The North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle

The weekly magazine of William Parry's Arctic expedition of 1819–20 offers unique insight into nineteenth-century polar exploration.

Edward Sabine (Edited by)

9781108050111, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 June 2012

150 pages, 21 b/w illus.
25.4 x 17.8 x 0.8 cm, 0.27 kg

Alone, months of sailing separating them from home, in the polar winter where the sun never rises, the two ships of Captain William Parry's expedition lay encased in ice from November 1819 to March 1820. In order to fully chart the North-West Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific, it was necessary to overwinter in the Arctic, something that no other British expedition had done before. To boost morale in these uncomfortable circumstances, Captain Edward Sabine (1788–1883), a senior scientist carrying out measurements of natural phenomena, founded and edited a weekly magazine, which ran for twenty-one issues and was made available to the wider world in 1821. Offering jokes, poems, stories and thinly disguised gossip, the members of the expedition contributed to the magazine with enthusiasm (after having first thawed their ink). This little book offers unique insight into what polar exploration in the nineteenth century was actually like.

1. November 1, 1819
2. November 8
3. November 15
4. November 22
5. November 29
6. December 6
7. December 13
8. December 20
9. December 27
10. January 3, 1820
11. January 10
12. January 17
13. January 24
14. January 31
15. February 7
16. February 14
17. February 21
18. February 28
19. March 6
20. March 13
21. March 20.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP]