Background and literary influences

Dr William Gordon Stables was born on 21 May 1837 in Aberchider, Scotland, a small village 40 miles west of the whaling port of Peterhead (Lee, Reference Lee1912, p. 375) (Fig. 1). Gordon Stables (the name he used as an author) came from a modest background, his father having been occupied in several trades, as an innkeeper, merchant and farmer (National Motor Museum Trust, 2017). Little is known of his childhood, except that as a youngster he developed a fond interest in nature and wildlife as well as a desire to travel, interests he would carry for the rest of his life. As a young man he enrolled at the University of Aberdeen seeking a degree in theology, but ultimately turned his attention to medicine and graduated in April 1862 with a Bachelor of Medicine (M.D.) and a Master of Surgery (M. Ch.) (Stables, Reference Stables1908a, p. 432).

Fig. 1.

Dr William Gordon Stables. Courtesy of the National Motor Museum Trust.

While still in medical school, at the age of twenty, he acquired his first taste of the Arctic when he joined as surgeon (i.e. physician) aboard a Greenland whaler (350 tons) sailing from Peterhead bound for Davis Strait. Service aboard whalers was a relatively common practice among medical students, who were enticed by the pay and experience (Ross, Reference Ross1985, p. 29). Perhaps the most famous medical student to sail with the Peterhead whaling fleet was the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who sailed in 1880 on a whaleship to the waters off the east coast of Greenland (Doyle, Reference Doyle1897, Reference Doyle1924). Life on a whaleship exposed both Stables and Doyle to a brutal and dangerous occupation in wild and far-flung regions at an impressionable age. Doyle would subsequently draw upon his Arctic whaling experience for two fictional stories: The Captain of the Pole-Star, and the Sherlock Holmes tale The Adventure of Black Peter (Lellenberg & Stashower, Reference Lellenberg and Stashower2012, pp. 305, 315). For Stables, the experience was certainly perilous and would have tested his nascent medical skills. In later reminiscences, he claimed that his ship was stove by an iceberg and nearly lost. The crew suffered under reduced rations for six weeks and three men died (Stables, Reference Stables1908a, p. 432). Undeterred by his first experience of Arctic whaling, the following season he sailed on a second, larger whaling ship.

For a young man never far from home, the natural wonders of the Arctic left a deep impression, and its many features, so different from the daily experiences in the growing industrialised cities or even the more peaceful countryside, would be repeated in many of his stories. Despite the harsh circumstances under which he laboured, Stables relished his time in the far north. In his own words, he tried to acquaint himself “with everything which it is necessary for a perfect iceman to know” (Stables, Reference Stables1908a, p. 432). That thorough knowledge would serve as the background to more than fourteen novels with a prominent Arctic setting.

Not surprisingly, Peterhead whalers would also feature regularly in Stables’ Arctic stories. Peterhead served as an important Arctic whaling centre for more than a hundred years, from 1788 through 1893 (Gorman, Reference Gorman2002). By the time Stables was introduced to the Greenland whaling trade in 1859–60, over-harvesting had greatly reduced the whale population. Whaling was always a dangerous business, but voyages had become more hazardous due to the necessity of travelling to the less exploited northern reaches of Davis Strait and even the ice-choked waters of Baffin Bay in search of prey. With the scarcity of whales, captains turned to sealing in the Greenland Sea off the east coast of Greenland, which opened up another short-lived trade through the 1860s (Gorman, Reference Gorman2002). Whalers often pursued seals in the Greenland Sea at the start of their voyages and thereafter moved to Davis Strait in pursuit of whales, a theme repeated in Stables’ Arctic stories.

Stables claimed that a roving instinct and the adventure novels of Captain Frederick Marryat (1792–1848) inspired a passion for the sea that ultimately led to his service in the Royal Navy (Stables, Reference Stables1868, p. 1). After graduating from medical school in 1862, Stables obtained a commission as an assistant surgeon in the Royal Navy. He served on several ships in the Cape of Good Hope and East Indian Ocean Station through 1865, including service aboard a small gunboat steamer that cruised the coast of east Africa in search of slave-traders. Exposure to some of the cruellest inhumanities along remote and lawless shores had a profound influence on his humanitarian outlook (National Archives, 1871).

Initial literary contributions, 1868–1881

While still serving in the Royal Navy, Stables’ thoughts turned to a potential literary career, inspired by his own youthful adventures. His naval experiences led him to publish a candid narrative of his service in 1868, entitled Medical life in the navy (Stables, Reference Stables1868). The work was critical of a class system that favoured birth status for officers and it presented an unflattering opinion of their attitude and conduct. The publication hindered any prospect of naval advancement on Stables’ part. Discouraged with the service, in 1870 he retired on half-pay, never rising above the rank of assistant surgeon (National Archives, 1871). Thereafter, he served two adventurous years in the merchant service, during which time he claimed to have circumnavigated the world on at least two occasions (Lee, Reference Lee1912, p. 375). He encountered peoples and experiences from across the globe that would help to expand his growing subject range of future literary topics.

By 1875, Stables had fully committed himself to a career in writing. His timing coincided with the rapid growth in youth-oriented publications during the late 19th century. The recognition that adolescents constituted a distinct audience, coupled with technological advances in publishing that reduced book and magazine prices for the masses, and an improved literacy rate among the young, created a market opportunity for publishers (Dunae, Reference Dunae and Richards1989, p. 13). Adventure stories set in unknown and exotic lands became a mainstay of publishers of both novels and periodicals. The science fiction writer Jules Verne, in particular, was fascinated by the exploring activities in the polar regions and authored more than ten novels with polar themes. Although he was an “arm-chair” explorer, Verne’s works were praised for their authentic depictions of life in the polar regions (Riffenburgh, Reference Riffenburgh1991, p. 239). However, with regards to juvenile stories of the far north, Stables shares more in common with the author Robert M. Ballantyne. Besides sharing a common Scottish heritage, as impressionable young men both Ballantyne and Stables had experienced the harsh nature of life and work in the wilderness while engaged in commercial enterprises. Ballantyne was employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company at primitive posts in the untamed region of the Canadian North. His personal familiarity with the conduct of the fur trade, its participants, both native and non-native, and wilderness adventure and survival, enabled him to provide vivid narratives of the northern Canadian wilds in two of his earliest works: Hudson’s Bay; or every-day life in the wilds of North America (1848) and Snowflakes and sunbeams; or, the young fur traders (1856).

In the case of Gordon Stables, his initial efforts at juvenile adventure stories consisted of two works with similar themes: Jungle, peak and plain: a boy’s adventures (Stables, Reference Stables1877) and Wild adventures in wild places (Stables, Reference Stables1881). Both works featured a Scottish teenager’s derring-do in exotic locations throughout the world, including the Arctic. Stables was a proud Scotsman through and through. From his first to his last work, the main characters in his children’s books would almost always be of Scottish descent and they were typically accompanied by a loyal canine companion of a Scottish or Newfoundland breed (Graham, Reference Graham2006, p. 32).

Jungle, peak and plain features young Lovat (the namesake of Stables’ own son), who sails on a pleasure cruise through the icy seas from Labrador to Siberia as a guest of Captain Wilson, a friend of Lovat’s grandfather. The reader learns little of the main character other than his wide-eyed amazement with the northern regions while journeying on Captain Wilson’s ice-fortified yacht and by sledge. Even in Stables’ earliest stories, however, the Arctic serves to cultivate manly character. Young Lovat kills his first polar bear (while being coaxed to prove himself “a man”) and singlehandedly fends off an attack by a wolf pack (Stables, Reference Stables1877, p. 29) (Fig. 2). Without a real story line though, the work is a somewhat plodding tale of Arctic sport hunting, and hair-breadth escapes from marauding bears, wolves, and other would-be predators. Stables kept a close eye on current happenings in the Arctic and was well aware that by the 1870s Arctic voyages by wealthy amateur adventurers travelling in their own private yachts for sport and adventure were not uncommon. Adventurers such as the Marquis of Dufferin and his wife, Ava, as well as Sir James Lamont and Benjamin Leigh Smith, had demonstrated that the Arctic regions, hitherto the domain of solely the whaler and professional explorer, were now accessible to the gentleman traveller. Dufferin’s Letters from high latitudes presented a lively, almost comically easy, pleasure voyage to Jan Mayen and Spitsbergen and could have served as an inspiration for Stables.

Fig. 2.

Confronted by a row of wolves. Illustration from Jungle, peak and plain.

Wild adventures in wild places, the exploits of another Scottish lad, Frank Willoughby, offers a similar theme but with more descriptive elements that include a whaling setting. Young Frank departs for a “hardening off” venture around the world to prove to his father that he is mature enough to marry his love interest. The Arctic portion of Frank’s adventures recount his sealing and whaling service aboard a Greenland whaler, the Grampus, which plies the Greenland Sea for seals before entering Davis Strait in search of whales. Although the tale includes staples of Arctic adventure, namely dangerous encounters with bears and walruses, and besetment and shipwreck in the pack, Stables is far more in his element, and his narrative recounts the finer details of whaling and sealing in the Arctic seas, told by a knowledgeable narrator, all of which make for a more realistic story.

Stables’ strengths as a writer were his vivid descriptions of the natural history and natural wonders of the northern regions, coupled with detailed depictions of the whaling and sealing trade, highlighted, at times, by the introduction of its own distinctive vernacular. In the several chapters devoted to the subject, Stables managed to introduce the reader to all the striking aspects of the Arctic, including the splendour of the Aurora Borealis, mountainous icebergs, the long, dark winters and the unique and unfamiliar wildlife such as the narwhal, walrus and polar bear. In the Arctic novel, the landscape and the seascape serve to provide some of the most breathtaking features of the story, and Stables used them to strong effect to maintain the fascination of his readership (David, Reference David2000, p. 201). Other writers of juvenile literature had described the wonders of the Arctic, but Stables spoke directly to the reader as an eye-witness to the scenes he described, often in the first person, establishing an intimate connection to his audience. Describing the sublime nature of the Arctic regions and its awe-inspiring but ominous character, in Wild adventures he wrote: “Reader, I have been alone in the ice-fields by night, while the Aurora was playing in the Heavens above. You cannot conceive of the solitude and lonesomeness of such a situation, nor can you form any conception of the deep, the indescribable silence that reigns in the frozen ocean” (Stables, Reference Stables1881, p. 40).

Stables was also a keen observer of wildlife, and his writings offered extensive commentary regarding Arctic marine mammals and birds. He believed strongly that the best means to learn natural history was to observe it personally (Stables, Reference Stables1883, p. 214). For example, commenting on the remarkable swimming abilities of seals he wrote: “No work on natural history, so far as my reading goes, remarks upon the exceedingly great speed exhibited by the Greenland seal in his flight - it is in reality a flight - through and beneath the water. I have often been astonished by the rapidity of their movements; so swiftly do they dart along that the eye can barely follow them for the moment or two they are visible” (Stables, Reference Stables1883, p. 202). Press accounts as to Stables’ early works of adventure noted that the “greatest charm about these ‘yarns’ is that they are so true to nature that they read like real experiences” (Academy, 1883).

One topic in particular though, Stables’ aversion to animal cruelty and his abiding passion for animal welfare, flows unrestrained. Stables’ juvenile stories are unique in their depiction of the savageness of the commercial seal hunt, often describing half-drunken sailors marching to the sealing grounds wielding guns and battle-axes (clubs) and killing seals by the thousands. Stables recalled that “the work of death was carried on with an earnestness and energy that was terrible to behold. Indeed, a kind of madness to shed blood seemed to take possession of every man on the ice. There was no thought but to slay. The excitement was intense - awful in its intensity” (Stables, Reference Stables1881, p. 41). Stables exposed the cruelties carried out by these hunters: skinning seals while still alive and enticing mothers to the surface by abusing their screaming pups, among others. Although sympathetic to the plight of ships’ captains and crews and their need to support themselves and their families, his characters were revolted and shaken by witnessing the slaughter, particularly that of young seals (Stables, Reference Stables1883, p. 139). With his own sealing days well behind him, Stables became outspoken regarding abuses in the sealing industry, writing: “[b]elieve me when I tell you these cruelties are very great, and believing this, if ever you have an opportunity of voting for a bill or signing a petition to get poor Greenland seals fair play, I know you will” (Stables, Reference Stables1883, p. 139). At a time when little heed was given to conservation, Stables became an early and zealous advocate of animal welfare. He was a member of animal protection leagues and published a number of works reflecting the proper care and treatment of domestic animals, and was a firm believer that loving care towards animals served to teach kindness towards fellow humans (Graham, Reference Graham2006, p. 36; Stables, Reference Stables1895a, p. 258).

Notwithstanding his opposition to animal cruelty, Stables found nothing contradictory in the widespread sport hunting in which his characters engaged. Stables wrote that “there is something of the savage in all our natures, that shooting big game is so exciting and pleasant to us all” (Stables, Reference Stables1895b, p. 165). The primary animal killed for sport was the polar bear, that fearsome predator of the North, an act that symbolically demonstrated man’s mastery over nature. Similarly, a frequent “coming of age” scene in Stables’ stories is a young man engaging in his first polar bear kill, to “prove himself a man.” The polar bear held the top position in the big game hierarchy of Arctic trophy hunting and its subjugation served as an undeniable exercise in masculinity (Aarekol, Reference Aarekol2016, p.133). Although a youth could be a skillful and competent hunter in his Scottish homeland, bagging a polar bear was a much more difficult and dangerous undertaking. The act was generally approached with fear and trepidation, and peer pressure from old-time crewmembers to be successful could be immense. There were limits to sport hunting, however, as Stables found it morally wrong to kill a mother bear with cubs or a seal with pups and it was bad luck to kill an ivory-gull, to hunt on Sunday or to otherwise engage in acts of “wantonness” or cruelty.

The Boy’s Own Paper

In 1880, Stables began a lifelong association with The Boy’s Own Paper (or the BOP), published by the Religious Tract Society starting in 1879. Stables became a staff member and regular contributor to the BOP for almost 30 years. The Boy’s Own Paper was designed to offer “healthy” and instructive content to a growing juvenile readership and to counter the perceived harmful influence of the so-called “penny dreadfuls” (Noakes, Reference Noakes, Cantor, Dawson, Gooday, Noakes, Shuttleworth and Topham2004, p. 151). However, to do so successfully, the editors of the BOP recognised that to maintain the interest of young boys required more than Christian moralising, so it featured entertaining and appealing stories, including tales of adventure from popular writers such as Jules Verne, R.M. Ballantyne and, of course, Gordon Stables. The first full-length contribution by Stables to the BOP was The cruise of the ‘Snowbird,’ a story of Arctic adventure, first published serially in 11 issues of the BOP in 1881. Stables considered The cruise of the Snowbird his “first literary success and [his] first real book.” According to Stables, with its publication he first made his “bow to the British public as a literary man” (Stables, Reference Stables1908b, p. 719). In this Arctic-themed story, Stables develops his characters and his storyline in a manner consistent with the BOP’s aim. The hero is Allan McGregor, a teenager who lives with his widowed mother and his sister in the once magnificent but now aging castle of Arrandoon in the Scottish Highlands. Stables’ heroes are often poor and downtrodden, from modest rural backgrounds, and young Allan was no exception. His family could barely make ends meet. Hunting and fishing are not merely sport for Allan, but a means of survival. The proud boy burns with the desire to improve his family’s fortunes and restore his homestead to its former self.

Allan’s foster father, McBain, a veteran of the Arctic seas, seeks to confirm the legendary story of a Norwegian sealer who had visited the mythical Isle of Alba located in the “open sea” that exists beyond the northern ice-barrier surrounding the North Pole and its treasure of mammoth ivory (Stables, Reference Stables1882, p. 41). Allan, McBain and crew face harrowing dangers from stormy weather, attacks by pirates and wild animals, and even a narrow escape from a forest fire. The whaling trade is ever present in this tale, and in a particularly tragic scene, the crew of the Snowbird rescues a few badly injured survivors from a whaleboat that had been smashed by a harpooned whale (Stables, Reference Stables1882, p. 202). Stables exaggerated when he claimed that “every sentence from my books was written from life”; however, it was certainly true that he did not spare his readers the horrors and dangers of the northern seas (Stables, Reference Stables1908b, p. 719). Although Stables presented a romantic image of the Arctic, with its untamed and magnificent natural features that fascinated his young readers, it was also a realistic portrayal that highlighted the ever-present risk of death, a fact of which he frequently reminded his youthful audience.

Although neither the lost island of Alba nor its treasure was located, Stables offered some moralising that exceeded the desire for any pecuniary reward: Allan gains “health and strength and strong mind from the voyage.” With The cruise of the Snowbird, Stables became more expressive in his appeals to “manliness” and the virtues of physical conduct in shaping manhood in the demanding Arctic regions. Stables’ approach drew upon the popular late-19th century theme that the ideal of manly character was built upon masculinity, physical exertion and courage, and moral virtue (Robinson, Reference Robinson2006, p. 124). To Stables, the northern wilderness was the ideal environment “to brace the nerve and steel the muscles” (Stables, Reference Stables1882, p. 224). A young Scottish Highlander was particularly suited to this environment, as an outdoor way of life had “accustomed [him] from his very infancy to face every danger” (Stables, Reference Stables1882, p. 12). In The cruise of the Snowbird, Allan faces several life-threatening encounters on his road to maturity. Although his responses to these situations often reflect outright acts of courage, they also serve as lessons in prudent judgment for the benefit of Stables’ readers. In perhaps the most dangerous episode, Allan unwisely kills one of several polar bears without enough ammunition to shoot the others, who turn on him. However, he exercises clear-headedness to save himself by throwing off his coat as a distraction (Stables, Reference Stables1882, p. 316). Unlike the mature and resourceful characters of Jules Verne, who apply their scientific knowledge to conquer their environment, Stables’ youthful characters do not typically exhibit superior powers of intelligence or apply scientific know-how to save the day. They are far from perfect and, on occasion, like Allan and his polar bear encounter, suffer mistakes from youthful inexperience. However, an overriding and hardy sense of righteousness, presence of mind and bravery ultimately serve to overcome any challenges they encounter.

Besides longer serialised contributions to the BOP, Stables also delivered regular features for the magazine under the heading “Doings for Boys” and “Advice to Growing Lads,” which similarly encouraged a physical approach to “manliness” through strenuous athletics, good health and hygiene, together with moral and ethical guidance (cold water baths and open windows when sleeping, for example, were common suggestions). Through the occasional shorter vignettes of 1–3 pages, Stables maintained the Arctic as a topic of interest for his readers through his own recollections of his service in the far north, offering descriptions of such things as his sufferings from seasickness, the miserable weather and the excitement of the seal hunt (Stables, Reference Stables1886a, pp. 38–41, Reference Stables1896, pp. 486–487).

Pleased with his tale of the Snowbird’s cruise, Stables published a sequel entitled Wild adventures around the Pole, or the cruise of the ‘Snowbird’ crew in the ‘Arrandoon.’ Like many of Stables’ stories, Wild adventures was first published as a serialised novel in 25 issues of the BOP between October 1881 and May 1882. In it, the heroes of the Snowbird plan another attempt to the far north in search of the treasure of Alba. Among the more prominent features introduced by Stables is the use of a hydrogen balloon for “the first great trip over the regions of perpetual snow” (Stables, Reference Stables1883, p. 69) (Fig. 3). The Arrandoon stops at the infrequently visited island of Jan Mayen, located between Greenland and the Norwegian Sea. Stables provides a graphic picture of this desolate and infrequently visited island, with its most striking geological feature Beerenberg, a volcanic cone rising 6000 feet and visible for miles. The balloon makes a daring flight, carrying Allan and two companions into the volcanic crater. They alight for a spelunking excursion, in a scene reminiscent of Verne’s Journey to the centre of the earth.

Fig. 3.

The Great Balloon Ascent. Illustration from Wild adventures.

From Jan Mayen, the Arrandoon falls in with a Scottish sealer, Canny Scotia, and much of the narrative follows the events of the Canny Scotia and a complete lesson on the finer details of the sealing trade. Similar in style to Melville’s description of the whaling industry, Stables takes the reader through a thorough study of all aspects of the sealing industry, from ship construction, ice navigation, equipment and tactics, even dispelling some common misconceptions. Borrowing even more liberally from Melville, an old hand from the Canny Scotia recounts his eyewitness tale of the death of “the great white whale” off the coast of Spitsbergen (Stables, Reference Stables1883, p. 174). Their balloon alights with a crew of three and finally manages to reach the Pole. In a nationalistic stroke, they plant the British flag and afterwards deliver a heartfelt chorus of God save the Queen. Wild adventures is a classic Stables adventure story. A Scottish lad “comes of age” in a physical world, displaying fearlessness and cool-headed judgement under dangerous circumstances in the wilds of the Arctic regions.

Stables often borrowed from real-life events to shape his Arctic stories. Balloon ascents played a prominent role in Wild adventures, not surprising given that the ballooning craze was then at its height. However, the idea of balloon flight to the North Pole was not so far-fetched as may be imagined by Stables’ fictional narrative. British Commander John Pewles Cheyne (1827–1902), who had served in several Arctic expeditions in search of the lost navigator Sir John Franklin and his crew, had his own thoughts on the use of balloons for Arctic service. In the late 1870s, Cheyne was lecturing on the use of balloons as a means of exploring the Arctic and had devised his own plan to reach the North Pole with a hydrogen balloon. In 1880, the year before Snowbird first appeared in print, he presented his idea of a polar balloon flight to the Royal Geographical Society (Cheyne, Reference Cheyne1880). Unfortunately, Cheyne’s aeronautical dreams never got off the ground. Coincidentally however, in 1897, well after the publication of Stables’ narrative, the Swede Salomon August Andrée and two others did make an attempt on the Pole by balloon from Spitsbergen. Unfortunately, the trip ended in disaster, with all three members dying on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago after their balloon fell to earth shortly after takeoff (Holland, Reference Holland1994, p. 402).

The BOP was immensely popular and highly influential in shaping the perceptions of its young audience. In 1884, it reported a circulation of 57,000 weekly copies and 90,000 monthly copies, making it one of the most popular juvenile publications of the late Victorian era (Noakes, Reference Noakes, Cantor, Dawson, Gooday, Noakes, Shuttleworth and Topham2004, p. 152; Wright, Reference Wright1999, p. 61). Its actual readership was substantially greater, however, as it was distributed to numerous educational and religious institutions, and single issues would have been shared among multiple readers. The BOP was also a finely illustrated magazine. With its serialised approach to adventure stories, Stables’ readers could be presented with at least one attention-grabbing image in each issue (some full page), far more than generally featured in his books. As such, BOP’s high-quality engravings served to reinforce and give life to the storyline and characters. As to those aspects of the Arctic so graphically described in Stables’ narratives, the images helped to further enhance impressions of the northern regions through a visual medium. Those Arctic images tended to dramatically highlight perilous situations or the harsh environment within which men and ships operated, natural history, and stunning natural features (Fig. 4). Stables was fastidious in his attention to accuracy in his illustrations, once remarking to his publisher that “I am an Arctic sailor out and out and if blunders were made either as to ships or ice … I should wish the man, the artist, had nine lives like a cat that I might take them one by one” (Stables, Reference Stables1904a).

Fig. 4.

Aurora Borealis. Illustration from Wild adventures.

The importance of the BOP in shaping young minds cannot be underestimated. In terms of its influence, an 1888 study concluded that one of the most common means for juveniles to obtain information on historical, scientific or naturalistic subjects was through the BOP (Noakes, Reference Noakes, Cantor, Dawson, Gooday, Noakes, Shuttleworth and Topham2004, p. 151). As it pertains to the Arctic, that was not necessarily surprising, because classroom education and history textbooks of the time offered scant information about the Arctic regions and its history, as the geographical emphasis was on areas of ongoing imperial activity, such as Africa, India and Australia (David, Reference David2000, p. 187).

Besides being a frequent contributor to the BOP, Gordon Stables was also among the most popular of BOP authors. An 1899 survey of BOP readers voted Stables their “favourite author” (placing him ahead of even Jules Verne) (Stables, Reference Stables1907b). Stables enjoyed a wide readership and his regularly featured Arctic tales in the BOP served as perhaps the principal source by which large numbers of youthful readers gained their understanding of life and work in the far north. Consistent with the BOP’s purpose, those readers would have also learned a path to adulthood through practical self-reliance, resourcefulness and courage (Graham, Reference Graham2006, p. 32).

Later writings, 1881–1906

The humanitarian effort in search of Sir John Franklin during the mid-1800s had captured the public’s fascination with the Arctic, and had established the Arctic in the national consciousness (Loomis, Reference Loomis, Knoepflmacher and Tennyson1977, p. 95). Taking advantage of that interest, the first few Arctic stories of Jules Verne, published between 1855 and 1866 (A Winter amid the ice (1855), The English at the North Pole (1864) and The field of ice (1866)), featured a Franklin-related theme. By the late 1870s, when Stables delivered his first Arctic-themed novel, Franklin and the Franklin search had faded from the public’s attention and do not feature prominently in Stables’ works. However, other sources of inspiration for Stables’ writings had emerged. During the late 19th century, a spirit of nationalism had motivated European countries and the United States to enter the polar arena for purposes of research and exploration. As a result, scientific research and geographical exploration, including the discovery of the North Pole, feature frequently in Stables’ later writings. British pluck and supremacy become common themes. In Stables’ North Pole treks, it is typically a Briton who is the first to succeed. Similarly, encounters with Europeans or Americans invariably end with the British carrying the day, whether competing for whales or seals, or in direct, physical confrontations.

Stables demonstrated only a limited interest in tales of the southern polar regions. His few Antarctic tales, such as From Pole to Pole (Reference Stables1886b) and Courage, true hearts (Reference Stables1898), typically comprised one aspect of an adventure novel set in multiple locations. Even his one full-length southern tale, The Great White Land. A tale of the Antarctic Ocean (Reference Stables1903b), commences with a typical whaling and sealing adventure in the Arctic and progresses to an exploratory expedition to the Antarctic, culminating in a dash to the South Pole. Stables was well versed in the writings of the Antarctic explorers, and he referred directly to their discoveries and observations, including those of Captain James Cook, Sir James Clark Ross, and Adrien de Gerlache. In both The Great White Land and Courage, true hearts, his southbound explorers follow in the tracks of the earlier explorers and reference actual geographical place names discovered by them (i.e. Kerguelen Island, Enderby Land, Victoria Land and Wilkes Land). As such, his Antarctic-themed narratives are crafted more from his readings than from his own personal experiences. Those writings reflect more of an educational tone, offering encyclopedic descriptions of the geography, natural history and the history of exploration of the southern polar regions, without the same level of personal familiarity and reflection that define his northern descriptions. However, there is a commonality in the writings, in that the storylines often encompass the same activities as in the Arctic, namely exploratory voyages, or whaling and sealing activities, and offer lively plots designed to maintain the interest of the reader, with risky episodes and the usual escapes from death. Ironically, in contrast to the North Pole, which is typically land-based, Stables’ South Pole lies amidst a sea of ice, with no land within 50 miles (Stables, Reference Stables1903b, pp. 255–257).

During the late 1800s, Stables continued to deliver northern tales, and with the frequency of such stories he was pressed to maintain a diversity of storylines and northern locales. For example, Exiles in fortune: a tale of a far north land, used Alaska and the Aleutian Islands for its setting at the time of the transfer to the United States in 1865 (Stables, Reference Stables1889). A young man, Godfrey Dennis, in a fit of jealousy, injures his closest friend and, thinking him dead, runs away to the wilds of Alaska. It may have been a new storyline and locale, but the work is a rather tedious and lengthy narrative of a boat journey along the Alaskan coast, without the standard level of activity, and which was rightly criticised for “not much incident” (Spectator, 1889, p. 853). However, the interaction between the Europeans and the indigenous peoples reflects a common approach by Stables to the depiction of the Inuit. Stables’ Inuit served as competent guides and hunters, and would defend the lives of Europeans with undying loyalty, but they largely occupied a support role to their European employers. In Exiles in fortune and several other northern stories, the Inuit are presented as “noble savages,” and characterised as “children” who are by nature peaceful, trustworthy and kind, but impressionable, and only learn bad habits from Europeans (Stables, Reference Stables1895b, p. 203, 212, Reference Stables1889, pp. 271–272, Reference Stables1903a, pp. 254, 294, Reference Stables1907a, p. 238). Although their uncleanliness offended Victorian sensibilities, Stables’ European characters are strikingly complimentary about Inuit skills at kayaking, hunting and fishing with crude implements, fashioning clothing and building shelters, and otherwise coping with survival in their harsh environs, even commenting that “there was a good deal to be learned from [the Inuit]” (Stables, Reference Stables1895b, p. 213, Reference Stables1889, p. 274, Reference Stables1907a, p. 238). On the other hand, the European “implements of civilization” are portrayed as being far superior, and in a struggle between two cultures, white men would always prevail (Stables, Reference Stables1889, pp. 274–275, Reference Stables1882, p. 338). Historian Robert David has examined this cultural “paradox” present in Victorian juvenile novels that these “uncivilized” natives could be so successful at survival in the unforgiving Arctic environment (David, Reference David2000, pp. 208–209). In contrast to the more friendly and helpful Inuit, the “Indians” of Stables’ Arctic tales, who make occasional appearances, are viewed far less favourably and are generally hostile. Stables provides few details as to the nature, language, or background of these Indians, except to suggest that their hostility may arise from the loss of their lands to white men (Stables, Reference Stables1904b, p. 107). Although individuals could be loyal and “trusty” in support of their European companions, they are more often “savages” bent on death. In several stories, the Europeans must fend off Indian antagonists who would “spare no cruelty” to gain their ends and would go so far as to kidnap young Inuit and take them as slaves (Stables, Reference Stables1889, p. 365).

Stables followed Exiles in fortune with From Greenland’s icy mountains, a tale of the polar sea (Reference Stables1892), a rather gloomy “coming of age” tale of disaster and determination. Young Sidney Connel, a Scottish lad from an impoverished family with a continually drunken father, leaves home to apprentice aboard a Peterhead sealing ship, the Phoca. The tale is written largely in the form of Sidney’s log, a device used by Stables to added effect to give a first-hand sense of realism to the story. Disaster befalls the ship when it burns and sinks in the ice north and west of Jan Mayen, and the crew is cast away in the pack in three small boats (Fig. 5). Notably, Stables borrows from real-life disaster, as their harrowing retreat mirrors that of the crew of the Jeannette discovery expedition that was crushed in the ice north of Siberia in 1881, and also forced to retreat in three small boats. Of the Jeannette crew, nine members lost their lives on the boat voyage. A worse fate befalls the Phoca, as half of its crewmen are lost on the southwards voyage.

Fig. 5.

The Phoca in flames. Illustration from Greenland’s icy mountains.

The discovery ship also features in a slightly different story penned by Stables, Crusoes of the frozen north. The tale marked a departure by Stables in that it is written for children under the age of twelve, an audience younger than his traditional juvenile readership. It is even more unusual in that, unlike his typically male dominated tales, two of the principal characters are young girls, aged eight and eleven. The girls stow away on a discovery ship and are cast away on an island in the frozen North with their two adolescent male cousins (Stables, Reference Stables1901). The Robinson Crusoe theme was a common storyline in adventure stories, and consistent with that storyline, the male cousins exhibit resourcefulness and self-reliance in taming their surroundings by procuring food and shelter and fending off wild animals to survive an overwintering. In the Crusoe genre, domestic chores such as home-making and cooking occupied a prominent role, even though they were incompatible with 19th century notions of manliness. In contrast to the manly, physical conduct exhibited by the boys, the two young girls are occupied solely with the domestic activities, and are completely dependent upon their male protectors. Crusoes of the frozen north is Stables’ most extreme example of coming of age, as the two boys must make do completely on their own for survival, with no mentor to provide guidance or assistance.

Stables continued with, and expanded upon, the subject of a discovery ship in several adventures. The more developed storylines reflect a movement away from Stables’ earlier stories of youthful coming of age or “hardening off” voyages, in which the Arctic served as a manly proving ground to maturity. In these discovery ship stories, an experienced adult character is placed in a role of authority and handles significant responsibilities, often a ship in the Arctic seas, and the story features competent decision-making under dangerous circumstances. For example, in Under the Northern Lights, a tale of love and heroism, twenty-year-old Claude Alwyn’s northern sailing experience and brilliant writings on the “mysterious regions” of the north bring him to the attention of the scientist Professor Hodson, who entrusts Claude with the command of the exploring ship Icebear (Stables, Reference Stables1886c). The exploring expedition travels the west coast of Greenland and does what most scientific expeditions do: dredges the seabed, maps and surveys, collects specimens and identifies new species of fauna and flora. Stables had his own opinions on how ships’ captains should command, and was heavily influenced by his service in the Royal Navy, during which he concluded that individuals in positions of authority could be unfriendly, arbitrary and despotic. Claude Alwyn advises his first mate that he will be “a kind and considerate captain” (Stables, Reference Stables1886c, p. 107). Alwyn is the ideal commander, with the ability to maintain the discipline of his men, but with a gentle hand that holds their respect even after many hardships.

Stables continued with the discovery expedition storyline with a tale that closely paralleled real-life events every bit as dramatic as his fictional novels. In the late 19th century, no Arctic figure was more popular than the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen. In 1888, Nansen achieved one of the great geographical firsts, the crossing of Greenland’s ice cap, a feat that in one stroke propelled him to worldwide fame (Nansen, Reference Nansen1890). In 1895, two years following Nansen’s departure on his expedition to reach the North Pole, Stables sought to profit from Nansen’s enduring fame and penned a tale drawn largely from life. To Greenland and the Pole was based on Nansen’s successful crossing of Greenland in 1888, with a closing centred on Nansen’s North Pole attempt in the Fram, which was then in progress (Nansen, Reference Nansen1897).

In the first expedition covered by To Greenland and the Pole a 15-year old Scottish boy, Colin M’Ivor, his Norwegian friend Olaf Ranna and a team of four others retrace Nansen’s excursion on skis, traversing the world’s largest island at a slightly higher latitude than Nansen. In a break from Stables’ typical character portrayals, it is Olaf, the Norwegian, and not Colin, the Scotsman, who is the more impressive youth. In Olaf, Stables creates a figure in the likeness of Nansen. Olaf is thoroughly knowledgeable on Arctic natural history, an excellent hunter and an expert skier, and it is Olaf’s skiing savvy that serves as the means for crossing the Greenland ice cap. The organiser of the Greenland crossing, however, is Captain Reynolds, who also commands the second expedition to the North Pole. The surgeon for that expedition is Rudland Syme. Both names are borrowed by Stables from real life, a common feature used in his narratives to establish a connection to actual events and participants. Rudland Syme derives his name from John Cleves Symmes, the eccentric proponent of the hollow earth theory, and Captain Reynolds takes his name from Jeremiah Reynolds, the newspaper-man proponent of Symmes’ theory and the ensuing United States Exploring Expedition commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes between 1838 and 1842. Captain Reynolds’ discovery ship is a 400-ton barque, Fear Not, which will float among the Arctic currents and drift across the North Pole, in the same manner as Nansen’s Fram. At the many lectures and talks that Reynolds delivers, his audience of scientific and common folk echo the same criticisms as those of Nansen, calling Reynolds’ idea “the phantom of a mind diseased” (Stables, Reference Stables1895b, p. 243). Nonetheless, Reynolds, like Nansen, perseveres.

Unlike the Fram, after a long struggle with “paleocrystic” ice, the embattled crew of the Fear Not reach the North Pole. On their return, the Fear Not is beset in the ice and crushed, the crew taking to boats, then finally sledges, before retiring to a retreating ice floe, which carries them southwards to rescue by a Danish barque. The idea of an ice floe drift by the crew of the Fear Not was borrowed by Stables from the actual ice floe drift of George Tyson and 18 crew members in 1872 after being separated from their exploration ship Polaris. Tyson’s crew drifted for six months before being rescued by the Tigress (Holland, Reference Holland1994, p. 286).

To Greenland and the Pole highlights the role of Captain Reynolds as commander of the expedition and as a positive model of leadership. Captain Reynolds shows himself a masterful commander and leader in organising both expeditions in the face of public criticism, and then leading them to successful conclusions. Regarding Reynolds, his crew are so loyal to him that they would “follow [him] to the uttermost ends of the earth” (Stables, Reference Stables1895b, p. 236). The timely story of To Greenland and the Pole, and Stables’ anticipation of Nansen’s successful return, ran through several editions to generally positive reviews, and most interestingly placed Stables squarely at odds with the many Arctic travellers and “authorities” who thought Nansen’s planned polar drift to be “sheer madness” (Nansen, Reference Nansen1897, p. 41; Saturday Review, 1906, p. vi).

The cruise of the ‘Arctic Fox’ in icy seas around the Pole (published serially in the BOP and separately in book form) mirrors the later part of To Greenland and the Pole, with a scientific voyage towards the North Pole, in which the explorers occupy their time with making use of a full complement of scientific equipment to measure weather, currents and depth, and even deploy a deep-sea apparatus, a diving bell with glass windows that can withstand underwater pressure and that is outfitted with electric lights for viewing the deep (Stables, Reference Stables1903a). The dawn of the new century and the emergence of new technologies, and their introduction into the works of Verne and Ballantyne, likewise influenced their introduction into Stables’ own writing. The most startling discovery of the Arctic Fox, however, is the body of a Danish sailor murdered in 1742 and fully preserved in a block of ice (Fig. 6). In 1906, Stables published The voyage of the Blue Vega, which follows his other later stories featuring a mature and well-respected leader, in this case a 50-year-old ship’s captain, Silas Grigg. Captain Grigg is a caring and considerate individual who performs a humanitarian act in sailing to the Arctic to recover the body of the wife of a whaling master who died there many years before. Consistent with Stables’ ship’ captains, Grigg is a gentle man who acts more as a father to the crew than a strict disciplinarian.

Fig. 6.

‘That awful something was a human face.’ Illustration from The cruise of the Arctic fox.

Near the end of his life, Stables penned perhaps his most unusual, and most improbable, Arctic adventure, The city at the Pole (Stables, Reference Stables1906). The story is a science fiction tale incorporating a lost world at the temperate North Pole, populated by alien beings with supernatural powers. The “lost world” genre was a popular theme in the late Victorian era, and unexplored lands, such as the polar regions, were favoured locations for the discovery of unknown civilisations. Far removed from Stables’ traditional Arctic adventure yarns and influenced perhaps by the potential for technology to change the world, it featured a fantastical storyline. Dr Eldred Schmeidermann, a German scientist, accompanied by a Scottish youth, Douglas Grant, embark on an exploratory expedition to the Pole by submarine powered by an unidentified force. Although submarine technology was rapidly advancing at the time of this story, extended undersea travel would not have been possible. It was not until 1958 that the nuclear-powered Nautilus made the first submerged trip to the North Pole.

In Stables’ science fiction tale, after emerging from a great ring of ice that surrounds the circumpolar centre, his explorers discover a remarkable Arctic oasis. The advanced civilisation they meet is governed by a king named MacThooselah, a Scotsman and the lone survivor of the lost Franklin expedition. Through applied science, their civilisation has advanced far more than humans, having mastered flight and communications, and possessing a life span of more than 500 years. But this utopia of healthy, happy people is not without its shortcomings. Those deemed unfit (i.e. the sick, mad, lame and evil) are banished to a subterranean refuge, where they perpetually slave for the benefit of the good. Whether science serves as the benefactor that improves society is an open question that Stables leaves to his readers to ponder. Not surprisingly, the story was not particularly well received. For this lost world tale, Stables borrowed heavily from the only science fiction tale of R. M. Ballantyne, The giant of the north; or pokings round the Pole (Ballantyne, Reference Ballantyne1882). In Ballantyne’s lost world set at the North Pole, an ancient Inuit race is discovered and its leader is Mackitot, a descendent of the Scottish sailor Mackintosh, the lone survivor of the mutiny of Henry Hudson (Ballantyne, Reference Ballantyne1882, pp. 392–393).