After the expedition of Sir John Franklin went missing in the Arctic, a series of search missions were sent out in an attempt to discover its fate. Two of these were funded by, and named after, the American shipping magnate Henry Grinnell (1799-1874), the second of which was launched in 1853. With the brig Advance trapped in ice off the coast of northern Greenland, the expedition's surgeon Isaac Israel Hayes (1832-81) set out in August 1854 with a party of men towards Upernavik. This 1860 publication traces nearly four months spent struggling against horrendous Arctic conditions. Also...

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...

The Arctic explorer Sir John Richardson (1787 1865), who had accompanied both John Franklin and John Rae on major expeditions, expands here an article which had appeared in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Organised in two parts, and published in 1861, this work covers first the Arctic and then the largely unexplored Antarctic. Adopting a chronological approach in the first part, Richardson covers Roman knowledge of the far north, Norse voyages, and later exploration by the British, Dutch and Russians. He then deals in detail with the search for the North-West Passage, including the expeditions...

One of the leading Arctic navigators of his age, William Edward Parry (1790-1855) led three expeditions in search of the North-West Passage (accounts of which are also reissued in this series). Parry's early career had been spent protecting the whaling fleet of Spitsbergen and this experience led him in 1826 to propose to the Admiralty an expedition to the North Pole. In order to reach further north than earlier attempts, Parry used sledge-boats that could be towed over the ice on runners, and then take to any open sea that the crew encountered. In 1827 the expedition attained a record...

This 1898 English translation of a popular 1895 Norwegian work provides a valuable first-hand account of Arctic exploration in Greenland. Elvind Astrup (1871-95) took part in the expeditions led by the American explorer Robert Peary (1856-1920) between 1891 and 1894. Another of Astrup's shipmates during this time was Frederick Cook (1865-1940), who would later claim to be the first man to have reached the North Pole. Astrup gives here a short narrative of the expeditions, yet the real appeal of his work lies in its vivid descriptions of life on the ice - not merely that of the explorers, but...

By 1820, the explorer William Parry had managed to traverse half of the North-West Passage. For his second attempt in 1821 3, he was accompanied by George Francis Lyon (1795 1832), who captained HMS Hecla. Parry and Lyon ultimately failed to get beyond Fury and Hecla Strait - named for the expedition's ships - because of heavy ice. This, together with the onset of scurvy, brought about their return to England. First published in 1824, Lyon's journal provides details of the region's natural history and its ice conditions as well as some of the most perceptive early commentary on the Inuit of...

This well-illustrated account of polar exploration was originally published in Norway in 1903, and in this two-volume English translation in 1904. It tells the story of the four years spent by Otto Sverdrup (1854-1930) and his crew in surveying and charting the seas and coastlines of the Arctic. Sverdrup had qualified as a ship's master when he first met Fridtjof Nansen, whose Greenland expedition of 1888 he accompanied. He advised on the construction of Nansen's wooden ship, the Fram, and became its master in 1895. Both with Nansen and under his own leadership, he undertook many expeditions....

This well-illustrated account of polar exploration was originally published in Norway in 1903, and in this two-volume English translation in 1904. It tells the story of the four years spent by Otto Sverdrup (1854-1930) and his crew in surveying and charting the seas and coastlines of the Arctic. Sverdrup had qualified as a ship's master when he first met Fridtjof Nansen, whose Greenland expedition of 1888 he accompanied. He advised on the construction of Nansen's wooden ship, the Fram, and became its master in 1895. Both with Nansen and under his own leadership, he undertook many expeditions....

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 it attracted some criticism for its favourable treatment of the Russian...

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....