A youthful sailor’s account of his voyage to the Kerguélen Islands on a sealing expedition, and its various crises and shipwrecks. Sometimes attributed to W. B. Clarke.
Narrative of the Wreck of the ‘Favorite’ on the Island of Desolation [Kerguelen Island]
Nunn, John. London: William Painter, 1850.
- 1849? Kerguélen Island Sealing Voyage and Shipwreck.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
At the Mountains of Madness,
Lovecraft, H. P. in At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1964.
- Whalemen's Reading
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First published in 1931, this phantasmagoric combination of science fiction and horror novel is located on the high plateau of Antarctic, reached by airplane, but discovering the world’s highest mountains and remains of an ancient ‘civilization’ come back to life and destructive of the expedition.
An Arctic Voyage to Baffin’s Bay and Lancaster Sound, in Search of Friends with Sir John Franklin
Goodsir, Robert Anstruther. . London: John van Voorst, 1850. [Reprinted, Plaistow & Sutton Coldfield, UK: The Arctic Press,1996.].
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
Goodsir’s brother John had been lost with the Franklin expedition and he therefore joined one of the first of the Franklin Search expeditions in 1849.
South Latitude.
Ommanney, Francis Downes. London: Longmans, 1938.
- Whalemen's Reading
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A beautifully written book on whaling in the Weddell Sea, where R.R.S. Discovery II was trapped (like Endurance) but escaped.
A Voyage Towards the South Pole, Performed in the Years 1822-24 Containing an Examination of the Antarctic Sea (1827).
Weddell, James. A reprint with a new Introduction by Sir Vivian Fuchs. Second edition. London: David & Charles Reprints, 1970.
- 1822-24 Weddell Whaling Expeditions.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
It’s obvious that Weddell was well-read on the history of the region he explored (cf. his translation and abstracts of earlier Spanish reports, on p. 61-9), but this isn’t evidence of books aboard—he does speak of the credibility of some books inducing him to search certain islands, implying that copies were on the ship. And the obligatory prayer-books on British ships were certainly present.