could out into the sea—all the books I had had at Columbia, and all the books I had lately bought to read.