Voyages Round the World; with Selected Sketches of Voyages to the South Seas, North and South Pacific Oceans, China, Etc.,.. between the Years 1792 and 1832.

Fanning, Edmund. New York: Collins & Hannay, 1833. [A later edition is Salem, MA: Marine Research Society, 1924.].
  • 1792-32 American Sealing Voyage (Captain Edmund Fanning).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Fanning from Stonington was the first known American to reach sub-polar Antarctica on various sealing expeditions, including the Falklands, Shetlands, and South Georgia and at least as far as 58°S. One of the later chapters describes Nathaniel Palmer’s meeting with Alexander I’s Russian ships in 1820-21 who learned from Palmer “of the existence of an immense extent of land to the south, whose mountains might be seen from the mast-head when the fog should clear away entirely” (p. 308). This rather charming book, first published in 1833, while covering several voyages in which Fanning was involved, chiefly as captain, betrays little of any books on board or any reading by him or his sailors other than the obligatory directional books and charts, for which here is one example.