ANTARCTICA The Great Southern Continent

World Exploration

Themes and Quests

U3A Cambridge

DISCOVERY Six phases of exploration

• Early voyages (1770 – 1894)

• Antarctic sealing & whaling (1770 – 1968)

• ‘Heroic Age’ (1895 – 1915)

• Between WW1 & WW2 (1918 – 1936)

• International Geophysical Year (1957 - 58)

• Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955 – 58)

• Scientific exploration to present

Early voyages (1770 – 1894)

1620

1763

Dutch explorers

Ice-filled sea around the South Pole

British Naval Expedition 1772 – 1775

Resolution & Adventure

“doomed by Nature ….

to lie for ever buried

under everlasting

snow and ice”

Resolution and Adventure

circum-navigated Antarctica

did not sight land furthest south –

71⁰10’S

Antarctic sealing & whaling (1770 – 1968)

Sealing

• William Smith (Williams) landed on South Shetland Islands–1819

• Edward Bransfield (Williams) landed on Trinity Island–1820

• George Powell (Dove) & Nathaniel Palmer (James Munro) explored South Shetland Is. and Sourth Orkney Is.-1821

• Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (Vostock, Mirnyi) discovered Alexander Is.-1820

● 1904 - Norwegian Captain Carl Anton Larsen

● Grytviken whaling station established on South Georgia

● Whaling continued until 1965; 7 shore stations

Whaling

HMS Challenger Captain G S Nares

February 1874 – crosses the Antarctic Circle

‘The birth of the science of oceanography’

‘Heroic Age’ (1895 – 1915)

Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901- 03

October 1902

Party of 3 men, 2 sledges, 5 dogs

Covered 380 miles (611 km) in 33 days

Reached 65°57’S

Named Borchgrevink Nunatak

Hope Bay

Paulet Island

Snow Hill Island

South Pole – 1908-09

Wild Shackleton Marshall Adams 1,700 miles trek to within 97 miles of the South Pole

14 December 1911

17 January 1912

Imperial Trans-Antarctic

Expedition 1914-16

Weddell Sea Party Endurance Ernest Shackleton

Ross Sea Party Aurora Mackintosh Stenhouse Davis

Launch of the James Caird at Elephant Island

British Graham Land Expedition

1934 - 37

Penola John Rymill

Tabarin – 1943 - 46

Operation Tabarin began in 1943

Secret naval operation

3 bases established on the Antarctic Peninsula (Hope Bay, Port Lockroy, Argentine Islands)

Renamed Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) in 1945

Evolved into British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1962

Fuchs’ party

Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955- 58

Fuchs & Hillary

12 countries operated 47

research stations

U K Royal Society base at Halley Bay

International Geophysical Year (IGY) 1957 - 58

Territorial claims 8 nations

Signed in 1959; ratified by 12 nations (IGY participants) in 1961

Currently 47+ signatories (representing >80% of world population)

Established Antarctica (south of 60°S) as a region of peace and science; territorial claims were set aside

Treaty remains in place indefinitely

Antarctic Treaty

Antarctic Treaty nations

Antarctic Treaty System

• Ensures peaceful exploration and international scientific collaboration

• Bans nuclear activities

• Suspends all territorial claims

• Moratorium on mineral exploitation

• Enforces wildlife conservation

• Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs)

• Manages pollution, waste and protected areas

“Tourism industry conserves Antarctica”

IAATO

International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators

Antarctica – Themes and Quests

Exploration of the unknown Exploitation of natural resources

Land claims (Empire) First to the South Pole Wartime occupation

Emergence of scientific discovery First crossing of Antarctica

Antarctic Treaty & SCAR Responsible tourism

Antarctica today

– a continent for peace,

science and exploration

Some reading

Antarctica – Great Stories from the Frozen Continent Reader’s Digest , 1985. Reader’s Digest Services Pty Ltd, London

Chronological List of Antarctic Expeditions and Related Historical Events

Robert K Headland, 1989. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Forgotten Footprints – Lost Stories in the Discovery of Antarctica John Harrison, 2012. Parthian, Cardigan