IsisCB Explore

Book ID: CBB695538374

Polaris: The Chief Scientist's Recollections of the American North Pole Expedition, 1871-73 (2016)

Bessels, Emil (Author)
Barr, William (Translator)

Barr, William
University of Calgary Press

ISBN: 9781552388754

Publication Date: 2016
Physical Details: 672
Language: English

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

Google Books

Academia.edu

Travel; exploration Scientific expeditions 19th century Greenland Arctic regions United States Hall, Charles Francis Bessels, Emil

Emil Bessels was chief scientist and medical officer on George Francis Hall's ill-fated American North Pole Expedition of 1871-73 on board the ship Polaris. Bessels' book, translated from the German in its entirety for the first time, is one of only two first-hand accounts of the voyage, and it is the only first-hand account of the experiences of the group which stayed with the ship after it ran afoul of arctic ice, leaving some of its crew stranded on an ice floe. Bessels and the others spent a second winter on shore in Northwest Greenland, where the drifting, disabled ship ran aground. Hall died suspiciously during the first winter, and Bessels is widely suspected of having poisoned him. Bill Barr has uncovered new evidence of a possible motive. Polaris includes considerable detail which does not appear elsewhere. It is the only account of the expedition which includes rich scientific information about anthropology, geology, flora and fauna. It provides much more information than other accounts on the Greenland settlements Polaris visited on her way north. Bessels' is the only published first-hand account of the second wintering of part of the ship's complement on shore at Polaris House, near Littleton Island, and of that party's attempt at travelling south by boat until picked up by the Scottish whaler Ravenscraig. The same applies to the cruise aboard the whaler, Arctic, after Bessels and his companions transferred to that ship. Essential reading for researchers and students of arctic exploration history, this book is also a compelling read for the interested general reader.

...More

Reviewed By

Review Martin P. M. Weiss (2020) Review of "Polaris: The Chief Scientist's Recollections of the American North Pole Expedition, 1871-73". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 193-194). unapi

Citation URI

http://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB695538374/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Cavell, Janice; (2013)
Publishing Sir John Franklin's Fate: Cannibalism, Journalism, and the 1881 Edition of Leopold McClintock's The Voyage of the “Fox” in the Arctic Seas (/isis/citation/CBB001201827/)

Article Froggatt, Peter; Walker, Brian M.; (2012)
From Precocious Fame to Mature Obscurity: David Walker (1837--1917) MD, LRSCIi, Surgeon and Naturalist to the Fox Arctic Expedition of 1857--59 (/isis/citation/CBB001200784/)

Book Peter R. Dawes; (2022)
Expedition Relics from High Arctic Greenland: Eight Decades of Exploration History, Told through 102 Objects (/isis/citation/CBB344098059/)

Article McCorristine, Shane; (2013)
“Involuntarily We Listen”: Hearing the Aurora Borealis in Nineteenth-Century Arctic Exploration and Science (/isis/citation/CBB001320858/)

Article Guly, Henry; (2012)
Dr. Reginald Koettlitz (1860--1916): Arctic and Antarctic Explorer (/isis/citation/CBB001200783/)

Article Guly, H. R.; (2013)
Scurvy and Other Vitamin Deficiencies during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (/isis/citation/CBB001200831/)

Article Krzysztof Ludwik Birkenmajer; (2017)
Polskie badania polarne (zarys) / Polish Polar Research (Outline) (/isis/citation/CBB963951811/)

Article Marthe Fjellestad; (2022)
Photography in the Arctic Archipelago during the First International Polar Year, 1882–1883 (/isis/citation/CBB131981398/)

Article Zeller, Suzanne; (2014)
Wild Men In and Out of Science: Finding a Place in the Disciplinary Borderlands of Arctic Canada and Greenland (/isis/citation/CBB001450342/)

Thesis Stuhl, Andrew; (2013)
Empires on Ice: Science, Nature, and the Making of the Arctic (/isis/citation/CBB001567488/)

Chapter Ries, Christopher J.; (2012)
Armchairs, Dogsleds, Ships, and Airplanes: Field Access, Scientific Credibility, and Geological Mapping in Northern and North-Eastern Greenland 1900--1939 (/isis/citation/CBB001210271/)

Article Doel, Ronald E.; Friedman, Robert Marc; Lajus, Julia; Sörline, Sverker; Wråkberg, Urban; (2014)
Strategic Arctic Science: National Interests in Building Natural Knowledge---Interwar Era through the Cold War (/isis/citation/CBB001450344/)

Chapter Kontler, László; (2013)
Distances Celestial and Terrestrial. Maximilian Hell’s Arctic Expedition of 1768–1769: Contexts and Responses (/isis/citation/CBB001202275/)

Article Morey, G. B; (1999)
Newton Horace Winchell, the George Armstrong Custer Expedition of 1874, and the “Discovery” of Gold in the Black Hills, Dakota Territory, U. S. A. (/isis/citation/CBB000111716/)

Book Maximilian of Wied, ; Witte, Stephen S.; Gallagher, Marsha V.; (2008)
The North American Journals of Maximilian of Wied (/isis/citation/CBB001023203/)

Thesis Robinson, Michael Frederick; (2002)
The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture, 1850--1910 (/isis/citation/CBB001562504/)

Thesis Thode, Simon; (2013)
The Practices of Observational Science and the Development of the American Nation in the Trans-Appalachian West, 1763--1814 (/isis/citation/CBB001567528/)

Book Inglis, Robin; (2008)
Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Northwest Coast of America (/isis/citation/CBB001033370/)

Thesis Lankford, Kelly Lara; (2003)
Home Only Long Enough: Arctic Explorer Robert E. Peary, American Science, Nationalism, and Philanthropy, 1886--1908 (/isis/citation/CBB001562283/)

Article Krasnikova, O. A.; (2006)
The Academy of Sciences and Arctic Explorations: The Polar Commission, 1914--1936 (/isis/citation/CBB000930319/)