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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 1 of 11

The Arctic North-East and West Passage
  • Detectio Freti Hudsoni, or Hessel Gerritsz' Collection of Tracts by Himself, Massa and De Quir on the N.E. and W. Passage, Siberia and Australia
  • Hessel Gerritsz
  • Translated by Fred John Millard
  • Introduction by S. Muller
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    19 March 2015
  • This short work contains texts and maps relating to early exploration and trade routes. Included here are descriptions of Russia and Siberia by Isaac Massa (1586–1643), a Dutch merchant and diplomat; one of the memorials relating to Pacific discoveries by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (c.1565–1615); and maps by the cartographer Hessel Gerritsz (c.1581–1632) showing the discoveries of the English navigator Henry Hudson (d.1611). Gerritsz originally compiled these materials and published them in Dutch, and they were soon translated into Latin to increase their readership. In the present work, first published in 1878, reproductions of the Dutch and Latin editions from 1612 and 1613 are presented together by Frederik Muller (1817–81). To encourage research on these texts, Muller also included a new English translation, and an explanatory essay by his son Samuel Muller (1848–1922).

The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin
  • A Personal Narrative
  • Elisha Kent Kane
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
  • Dr Elisha Kane (1820–57), the most famous of American Arctic explorers before Peary, published this work in 1853. Having graduated from medical school, Kane joined the US Navy in 1843, and in 1850 was appointed senior medical officer on the expedition financed by the philanthropist Henry Grinnell to search for Sir John Franklin. Kane had departed on a second expedition while this book was in press, and he continued his Arctic travels, to the detriment of his health, until the year before his early death. In this work, Kane describes the origins of the expedition in the worldwide appeal by Lady Franklin, and, using his own journals, gives a vivid account of a winter spent icebound in the Arctic. Among the appendices is the official report of the expedition's commander, Lieutenant De Haven. Though Franklin's first winter camp was found, there were no further traces of his crew.

Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River, and along the Shores of the Arctic Ocean
  • In the Years 1833, 1834, and 1835
  • George Back
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • John Ross had disappeared while exploring the Northwest Passage in 1829. A lieutenant in the Royal Navy, George Back (1796–1878) had already served with John Franklin on two Arctic expeditions in 1819–22 and 1824–26. He volunteered to lead an expedition to find Ross, setting out in 1833. When Ross returned safely in 1834, Back continued his explorations down the unknown Great Fish River and mapped the Arctic coast westwards, travelling some 7,500 miles in total. Valuable observations on weather, geology, entomology, magnetics and aurora are included as appendices in this 1836 publication. Engravings of Back's own illustrations further enhance the narrative. Although described by some as an opportunist and a weak leader, Back was greeted as a hero on his return and awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. The success of this expedition enabled him to head back to the Arctic in 1836.

The German Arctic Expedition of 1869–70
  • And Narrative of the Wreck of the Hansa in the Ice
  • Karl Koldewey
  • Edited and translated by Lewis Mercier
  • Edited by Henry Walter Bates
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • This heavily illustrated book is an account of a German Arctic expedition, published in 1873–4 by its commander Karl Koldewey (1837–1908) and in this English translation in 1874. The states of northern Germany had a long tradition of trade and exploration in northern waters. As the German empire came into being, two major expeditions were launched, both commanded by Koldewey. The second, of 1869–70, consisted of two vessels, the Germania and the Hansa, a supply ship. The Hansa became separated in fog, failed to reach the fallback rendezvous, was icebound, and finally sank, while the crew survived for nine months on a diminishing ice floe until they reached the coast of Greenland in their surviving small boats. The Germania reached the north of Greenland before encountering pack ice, and was successful in surveying the coast and collecting botanical specimens, before returning safely in 1870.

Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and Siberian Tartary
  • From the Frontiers of China to the Frozen Sea and Kamtchatka
  • John Dundas Cochrane
  • Published online:
    05 January 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • John Dundas Cochrane (1780–1825) was destined for the sea from an early age, but is best remembered as 'the Pedestrian Traveller'. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he set out on a six-year tour of France, Spain and Portugal on foot. When in 1820 the Admiralty turned down his offer to explore the river Niger, he decided instead to walk round the world via Russia, Siberia and North America. On his arrival in St Petersburg, the Russian government gave him money to continue his journey using sledges and canoes where necessary, but he abandoned it in Kamchatka, marrying a local woman and returning with her to England. This account of his travels was published in 1824 and was immediately popular, going into several editions. By no means a scientific survey, it is full of interesting anecdotes and observations about a then unknown and mysterious area of the world.

Arctic Miscellanies
  • A Souvenir of the Late Polar Search
  • Edited by James John Louis Donnet
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    28 August 2014
  • In 1850, a small squadron of British naval vessels, under the command of Horatio Austin, sought to locate the missing Arctic expedition of Sir John Franklin. The ships were trapped in ice by September 1850 and the men were forced to endure the forbidding Arctic winter, finally returning to England in October 1851. This book, published in 1852 and reissued here in the second edition that quickly followed the first, is a collection of articles which appeared in the Aurora Borealis, a newspaper edited by the surgeon James John Louis Donnet (1816–1905) aboard HMS Assistance. It features contributions from the likes of Sir John Ross, Leopold McClintock, fellow officers and several crew members. Despite the serious nature of the mission and the difficulties of the Arctic conditions, the contributions are often light-hearted, making this work a colourful reflection of life on a polar expedition.

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.

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.

Journal of a Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions in His Majesty's Ships Hecla and Griper, in the Years 1819 and 1820
  • Alexander Fisher
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
  • Alexander Fisher (d.1838), ship's surgeon on the Arctic exploration ship H.M.S. Hecla, was the probable author of the anonymous 1819 Journal of a Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions, also reissued in this series. The voyage of the Hecla and Griper began in 1819, and Fisher's account was published in 1821, going rapidly into further editions (of which this reissue is the third). The intention of the expedition, under William Edward Parry, was to find the North-West Passage. It was unsuccessful in this respect (an account by Captain G. F. Lyon of Parry's expedition of 1821–3 is also available in this series), but Fisher's detailed and lively account claims that the existence of the passage has been so far proved that it cannot be doubted. He describes the people and wildlife seen during the voyage, as well as providing technical details of latitude, weather and currents.

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.

The Threshold of the Unknown Region
  • Clements Robert Markham
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
  • An eminent geographer, Clements Markham (1830–1916) had searched for Sir John Franklin in the Arctic as a young man in the Royal Navy. This stimulated his lifelong passion for the polar regions. Published in 1873, this historical review of Arctic exploration was based on extensive research at the Royal Geographical Society, of which Markham was then secretary and later president. The chapters include coverage of early explorers from the sixteenth century, the voyages of Barents and Hudson, Dutch and English whaling voyages around Spitsbergen, exploration of Greenland's east coast, expeditions into Baffin Bay and Smith Sound, Russian discoveries, and possibilities for scientific progress. A discussion of the best route for future British exploration is provided, with an appendix setting out the case for the expedition of 1875–6. Illustrated with a number of maps, Markham's book keenly sought to stimulate further polar exploration by his countrymen.

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.

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 2
  • Charles Wyville Thomson
  • Published online:
    18 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 2 describes the voyage from the Caribbean via Madeira to the coast of Brazil, then to South Africa. The voyage home in 1876 from the Strait of Magellan is also covered. A final chapter summarises the principal conclusions.

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.

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.

A Summer in Iceland
  • Carl Wilhelm Paijkull
  • Translated by M. R. Barnard
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    24 April 2014
  • In 1865, the Swedish geologist Carl Wilhelm Paijkull (1836–69) made a voyage from Copenhagen to Iceland, a country that was still little understood by the rest of Europe. In the course of a trip that had a chiefly scientific purpose, Paijkull noted not only the geological features of the island, but also many salient aspects of Icelandic culture in a detailed yet readable style. The book features a number of striking engravings of natural features, including the volcano Hekla, as well as depictions of Icelanders engaging in activities such as drying fish or crossing a river. Paijkull ranges widely in his narrative, commenting on the Icelandic fondness for dogs, historical and contemporary friction with Denmark, and the island's economic fortunes. His perceptive account was first published in Swedish in 1866 and is reissued here in the English translation that appeared in 1868.

Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson's Bay in His Majesty's Ship Rosamond
  • Containing Some Account of the North-Eastern Coast of America and of the Tribes Inhabiting that Remote Region
  • Edward Chappell
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    24 April 2014
  • Following distinguished naval service during the Napoleonic Wars, Edward Chappell (1792–1861) took part in two voyages patrolling British fisheries in North America. The second of these, in 1814, is recounted in this journal, first published in 1817. Illustrated with several engravings, Chappell's narrative dwells in particular upon the Inuit, who were little understood by Europeans at the time. Knowing only a few Inuit words, Chappell traded with them and was admitted to their homes. Though somewhat superficial and patronising, his descriptions revised previous accounts and brought new information to English readers. The rest of the journal brims with evocative anecdotes from the journey - a polar bear sighting, a thunderstorm on an ice-ridden sea, a meeting with a renowned Native American chieftain. The appendices provide such additional information as navigational data, details of Inuit dress, and a short vocabulary of the Cree language.

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 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).

Through Siberia
  • Volume 2
  • Henry Lansdell
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    17 April 2014
  • The Church of England clergyman Henry Lansdell (1841–1919) was an energetic traveller, both during his own leisure time and on behalf of the Irish Church Missions. He made many visits to Russia and central Asia, distributing bibles and tracts in the native languages of the many peoples he encountered, and focusing his attention especially on hospitals and prisons. He published this two-volume account in 1882, and it proved extremely popular (this second edition being prepared before the first was published), but attracted some criticism for its favourable treatment of the Russian government. The anarchist Prince Peter Kropotkin was especially indignant at the accounts of Russian prisons: he alleged that Lansdell was either a dupe of propaganda or was deliberately distorting what he had seen. Volume 2 continues Lansdell's account of his travels, both to prison colonies and mines, and among the native peoples of the Russian Far East.

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