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My favourite charity book shop delivering the goods again! Only £1, and looks very interesting.

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A Midshipman's Naval Dirk Of 'Nile' Type, 1800-1810

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some of my favorite online resources for nautical/maritime/age of sail things - this is a longish post full of links and i spent a bit of time putting it together from my various bookmarks and collections!! please enjoy!

this blog (christine demerchant) and its many lists of terms and informative pages, for example: sails & rigs & sailing, hull & construction terms, anchors & anchorage, types of boats & ships, points of sail - at the bottom of every page there is a list of books on the topic as well!! this blog is INVALUABLE and has basically everything, and if it doesn't have something it certainly has a link to another blog or a book that has what you need. there's also lot of interesting articles about the author's adventures in making her own sails and building boats and experimenting with sailing. the site is a little difficult to navigate but the information on it is incredible and all very experience-based!!

there's also this blog (roland's model ship building) which is SUCH a delight - it is mostly model ships as the name would suggest but it is an incredibly close look at the little complicated parts of ships and a great resource for the more "how does this look" aspect if a little less "how does this work". my favorite page is the process of building model HMS surprise - it's SO fascinating and even just a quick look through makes visualizing and understanding the physics of it all easier. this in particular is a very good drawing resource for tall ships!

the ever-famous shipindex.org is a completely invaluable resource as well. pretty much anything you want to know about a specific ship can be found here, or at least it makes a spectacular jumping-off point!

another famous resource is falconer's marine dictionary, or: "A New Universal Dictionary of the Marine; Being a Copious Explanation of the Technical Terms and Phrases Usually Employed in the Construction, Equipment, Machinery, Movements, and Military, as Well as Naval, Operations of Ships: with Such Parts of Astronomy, and Navigation, as Will be Found Useful to Practical Navigators" by william falconer and expanded by william burney - the whole text is here online but it can be a little hard to read and understand so i would supplement with the other resources here!

there is also the oxford companion to ships and the sea which i do not have a copy of nor do i have online access to the full text, BUT you can search and find keywords and it will show you excerpts which is surprisingly helpful!! especially good if you don't have time to read the whole dictionary trying to find one specific term.

in the same vein is the oxford encyclopedia of maritime history - same deal as the above and i do not have access to the full text but this is SO useful for looking up specific people and places and ships and battles and such!!! there's TONS of information in this one.

also, a super interesting primary source: digital collections of midshipmen's letters and journals in the united states naval academy!! these are hefty, each link contains a ton of stuff:

Richard Mueller Nixon Letters (1926-1930)

Henry Mylin Keiffer Scrapbook (1907-1911) (one of my favorites of all time, absolutely worth at least a cursory glance)

John Porter Merrell Johnston Letters (1932-1937)

William Frederick Durand U.S.S. Mayflower journal of practice cruise (1879)

Roscoe C. Bulmer Journal (1894-1896)

Josiah G. Beckwith Letters (1853-1855)

this is not my whole collection but it is a fantastic set of jumping-off points and i tried to include the widest & most general databases that i could. if you have a great online resource to add please let me know, and if you have book recommendations i would appreciate those too!!!

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i am BEGGING everybody to please look at this picture of a dog who worked at Wood Island Lighthouse in Biddeford, Maine in 1903. his name was Sailor and it was his job to ring the foghorn. he was famous nationwide. mariners passing nearby the lighthouse would toot their horns in greeting and he would get very excited and ring the foghorn as a hello

source: https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/18525

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great news: the team who restored the Belgica’s coelophone (hand-cranked reed organ) for last year’s MAS Antwerp exhibit digitized their recordings! that means that you can listen to the actual music they had on the Belgica played on their actual device like you can listen to it right now

photographs from the same source, Pauliphonic, where you will also find a video of the restorers operating the piece and almost 100 photos of the object itself :) it’s a really thorough demonstration of this instrument; I actually saw it in person at last year’s exhibit & feel this is a much, much more effective way to showcase how the “books” are shaped and stored and how much manipulation is required to play music on this thing.

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Types of Vessels, early 19th century, in : Richard Henry Dana, Jr.’s The Seaman’s Friend Containing a Treatise on Practical Seamanship, with Plates, a Dictionary of Sea Terms; Customs and Usages of the Merchant Service; Laws Relating to the Practical Duties of Master and Mariners 1841

Ship.–A ship is square-rigged throughout; that is, she has tops, and carries square sails on all three of her masts.

Bark.–A bark is square-rigged at her fore and main masts, and differs from a ship in having no top, and carrying only fore-and-aft sails at her mizzenmast.

Brig.–A full-rigged brig is square-rigged at both her masts.

Hermaphrodite Brig.–An hermaphrodite brig is square-rigged at her foremast; but has no top, and only fore-and-aft sails at her main mast.

Topsail Schooner.–A topsail schooner has no tops at her foremast, and is fore-and-aft rigged at her mainmast. She differs from an hermaphrodite brig in that she is not properly square-rigged at her foremast, having no top, and carrying a fore-and-aft foresail, in stead of a square foresail and a spencer.

Fore-and-aft Schooner.–A fore-and-aft schooner is fore-and-aft rigged throughout, differing from a topsail schooner in that the latter carries small square sails aloft at the fore.

Sloop.–A sloop has one mast, fore-and-aft rigged.

Hermaphrodite Brigs sometimes carry small square sails aloft at the main; in which case they are called Brigantines, and differ from a Full-rigged Brig in that they have no top at the mainmast, and carry a fore-and-aft mainsail instead of a square mainsail and trysail. Some Topsail Schooners carry small square sails aloft at the main as well as the fore; being in other respects fore-and-aft rigged. They are then called Main Topsail Schooners.

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A 108ft long two-masted sailing ship in front of this massive blue iceberg, Greenland 2023 (via reddit)

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wilson I knew you were bitchy but not to this extent

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The Crescent Moon, by Montague Dawson (1895 - 1973)

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Collected some photos and descriptions of Lecointe for reference and thought I might share

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happy birthday to absolutely NO ONE but my BEAUTIFUL WIFE ROBERT F. SCOTT BORN JUNE 6 1868 AND NO ONE ELSE !!!!!

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A few days ago I was weeding the nonfiction section of the library where I work and came across this inscription in a 1910 edition of Peary's The North Pole. It was written on May 28th, 1925, making it exactly 100 years old today! What are the chances? Below is my best transcription of what it says:

Dear Harry, Nothing gives me greater pleasure in this world than to write in this book a few words about Peary. In my humble opinion he is the greatest Explorer of all time. A great organizer, a brave man, a true friend, and a man whom [something] to [something]. Sincerely, R. A. Bartlett New York City, May 28th, 1925

I hope someone else finds this as interesting as I do, and if you can make out the last couple words (or if I made any other errors) please let me know! My cursive comprehension is pretty dismal.

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If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

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I guess it's time to start moving some content from twt over here! For those who don't know me, I'm a public librarian with a special interest in polar and nautical history, and I love nothing more than connecting readers with good books. I've managed to convert some friends to my way of thinking, and one of them coined the phrase "sad boat books" to describe the types of books that I'm always reading and recommending. Here is my first list of sad boat books-- I can personally vouch for all of them!

New to sad boat? Start here to see if it’s for you!

Endurance by Alfred Lansing

Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton

The Worst Journey in the World- The Graphic Novel Volume 1: Making Our Easting Down adapted by Sarah Airriess from the book by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie and John Geiger

Terra Nova, A GREAT first expedition!

The Worst Journey in the World- The Graphic Novel Volume 1: Making Our Easting Down adapted by Sarah Airriess from the book by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

A First Rate Tragedy by Diana Preston

Robert Falcon Scott Journals- Captain Scott’s Last Expedition by Robert Falcon Scott

“I Love Ernest Shackleton” starter pack

Endurance by Alfred Lansing

Shackleton’s Boat Journey by Frank Worsley

The Endurance by Caroline Alexander

“I Hate Ernest Shackleton” starter pack

The Lost Men by Kelly Tyler-Lewis

Polar Castaways by Richard McElrea and David Harrowfield

Roald Roald Roald!

The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen by Stephen Bown

The South Pole by Roald Amundsen

The Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford*

*DISCLAIMER: this guy hates Captain Scott and gets most of the Scott details wrong, read for Roald only!

The Franklin Expedition

Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie and John Geiger

Erebus by Michael Palin

May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth: Letters of the Lost Franklin Expedition edited by Russell A. Potter, Regina Koellner, Peter Carney, and Mary Williamson

Non-polar sad boats

The Bounty by Caroline Alexander

Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger

In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

Sometimes a sad balloon can be a sad boat

The Expedition by Bea Uusma

The Ice Balloon by Alec Wilkinson

Karluk/Wrangel Island, the expeditions of my heart

Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk by Buddy Levy

The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven

The Karluk’s Last Voyage by Robert A. Bartlett

The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor’s Memoir of Arctic Disaster by William Laird McKinlay

Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven

Miscellaneous sad boat books that are well worth your time

The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance by Mensun Bound

In The Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides

Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton

Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration by David Roberts

Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy

If you read and enjoy any of these, please let me know!

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Recommendation

You see me do a lot of complaining about how bad most of the books about the Franklin Expedition are. Now, this book , Arctic Exploration in the Nineteenth Century, is amazing and my most favourite! Unfortunately it's an expensive academic publication that is therefore not easily accessible. But the topics of the various essays are so good and thought-provoking! All with sources properly cited etc. Well worth tracking down either legally or illegally.🙃

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I went to SPRI today. I found Silas, Cherry, Bill, Birdie and the facsimiles of the Franklin expedition daguerreotypes and I bought five new polar books. all is right with my little part of the world

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A very detailed report on the wrecks of Erebus and Terror from Parks Canada, including drawings of the wrecks and the items found. It's a huge document, can't wait to properly read it. READ IT HERE.

[Figure 5.2.1: Terror and Erebus, Plan of Upper Deck (as Fitted) overlaid with the upper deck site plan (Image: B. Lockhart, Parks Canada; Drawing: C. Pillar, Parks Canada; 89M2017-101-1; Ship plan: National Maritime Museum Greenwich, London (ZAZ 5675, J1409))]