'Aurora Borealis' An Early Arctic Newspaper”

The ships Resolute under Captain Horatio Austin and Assistance under Captain Erasmus Ommanney spent the long winter of 1850-51 locked in the ice between Cornwallis Island and Griffith Island, not far from the present-day community of Resolute. For ten and a half months, from Sept. 24 until Aug. 11, the vessels didn't move.

Captains under such circumstances had to come up with ingenious ways of keeping their crews busy, to preserve their health and prevent them from becoming lethargic during the mid-winter dark. Duties were assigned and the time for each duty to be performed was specified "as though day and night continued to be of the same duration as in our own climate."

Each ship had a good library, and a reading-room was established on each ship's lower deck. Some men read; others learned to read. The main subjects of study, dependent on the capabilities of those able to teach, were navigation, steam, seamanship, arithmetic, modern languages and music.

Exercise was important. A report from the Assistance tells us that "for four hours out of each twenty-four, the officers and men exercised under the lee of the different ships." They played football, skated and practised shooting on the ice. Signs were set up at various distances from the ships to guide home anyone who strayed too far away, and snowhouses were put up as emergency shelters.

This was the regimen that was followed for the dark period. With the return of light in February, the men were organized into exploring parties. Then the real work of the expedition began. An order was given for the men to cease shaving – beards were thought to provide some protection against the sun's rays, "so fiercely reflected from the ice and snow."

The Assistance had its own newspaper. You won't find any copies for sale on Ebay today, for this paper was a single-copy manuscript. Called the "Aurora Borealis," it appeared on the fifteenth of every month and was passed from hand to hand for the enjoyment of the crew.

The articles that formed the paper were on a variety of subjects. They were submitted by the commanders, officers and men of the expedition, including some from "rough and weather-beaten tars before the mast." One of the ship's officers filled the role of editor. He copied each article submitted, in a uniform and legible hand, for the paper.

After the expedition had safely returned to England, a collection of articles was excerpted from the paper and published under the title "Arctic Miscellanies." The editor of that publication succinctly stated the purpose and the success of the "Aurora Borealis:"

"It is not for us to speak of its literary merits… or of the interest which it ought to excite, but we shall be pardoned in calling the attention of the reader to the fact, that the subjoined pages are a faithful record of the thoughts and sentiments of a body of our countrymen, whilst exposed to extraordinary hardships and danger. They will also serve to show that an intellectual revolution has, to a great extent, taken place amongst our seamen… The popular opinion seems to be that the literary attainments of British sailors seldom exceed the attainment of some boisterous song, and that only the very erudite among them can succeed in scrawling a letter to their friends at home."

Proudly he went on: "In the ‘Aurora Borealis,' however, we find articles written by veteran tars, whose home since boyhood has been upon the sea, that would not disgrace the pages of some of our magazines. These men with frames of iron, with a courage and a stern endurance that nothing can subdue, show themselves possessed of a delicacy of imagination and a power of perception that one has great difficulty in reconciling with the honest roughness of their appearance."

Of course there was no news to report. The ships were isolated and there was no communication with England. Every happening on board would be instantly known to all. So the content of "Aurora Borealis" was more that of a magazine than a newspaper. The first issue contained an article on a sunken island in the Atlantic; another on the fate of the Norse colony in Greenland; a song; an article on the ubiquitous seabird, the fulmar; and letters to the editor.

The editor told his readers that the purpose of the paper was to amuse and instruct and that the paper would be a bond to unite the men and keep up their spirits.

The "Aurora Borealis" was a successful example of a single-copy, manuscript newspaper. It appeared in the High Arctic for a single season – as planned – over 150 years ago.