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This series includes accounts, by eye-witnesses and contemporaries, of early expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic. Huge resources were invested in such endeavours, particularly the search for the North-West Passage, which, if successful, promised enormous strategic and commercial rewards. Cartographers and scientists travelled with many of the expeditions, and their work made important contributions to earth sciences, climatology, botany and zoology. They also brought back anthropological information about the indigenous peoples of the Arctic region and the southern fringes of the American continent. The series further includes dramatic and poignant accounts of the harsh realities of working in extreme conditions and utter isolation in bygone centuries.

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202 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Polar Exploration

Page 3 of 11

Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and round the World
  • Being Personal Narratives of Attempts to Reach the North and South Poles
  • Volume 2
  • Robert McCormick
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    08 May 2014
    First published in:
    1884
  • Published in 1884 and illustrated with over 100 of his own drawings and maps, this two-volume work by the doctor and naturalist Robert McCormick (1800–90) provides an account of his voyages in the Arctic with William Parry and in the Antarctic with James Clark Ross, noting also his part in the search for Sir John Franklin. Incorporating a very detailed autobiography, McCormick's work also provides many details relating to natural history and geology. Volume 2 describes his role in the 1852–4 mission to find Franklin in the Arctic, including an open boat voyage up the Wellington Channel. The appendices provide notes on maintaining health in polar climes. This is followed by McCormick's autobiography, tracing his struggles to gain promotion in his naval career. Copies of correspondence relating to the Franklin search reveal his battle to have his ideas accepted by the Admiralty.

The South Pole
  • An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the Fram, 1910–1912
  • Volume 2
  • Roald Amundsen
  • Translated by A. G. Chater
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    31 July 2014
    First published in:
    1912
  • On 14 December 1911, Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) and his Norwegian team became the first humans to reach the South Pole, a month before their ill-fated British rivals under the leadership of Robert Falcon Scott. Reissued here is the 1912 English translation of Amundsen's two-volume account of how this extraordinary and perilous feat was achieved. Illustrated throughout with illuminating maps and photographs, the text contains important details relating to matters of climate, equipment, diet, sledging and survival in forbiddingly cold conditions over uncertain terrain. Underpinning Amundsen's success, the use of dogs, skis and fur clothing made possible the dash to the pole and back without the loss of human life. While careful to present the expedition in the best light, Amundsen's work remains essential reading in the history of Antarctic exploration. Volume 2 covers the momentous journey to the pole and back, closing with chapters and appendices on nautical and scientific topics.

Account of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America
  • To Which Are Added, the Conquest of Siberia, and the History of the Transactions and Commerce between Russia and China
  • William Coxe
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
  • The historian William Coxe (1748–1828) was also an Anglican priest, and had travelled widely in Europe as tutor to various young noblemen on the Grand Tour. (His Anecdotes of George Frederick Handel, and John Christopher Smith is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.) This work originated on a visit to St Petersburg, where Coxe had obtained sight of journals by Russian explorers, and also found an anonymous German work on Russian Arctic voyages between 1745 and 1770. Having checked its authenticity with the Russian authorities, he translated it to form part of this book, first published in 1780 and reissued here in its revised third edition of 1787. He also provides various journals and accounts of exploration in Siberia, Kamchatka and the American Arctic, together with information on trade between Russia and China. Readers will gain insights into a rarely considered aspect of Arctic exploration and economic exploitation.

The Polar World
  • A Popular Description of Man and Nature in the Arctic and Antarctic Regions of the Globe
  • Georg Hartwig
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
    First published in:
    1869
  • The German scientific writer Georg Hartwig (1813–80) produced many popular works on geographical and natural history topics, among them this book, published in English in 1869. (An American version, with additional chapters, came out in the same year.) Unusually for the period, it surveyed exploration in the Antarctic as well as the Arctic, though the coverage of the latter makes up the bulk of the book. Hartwig's intention is 'to convey solid instruction under an entertaining form', combining the history of exploration with descriptions of the polar regions explored by the mid-century, including Siberia as well as the islands and ice packs of the Arctic Ocean. In this very readable work, Hartwig describes geography, geology and climate, as well as the survival strategies of plant, animal and human life in an extreme environment, using a very wide range of earlier published material to create an integrated narrative.

The South Pole
  • An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the Fram, 1910–1912
  • Volume 1
  • Roald Amundsen
  • Translated by A. G. Chater
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    31 July 2014
    First published in:
    1912
  • On 14 December 1911, Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) and his Norwegian team became the first humans to reach the South Pole, a month before their ill-fated British rivals under the leadership of Robert Falcon Scott. Reissued here is the 1912 English translation of Amundsen's two-volume account of how this extraordinary and perilous feat was achieved. Illustrated throughout with illuminating maps and photographs, the text contains important details relating to matters of climate, equipment, diet, sledging and survival in forbiddingly cold conditions over uncertain terrain. Underpinning Amundsen's success, the use of dogs, skis and fur clothing made possible the dash to the pole and back without the loss of human life. While careful to present the expedition in the best light, Amundsen's work remains essential reading in the history of Antarctic exploration. Volume 1 covers the early stages of the expedition prior to the start for the pole in October 1911.

Memoirs of Hans Hendrik, the Arctic Traveller, Serving under Kane, Hayes, Hall and Nares, 1853–1876
  • Translated from the Eskimo Language
  • Hans Hendrik
  • Translated by Henry Rink
  • Edited by George Stephens
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    21 August 2014
    First published in:
    1878
  • First published in 1878, this English translation of the memoirs of Hans Hendrik (c.1834–89), a native Greenlander, provides a valuable alternative perspective on polar exploration in the nineteenth century. Inuit were often employed on Arctic expeditions of the period. Hendrik is remarkable, however, not only because his skills as a guide and hunter were called on repeatedly during several expeditions - notably those led by Elisha Kent Kane, Isaac Israel Hayes, Charles Francis Hall and George Strong Nares - but also because he wrote his own account of these experiences. The memoirs show that Hendrik distinguished himself through his application of survival skills and that he dealt with numerous challenges, including the forced abandonment of ship and drifting for months on an ice floe. Instances of sickness and malnutrition are also recorded, as is the poor treatment that Hendrik and other Inuit sometimes experienced from their employers.

The Voyage of the Discovery
  • Volume 1
  • Robert F. Scott
  • Illustrated by E. A. Wilson
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    31 July 2014
    First published in:
    1905
  • At the outset of the twentieth century, Antarctica was scarcely explored or understood. Penetrating the pack ice in the purpose-built Discovery, the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–4) established a base in McMurdo Sound, enabling scientists and sledging parties to significantly push back the boundaries of the unknown. Published in 1905, this acclaimed two-volume work by the naval officer and expedition leader Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) recounts the trials, errors and achievements of an undertaking which laid the foundations for future research and Scott's later journey to the South Pole. The work is greatly enhanced by many photographs as well as illustrations by the doctor, zoologist and artist Edward A. Wilson (1872–1912). Volume 1 traces the expedition's preparatory phases and the voyage from England to Antarctica via New Zealand. Scott discusses the location of winter quarters and the first polar winter. Chapters on sledging conclude the volume.

On the Polar Star in the Arctic Sea
  • Volume 1
  • Luigi Amedeo di Savoia
  • Translated by William Le Queux
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
    First published in:
    1903
  • Prince Luigi Amedeo of Savoy, a grandson of King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy, was well known as a mountaineer and traveller when, in 1899, he organised an expedition to the Arctic, obtaining a steam whaling ship in Oslo which he renamed the Stella Polare. His ambition was to reach the highest possible latitude (and possibly the North Pole itself) by careful logistical arrangements, wintering on the ice in Franz Josef Land and using dog-sledges to travel further north. He also intended a scientific survey of the area in which the team passed the winter. His account of the expedition was published in Italian in 1902 and this two-volume English translation by William Le Queux (better known as the author of sensationalist spy and crime novels) appeared in 1903. Volume 1 recounts the genesis and progress of the expedition, including the crew's efforts to free the ice-bound ship using explosives.

The Impracticability of a North-West Passage for Ships, Impartially Considered
  • Peter Heywood
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    17 July 2014
  • Peter Heywood (1772–1831) became known for his involvement in the 1789 mutiny aboard the Bounty. After evading a death sentence thanks to a royal pardon, he was able to advance himself in a distinguished naval career, achieving the rank of post-captain. The question of the North-West Passage, a sea route through the Arctic that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, remained an obsession for the British for much of the nineteenth century. Drawing on his experience as a naval hydrographer and writing under the pseudonym 'Scrutator', Heywood considers the question of the North-West Passage in this 1824 publication by surveying accounts of recent expeditions to the Arctic. While he does not dispute the existence of the much-sought route, he argues that the icy waters would not be navigable for ships. It was not until the early twentieth century that Roald Amundsen and his crew achieved the seemingly impossible.

The History of Greenland
  • Including an Account of the Mission Carried on by the United Brethren in that Country
  • Volume 2
  • David Crantz
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
  • In 1759, David Crantz (or Cranz) was sent to Greenland for a year by the Moravian Church. Writing in German, Crantz (1723–77) published in 1765 his detailed observations on the country, its people and their way of life, including a history of the Moravian mission there. This English translation appeared in two volumes in 1820, prepared by staff at the Fulneck School in West Yorkshire, where a Moravian community existed. The text is illustrated with several engravings that depict landscapes as well as kayaks, weapons and tools used by the Greenlanders, providing a valuable visual record of eighteenth-century life among the native population. Volume 2 contains an account of Moravian missionary activity in Greenland since 1733, tracing how the Moravians managed to brave the conditions while spreading the Gospel among the people. An appendix looks at the Moravian settlement established on the coast of Labrador.

Voyage of the Challenger: The Atlantic
  • A Preliminary Account of the General Results of the Exploring Voyage of HMS Challenger during the Year 1873 and the Early Part of the Year 1876
  • Volume 1
  • Charles Wyville Thomson
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
  • In 1871 the British government agreed to support an expedition to collect physical and chemical data and biological specimens from the world's oceans. Led by Charles Wyville Thomson (1830–82), the expedition used HMS Challenger, refitted with laboratories. They sailed nearly 70,000 nautical miles around the world, took soundings and water samples at hundreds of stops along the way, and discovered more than 4,000 new marine species. Noted for the discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Pacific's deepest trench, the expedition laid the foundations for modern oceanography. This acclaimed two-volume account, first published in 1877, summarises the major discoveries for the Atlantic legs of this pioneering voyage. Illustrated with plates and woodcuts, Volume 1 describes the laboratories and equipment, the observations from Portsmouth via Tenerife to the Caribbean, and the detailed studies on the Gulf Stream.

Travels from St Petersburg in Russia, to Diverse Parts of Asia
  • Volume 2
  • John Bell
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    17 July 2014
  • John Bell (1691–1780) trained as a physician, but preferred a life of travel and diplomacy. He entered the service of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, and had already taken part (as the expedition's doctor) in a government mission to Persia in 1715–18 when he was asked to join a further embassy to China. This two-volume work, published in 1763, describes both these journeys. Volume 2 takes up the story with the embassy's reception in Beijing, with accounts of the Chinese emperor and his court, and the return journey. It also includes the journal of Lorenz Lange (c.1690–1752), a Swede in Russian service who was an agent at the court of Beijing at the time of Bell's own mission, and short accounts of Bell's later visits to Derbent on the Caspian Sea, and to Constantinople. This is a delightful account of an area then hardly known in the west.

Lieut. John Irving, R.N., of H.M.S. Terror, in Sir John Franklin's Last Expedition to the Arctic Regions
  • A Memorial Sketch with Letters
  • Benjamin Bell
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
    First published in:
    1881
  • John Irving (1815–1847?) was a lieutenant on board H.M.S. Terror during Sir John Franklin's fateful expedition, and had the melancholy distinction of being the first identifiable body to be found by a subsequent search party - that of the US officer Frederick Schwatka - in 1878. Irving was identified by a silver medal, won for mathematics in 1830. His remains were brought back to Britain and reburied in his home town, Edinburgh, and at the request of Irving's father this 'memorial sketch', including some of the young lieutenant's letters to his family, was published in 1881 by Benjamin Bell (1810–83), great-grandfather of the surgeon Joseph Bell, Conan Doyle's model for Sherlock Holmes. As well as the touching memoir, the work includes details of the various search and rescue attempts, and a reconstructed chronology by Clements Markham of the Franklin expedition up to its disastrous end.

The Great Lone Land
  • A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America
  • William Francis Butler
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • An Irish officer in the British army, William Francis Butler (1838–1910) travelled widely during a career which took him from India to Africa. In 1867 he made for Canada with his regiment, and he recalls his adventures in this lively account, first published in 1872 to immediate success, and followed by this second edition in the same year. The book covers Butler's risky reconnaissance mission during the Red River Rebellion, during which he met the Métis leader Louis Riel. Later chapters describe subsequent journeys into the sparsely populated Manitoba and Saskatchewan territories, as well as the US states of Illinois, Minnesota and North Dakota. In vivid detail, Butler describes the landscapes and peoples he encountered, including many Native American tribes. This region of North America was later transformed by an influx of settlers, and Butler's work captures the final days of what was then an underexplored wilderness.

The History of Greenland
  • Including an Account of the Mission Carried on by the United Brethren in that Country
  • Volume 1
  • David Crantz
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
  • In 1759, David Crantz (or Cranz) was sent to Greenland for a year by the Moravian Church. Writing in German, Crantz (1723–77) published in 1765 his detailed observations on the country, its people and their way of life, including a history of the Moravian mission there. This English translation appeared in two volumes in 1820, prepared by staff at the Fulneck School in West Yorkshire, where a Moravian community existed. The text is illustrated with several engravings that depict landscapes as well as kayaks, weapons and tools used by the Greenlanders, providing a valuable visual record of eighteenth-century life among the native population. Volume 1 is primarily concerned with the geography of Greenland, the local weather patterns, and flora and fauna, as well as the attitudes, traditions, social habits and hierarchies of the people of Greenland.

An Account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia
  • Martin Sauer
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • Impressed by the discoveries of Captain Cook, and conscious that Russia was lagging behind other countries in terms of navigation and exploration, Catherine the Great commissioned an expedition in 1785 to chart the coastline in the far north-east of her empire. Born in Middlesex, Joseph Billings (1758–1806) had sailed under Cook but entered Russian service in 1783. He was chosen to lead the expedition, which would last for nine years. Written up by Martin Sauer, secretary and translator to the expedition, this illustrated account was first published in English in 1802, documenting the sheer scale of the task and the range of scientific activities carried out. Notable for producing the first accurate maps of the shoreline and islands of east Siberia, the expedition also contributed to the ethnographic and zoological knowledge of this most inhospitable of environments.

A Brief Narrative of an Unsuccessful Attempt to Reach Repulse Bay
  • Through Sir Thomas Rowe's ‘Welcome', in His Majesty's Ship Griper, in the year MDCCCXXIV
  • George Francis Lyon
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • This short work, featuring a number of attractive engravings, traces an abortive expedition to the Canadian Arctic. George Francis Lyon (1795–1832), naval officer and explorer, had accompanied William Parry on a previous expedition in search of the North-West Passage. In 1824 Lyon was instructed to return to Repulse Bay and to explore the mainland. Unfavourable weather conditions forced Lyon to turn back after a few months, and he published this account of the experience the following year. Lyon's text is notable for his descriptions of encounters with Inuit, with whom he spent a great deal of time. The book also includes the text of the official instructions issued by the Admiralty. Chronicling the 1821–3 expedition with Parry, The Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon (1824) is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection, along with his Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico (1828).

The Land of Desolation
  • Being a Personal Narrative of Adventures in Greenland
  • Isaac Israel Hayes
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    17 April 2014
  • Despite the fact that his previous trip to the Arctic had left him gravely ill and with a permanently injured foot, the explorer and physician Isaac Israel Hayes (1832–81) immediately proclaimed his desire to return north. In 1869, aboard the steamer Panther, he was granted his wish. The trip was financed by the artist William Bradford (1823–92), who planned to use it as an opportunity to paint and photograph Greenland. First published in 1871, this account gives the reader the opportunity to survey the landscape, touching also on the history of polar exploration. It is illustrated with a number of engravings. Also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection are An Arctic Boat-Journey in the Autumn of 1854 (1860), Hayes's account of a gruelling episode during the ill-fated second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, and The Open Polar Sea (1867).

Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal
  • Or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin's Expedition, in the Years 1850–51
  • Sherard Osborn
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    17 April 2014
  • By the middle of the nineteenth century, the goal of the North-West Passage had claimed the lives of many explorers, yet the disappearance of the expedition led by Sir John Franklin occasioned the greatest response. Naval officer Sherard Osborn (1822–75) took part in the search mission of 1850–1 under Horatio Thomas Austin. Osborn was appointed to command the Pioneer, one of two steam tenders on the voyage. This was the first time such vessels had been deployed in the punishing conditions of the Arctic. Such was their success in cutting through ice and navigating the treacherous waters that similar models were later adopted by the whaling fleet. The present work, first published in 1852, gives a compelling account of the hardships of the expedition, which was successful in its surveying work and confirmed that Franklin had not been lost in Baffin Bay.

The Franklin Expedition from First to Last
  • Richard King
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    17 April 2014
    First published in:
    1855
  • Having participated in a rescue mission to aid John Ross in the Arctic in the 1830s, traveller and surgeon Richard King (1810/11–76) considered himself qualified to suggest where the missing expedition of Sir John Franklin, which had set off in 1845, could be found. In his letters to periodicals, government ministers and the Admiralty, published in this collection in 1855, King argues that the missing party would be located near the mouth of the Great Fish River. He volunteered to lead a search expedition, but was ignored. By 1859, remains of the Franklin party had been discovered near to where King said they would be. These letters tell the story of his campaign, throwing light on an interesting chapter in the history of polar exploration and the understanding of the Canadian Arctic. Several other works on Franklin's last expedition and the subsequent searches are also reissued in this series.

Page 3 of 11