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National Library News
January 1997
Vol. 29, no. 1



Print on Board: Rare Examples of Shipboard Printing in the Artic

by Elaine Hoag,
Rare Book Bibliographer
,
Research and Information Services

In his account of the second Grinnell expedition to the Arctic in 1854, the surgeon Isaac Hayes wrote: "Never had I appreciated the value of books as I then did ... I had selected from the narrow shelf which held the little library that I had learned to love so well during the last long winter, three small books, which I thrust into my already crowded clothes bag ..." Hayes carried a pocket Bible, David Copperfield, and Tennyson’s In Memoriam for an entire winter on the overland portion of his journey, considering them well worth the extra weight.

image1
Broadside advertising the " Queen's Arctic Philharmonic Society"
(photo: National Archives of Canada)

The value of books on long Arctic voyages was increasingly recognized throughout the nineteenth century, beginning with Captain John Ross’s search for the Northwest Passage in 1818, through Franklin’s final voyage 30 years later, and the dozens of expeditions in search of Franklin that followed. John Ross’s shipboard library consisted of 25 volumes for the officers (chiefly accounts of previous voyages), along with 30 Bibles and 60 New Testaments for the use of the crew. The officers supplemented this common library with their own books. By 1850, Captain William Penny’s ship Sophia was equipped with 80 volumes, while its companion vessel, the Lady Franklin, carried 160 works "for the use of the crew during the winter".

For the greatest enemy during the ice-bound Arctic winter was not frostbite or scurvy or months without sunlight, but boredom; a boredom that in some men caused a debilitating lethargy, in others madness, and in still others rebellion — often with fatal consequences. To counteract boredom, the leader of almost every Arctic expedition instituted a crewman’s "evening school", in which officers tutored their subordinates in reading, writing, arithmetic, and sometimes religion. The lessons were often supplemented by a lecture series on nautical subjects. According to all accounts, the industry of the common seaman and his desire for knowledge were remarkable and gratifying.

On his first journey to the Arctic in 1819 to 1820, Captain William Parry suggested that the officers edit a weekly newspaper for their own amusement during the long winter months. Thus, the North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle was born. Officers contributed articles anonymously and the editor prepared a "fair copy" in manuscript to be passed among the officers and crew. The venture was so successful that supplies of paper and ink dwindled alarmingly. One letter to the editor mentioned that an officer had been caught sneaking out of the storeroom with a package of paper concealed under his jacket! When the ship returned to England in 1821, the North Georgia Gazette was formally published, eliciting such great interest that a second edition was required the following year.

The officers on Captain Horatio Austin’s voyage of 1850 surpassed the North Georgia Gazette by producing two newspapers: an illustrated monthly called the Illustrated Arctic News and a second paper entitled Aurora Borealis. Similarly, during the winter of 1860 to 1861, the men of Isaac Hayes’s ship issued the Port Foulke Weekly News.

On some voyages, the newspapers were not as successful. Lieutenant Joseph Bellot, who served with Captain William Kennedy on an expedition in 1851 to 1852, remarked in his memoirs that he had intended to edit an Arctic newspaper but that the trials of the voyage completely dampened his initiative. Generally, newspapers such as these were produced only in manuscript; the Aurora Borealis and the Illustrated Arctic News, like the North Georgia Gazette, were not published until their authors returned home.

Many shipboard amusements were non-literary, particularly for the common sailor. Sports, along with chess and cards, were preferred. Singing, dancing and music were important, and "theatrical entertainments" were especially popular. As with the first Arctic newspaper, it was Parry who initiated shipboard theatre on a grand scale, complete with scenery and costumes constructed by the men. The plays were so successful that supporters donated costumes and volumes of plays to outfit Parry’s second voyage.

Very few expeditions after Parry’s were without plays and pantomimes, particularly at Christmas. But at least three such Arctic theatres added a special attraction that Parry’s apparently did not: printed playbills announcing upcoming events. For the ships commanded by Penny, Austin, Kellett, Collinson and Belcher — all involved in the search for Franklin between 1850 and 1854 — had been supplied with printing presses and type.

The printing equipment was not intended for recreation. Austin and Collinson recorded that the Admiralty’s Hydrographic Office had supplied the presses to print "balloon papers". Thousands of these "balloon papers", noting the date, ship location, and wind direction at the time of launching, were scattered over the Arctic to inform Franklin of the location of rescue parties. Such papers are akin to the "cylinder papers" and "bottle papers" containing similar facts that were dropped overboard to gather information on currents.

Despite the huge quantity of these small slips of paper, very few were ever recovered and fewer yet are extant. One such message printed on red silk was sold at auction in 1976 for £1 600! The playbills, printed in a few copies only, are equally rare. The Theatre Section of the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library holds three playbills, while the British Library catalogue includes only half a dozen or so printed on expeditions led by Austin (1850 to 1851), Kellett (1852 to 1854), and Belcher (1852 to 1854).

image2
Advertisement for play performance
(photo: National Archives of Canada).

The National Library is exceptionally fortunate to possess two broadsides from the Belcher expedition. Neither is listed in the British Library catalogue or held by the Metropolian Toronto Reference Library. The first broadside advertises a performance held on January 6, 1853 by the "Queen’s Arctic Philharmonic Society", featuring such selections as "Les Adieux à boeuf et bierre", "La valse des baleines" and the "Narwhal polka". It is noted that a crewman will "supply ices gratis" during the performance. The supply was endless! The text is printed in a variety of types below a fine wood engraving of a ship in full sail, with the printer’s name: H. Briant. Briant hinted at the difficulties of printing in the Arctic in his playbill for a performance of Hamlet on December 21, 1852: "The business of the Printing Office is considerably retarded, in consequence of the ink freezing on the rollers — Printers Devil."

The second playbill in the National Library collection advertises the first two plays ever performed on Belcher’s ship. The Irish Tutor and The Silent Woman were presented on November 9, 1852 to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Wales. Belcher himself gives an account of the broadside: "Near the commencement of November, the following play-bill, printed at the Royal Press, on satin, was placed on my table, ordered to lie there, passed three readings, and received due assent ..." It is possible that more than one copy was printed on satin. But if not, then the National Library copy, on satin, is the very copy that lay on Belcher’s desk in November 1852, awaiting his astonished, wholehearted approval.

At the head of the broadside is a finely engraved British royal coat of arms surmounted by a coarsely cut banner reading "The Queen’s Arctic Theatre". The latter appears to be printed from a woodblock separate from the coat of arms. Since such a block would not have been supplied with the type, it was almost certainly cut by one of the seamen, who may also have carved the rough, shadowed woodtype in which the play titles are set. The Illustrated Arctic News records that for playbills printed on Austin’s ship "large type headings as well as ... arms and devices were cut on board by the seamen", so it is not unlikely that Belcher’s men would have done the same.

image3
Broadside for "Song of the Sledge"
(photo: National Archives of Canada).
.

In addition to playbills, a broadside advertising the forthcoming Queen’s Illuminated Magazine and North Cornwall Gazette was printed on Belcher’s Assistance in 1852. In fact, the newspaper itself was printed — probably the first printed newspaper produced on board an Arctic vessel. A list of the officers and men employed in Belcher’s sledging parties in search of Franklin was issued on the same ship in 1854. During Collinson’s voyage (1850 to 1855), an enterprising coxswain named Henry Hester printed a 36-page almanac on blue paper entitled Polar Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1854. The British Library holds copies of all these items. In 1961, the members of Canada’s Polar Continental Shelf Project discovered a printed form, complete with Briant’s imprint, in a metal cylinder inside a cairn on Helena Island. The form, left by Belcher’s crew in 1853, was completed in manuscript, detailing the sledging party’s position, destination, and provisions remaining.

Though Belcher’s voyage appears to have produced the lion’s share of Arctic printing, the National Library also holds a broadside printed on Kellett’s vessel: a prologue composed by one of the officers and recited before the performance of Charles II on board that ship on November 23, 1852. A delicate musical ornament featuring a lyre and trumpet stands at the head of the text, and two display types are used — a Tuscan ornamental face and a sans-serif — in addition to the text type. The prologue is printed on satin.

A number of song broadsides were printed on board Arctic vessels as well, chiefly during Austin’s voyage. In addition to the two playbills produced on Belcher’s ship and the prologue printed on Kellett’s, the National Library holds a songsheet printed in 1851 by a crew member on the Austin expedition. One of the newspapers of that expedition, the Aurora Borealis, states that no one on board knew how to operate the press, but that both the officers and the seamen soon learned, the latter printing their own songs. So popular was this activity that paper became scarce, and the men resorted to printing on chamois, handkerchiefs, and their own shirts. The British Library records broadsides from the Austin voyage printed on yellow, blue and pink paper, linen and wash leather. Such a scarcity of paper is certainly confirmed by the National Library songsheet, which is printed on coarse brown paper, possibly intended as wrapping paper. There are deckle edges and a watermark, however, and the paper is clearly handmade despite its coarseness.

The broadside is dedicated to Captain Austin’s wife "by the authors" and prints the "Song of the Sledge", no. 3 in a series entitled "Songs of the North". The song also appeared in March 1851 in the last issue of the Illustrated Arctic News, the final item in that journal. The last line of the broadside reads: "J. Beauchamp, printer, Arctic regions, 1851". Indeed, in the spring of 1851, seamen from the Austin and Penny expeditions carried on a joint land search by sledge. Perhaps the "Song of the Sledge" was sung to relieve the monotony of that trek.

These uncommonly rare and interesting broadsides form part of a large collection of Arctic materials held by the National Library of Canada. The collection can be consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room, and a bibliographical research guide is available.


Copyright. The National Library of Canada. (Revised: 1998-02-10).