This second volume of William Scoresby's journals contains the unpublished accounts of his three voyages in the Esk in 1814-16. As before, these lengthy journals combine scientific records and social and religious comment as well as detailed descriptions of navigation and whaling. They also continue to demonstrate the competence and confidence of Scoresby which were evident from the moment he assumed command of the Resolution in 1811. However, each of the journals also shows the dangers inherent in what might otherwise seem to be routine annual sailings to the Greenland Sea in latitudes 78 Degrees to 80 Degrees N.

William Scoresby (1789-1857) made his first voyage in the whaler Resolution from Whitby to the Greenland Sea, west of Spitsbergen, in 1800. Three years later he was formally apprenticed to his father and another three years saw him promoted to chief officer. On 5 October 1810, his twenty-first birthday, 'the earliest at which, by reason of age, I could legally hold a command', his father moved to Greenock and another ship, relinquishing the Resolution to his son. Another ten years would see the publication of what has been described as 'one of the most remarkable books in the English language', his two-volume An Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of the Northern Whale-Fishery (1820). Even before he took command of the Resolution, two developments had occurred that, when combined with his seamanship and whaling skill, were to make that book 'the foundation stone of Arctic science' and cause the journals of his annual voyages to be remarkable accounts in their own right. First, Scoresby had studied, during two brief winters at the University of Edinburgh. Teachers such as John Playfair and Robert Jameson had made him aware of the scientific importance of his arctic experience. Together with Sir Joseph Banks, the president of the Royal Society, they encouraged him to observe, experiment and record, and provided opportunities for his data to be published. Secondly, this encouragement, and the study habits he developed at Edinburgh, led Scoresby to expand the logs of his arctic voyages into lengthy journals that contained scientific records and social and religious comment as well as detailed descriptions of navigation and whaling.

This is the third and final volume in the set of William Scoresby's journals. It contains the unpublished accounts of his three voyages 1817, 1818 and 1820. During the years of the voyages in this volume Scoresby's life changed profoundly. An unsuccessful hunt for whales in 1817 led to a break with the Whitby shipowners, and command of the Fame in 1818 in partnership with his father. The partnership was a brief one, and at the end of 1818 Scoresby broke with his father and moved to Liverpool, finding new partners, completing the writing of An Account of the Arctic Regions and watching the construction of his new ship, the Baffin. Meanwhile he suffered a severe financial loss and made a profound religious commitment. After his first summer ashore for many years in 1819, he brought back to Liverpool in 1820 a 'full ship' of seventeen whales, despite being faced by mutineers in the crew who earlier had been involved in piracy in the Caribbean and, apparently, hoped to seize the Baffin 'and convey her and her valuable cargo to a foreign country'. In each of the journals, Scoresby wrote detailed descriptions of his landings: on Jan Mayen in 1817, western Spitsbergen in 1818, and the Langanes peninsula in northeast Iceland in 1820. The 1817 voyage, when Scoresby and others found the Greenland Sea relatively free of ice, involved him in the renewed British interest in arctic maritime exploration after the Napoleonic Wars. The Introduction to this volume contains a major reappraisal of Scoresby's role, especially in regard to his alleged mistreatment by John Barrow, Second Secretary of the Admiralty. The volume also contains an appendix by Fred M. Walker on the building of wooden whaleships such as the Baffin that were capable of routine ice navigation under sail as far north as 80A DegreesN, based on Scoresby's account, as Owners' Representative, at the beginning of the 1820 journal.

Son of an Arctic whaler, William Scoresby (1789-1857) made the first of many voyages to northern latitudes when he was just ten years old. Later a scientist and clergyman, he wrote on a wide range of topics, and his observations on the Arctic prompted further exploration of the region. He published some of his accounts under the generic title 'Memorials of the Sea' (his 1835 notes on murder at sea and on the fate of the Franklin expedition have also been reissued in this series). In this 1851 book, Scoresby recounts the life of his father, also William (1760-1829), from his earliest days to his later life as a prosperous captain and exceptional navigator in the Arctic whale-fisheries, at a time when the industry gave rise to extreme danger but also offered enormous financial rewards. William, Jr's biography is also available in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Son of an Arctic whaler, William Scoresby (1789 1857) made the first of many voyages to northern latitudes when he was just ten years old. Later a scientist and clergyman, he wrote on a wide range of topics, and his observations on the Arctic prompted further exploration of the region. The two works reissued here together draw on his experience of seafaring in difficult conditions. First published in 1835, Memorials of the Sea is coloured by Scoresby's belief in divine providence. He discusses the observance of the Sabbath at sea, and considers the Mary Russell murders of 1828, where a ship's captain killed his crew. Scoresby interviewed the perpetrator himself and draws his own conclusions as to the meaning of the incident. The second work included in this reissue is The Franklin Expedition (1850), drawing together considerations relating to the fate and whereabouts of the missing explorers."

Published between 1839 and 1852, this two-volume work records the contribution of William Scoresby (1789-1857) to magnetic science, a field he considered one of 'grandeur'. The result of laborious investigations into magnetism and (with James Prescott Joule) electromagnetism, Scoresby's work was particularly concerned with improving the accuracy of ships' compasses. A whaler, scientist and clergyman, he epitomised the contribution which could be made to exploration and science by provincial merchant mariners - men often less celebrated than their counterparts in the Royal Navy or in metropolitan learned societies. In addition to his pioneering work on magnetic science, Scoresby furthered knowledge of Arctic meteorology, oceanography and geography. Volume 1 considers the magnetism of steel and suggests ways to determine its quality and hardness.

Published between 1839 and 1852, this two-volume work records the contribution of William Scoresby (1789-1857) to magnetic science, a field he considered one of 'grandeur'. The result of laborious investigations into magnetism and (with James Prescott Joule) electromagnetism, Scoresby's work was particularly concerned with improving the accuracy of ships' compasses. A whaler, scientist and clergyman, he epitomised the contribution which could be made to exploration and science by provincial merchant mariners - men often less celebrated than their counterparts in the Royal Navy or in metropolitan learned societies. In addition to his pioneering work on magnetic science, Scoresby furthered knowledge of Arctic meteorology, oceanography and geography. Volume 2 records Scoresby's investigations into the problem of navigating on iron-built ships, the section on shipwrecks proving just how pressing this was.

William Scoresby junior (1789-1857), explorer, scientist, and later Church of England clergyman, first travelled to the Arctic when he was just ten years old. The son of Arctic whaler and navigator William Scoresby of Whitby, he spent nearly every summer for twenty years at a Greenland whale fishery. He made significant discoveries in Arctic geography, meteorology, oceanography, and magnetism, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1824. First published in 1823, this book recounts Scoresby's voyage to Greenland in the summer of 1822 aboard the Baffin, a whaler of his own design. On this journey, his penultimate voyage to the north, he charted a large section of the coast of Greenland. His narrative also includes descriptions of scientific observations and geographical discoveries made during the voyage, and the appendices includes lists of rock specimens, plants and animal life, and notes on meteorological and other data.

Written by explorer, scientist and later clergyman William Scoresby (1789-1857), this two-volume guide to the Arctic regions was first published in 1820. Scoresby, himself the son of a whaler and Arctic explorer, first sailed to the polar regions at the age of eleven, and was later apprenticed to his father. He became a correspondent of Sir Joseph Banks, and his extensive research on the Arctic area included pioneering work in oceanography, magnetism, and the study of Arctic currents and waves. He surveyed 400 miles of the Greenland coast in 1822. This account was the first book published in Britain which was devoted solely to the whale fisheries. Volume 1 is a general geographical survey of the Arctic region and includes detailed observations of polar ice conditions, atmospherology, and zoology. The book also considers the much-debated question of northern sea communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Written by explorer, scientist and later clergyman William Scoresby (1789-1857), this two-volume guide to the Arctic regions was first published in 1820. Scoresby, himself the son of a whaler and Arctic explorer, first sailed to the polar regions at the age of eleven, and was later apprenticed to his father. He became a correspondent of Sir Joseph Banks, and his extensive research on the Arctic area included pioneering work in oceanography, magnetism, and the study of Arctic currents and waves. He surveyed 400 miles of the Greenland coast in 1822. This account was the first book published in Britain which was devoted solely to the whale fisheries. Volume 2 focuses on the fisheries and includes a history of whaling, the methods used to extract whale oil and prepare whalebone, and the impact of new developments. The book ends with a detailed account of a whaling expedition in 1816.

This work by William Scoresby (1789 1857) was edited by Archibald Smith (1813 1872) and published posthumously in 1859. It is the account of Scoresby's final voyage and last scientific study, which took place between February and August 1856. Scoresby made his Australian voyage on board the Royal Charter, owned by the Liverpool and Australia Steam Navigation Company. He wished to observe the changes that take place in the magnetic state of iron ships travelling on a north-to-south magnetic latitude, and to assess how magnetic changes affect the working of a compass so that he could discover the most reliable location for it on board ship. The first part of the work is an exposition of magnetic principles, followed by the results and conclusions of Scoresby's experiments. The second part contains a travel account of the actual voyage. It is a key work of nineteenth-century navigation science.