Exploration

Introduction

Antarctica remained remote, undiscovered and shrouded in mystery long after human migration had settled the other six continents. It was Terra Australis Incognita, an unknown south land.

The existence of this great south land was derived from the ideas of the early Greek geographers. They believed there must be a large landmass around the South Pole to 'balance' the known land in the northern hemisphere. They named it the opposite of the Arctic, the Anti-Arktikos or Antarctic. The discoveries of Sir Francis Drake (1577-80) and Abel Tasman (1642-44) severed first South America and then Australia from this huge imagined southern continent. Even so, 300 years ago Antarctica was still thought to cover almost all the globe south of 50 South - nearly five times its actual size. So, the discovery of Antarctica was a process of discovering where it wasn't, rather than where it was.

Captain James Cook

The great navigator, Captain James Cook was the first to tackle this puzzle. In three summers' exploration between 1772 and 1775, he crossed the Antarctic Circle (6633'S) four times and reached 7110'S, so dispelling the myth of Terra Australis Incognita. Cook discovered no land, and he claimed 'that no man will ever venture farther than I have done, and that the lands which may lie to the south will never be explored.'

Sealers explore the Antarctic Peninsula

However, what Cook did find was a wealth of marine life. To exploit this, sealers became the most active Antarctic explorers for the next century.

The bonanza started in 1819, when William Smith was blown across Drake Passage in a gale and accidentally discovered the South Shetland Islands. At least 30 American and 25 British sealing ships visited the islands the next summer. One harvested 14 000 skins in five weeks. Soon the sealers were searching further afield. In 1820 Nathaniel Palmer discovered the islands along the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, and John Davis reached the Peninsula itself and made the first recorded landing on the continent. In 1822 James Weddell found a huge ice-free sea east of the Peninsula reaching to 7415'S, well beyond Cook's most southerly latitude.

Russian Interest

Meanwhile the Russians were expanding their interest from the north to the south polar regions. In 1819 Admiral Thaddeus von Bellinghausen led an expedition to follow up some of Cook's discoveries. His two-year circumnavigation solved several additional pieces of the puzzle and narrowed the boundaries of the continent still more.

In 1830 an English sealing company, Enderby Brothers, was looking for yet more new sealing grounds. So they ordered their captain, John Biscoe, to take two ships and head south east from the Falkland Islands. Over the next two seasons Biscoe circumnavigated Antarctica, and in February 1831 he sighted the mountains of Enderby Land in East Antarctica. With this discovery, Biscoe proved that Antarctica did indeed contain a large land mass, and challenged Cooks claim that it could never be explored.

In the 25 years after Bellinghausen returned, three major national expeditions were sent out by France, Britain and the United States.

Scientific Curiosity

One puzzle they tried to solve was the exact position of the South Magnetic Pole. This would enable scientists to understand more about the earth's magnetic core, and help make more accurate compasses. Both d'Urville and Ross tried to locate it without success. However, in searching for the Magnetic Pole, Ross discovered the huge ice shelf at the head of the Ross Sea, which provided the easiest access to the South Pole for later explorers.

National Claims

The mid 19th century was a period when many European nations were seeking new colonies. At the same time, sealing was making Antarctica commercially important. So both the French and the British were keen to acquire territory in Antarctica. To achieve this, an expedition had to find some land, fix its position, raise the flag, claim it for their ruler, and get back home to tell everyone. But it is hard to tell real 'land' from floating ice shelves or icebergs, and many claims were disputed or disproved. For example, Wilkes, the leader of the United States Exploring Expedition claimed to have seen 'land' which other ships later sailed over.

In fact these land claims had little value compared to new colonies in Africa or Asia, so after the initial enthusiasm, interest in Antarctica faded.

An important discovery

In the next 50 years only the Challenger expedition sailed south of the Antarctic Circle. She was the first steam ship to do so, and she made a very important discovery. The further south she went, the more rocks like granite, quartz and limestone she dredged up from the seabed. These are continental rocks, so this could only mean one thing. They must have been carried there embedded in icebergs which melted and dropped them to the seabed. Antarctica, where they came from, must therefore be a continent, not a group of ice-covered islands.

Renewed interest

In 1895 an International Geographical Congress was held in London to try to revive interest in Antarctic science and exploration. It was so successful that in the next 20 years no fewer than ten nations sent over 20 expeditions to the continent.

As more ships tried to push further into the pace ice to reach the shore, some became trapped and even sunk. Belgica was the first to winter in the ice, unintentionally, when she became trapped. Although she escaped unharmed next spring, two crew members went mad as a result. Nordenskjld's Antarctic was not so lucky and was sunk, though her crew were rescued after two desperate winters. Bruce, Drygalski, Charcot, and Filchner were also trapped in their ships.

However Borchgrevink showed that a well planned expedition could winter in comfort on the continent. From Cape Adare he sailed to the Ross Ice Shelf in February 1900 and sledged inland for about 15 km, the furthest south anyone had so far reached.

The race for the South Pole, 1901-09

While other nations sent expeditions all around Antarctica after the 1895 International Geographical Congress, the British had only one aim - to be first at the South Pole. This was the personal ambition of the President of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Clements Markham. He persuaded his Society to sponsor an expedition, and both the king and the navy to support it. A specially ice-strengthened ship, Discovery, was built and Robert Falcon Scott was chosen to command her.

Scott's Discovery expedition

Scott reached the Ross Sea, the gateway to the Pole, in January 1902. He sailed east along the Ross Ice Shelf but could find nowhere to land. The ice cliffs formed a frustrating barrier up to 80 metres high. At the Bay of Whales, Scott went up in a tethered balloon - the first flight in Antarctica - to try to see what lay beyond. The ice shelf stretched like a level highway to the south, if only he could get onto it. Eventually he found a good anchorage for Discovery off Ross Island, carrying out scientific research.

Next spring Scott prepared his attack on the Pole, laying depots of food and fuel to the south. Then on 2 November with Edward Wilson and Ernest Shackleton as companions and 19 dogs pulling five sledges, he set off with high hopes. But things soon began to go wrong. None of the men were experienced drivers, and the dogs refused to pull. Even worse, one by one they died. Snow blindness, hunger and frostbite weakened the explorers. By 30 December, having reached 8216'S, they had had enough. Without fresh food, scurvy crippled them further as they struggled back to the ship.

All three man took time to recover, but Scott was convinced that Shackleton had 'broken down' on the return journey and sent him home on the relief ship. This was an insult Shackleton never forgave, and the former companions became rivals.

Shackleton's Nimrod expedition

Shackleton was determined to make his own bid for the Pole, and by 1907 he had managed to raise enough money to buy food, equipment and an old sealing ship, the Nimrod. Disappointed by the dogs' performance on Scott's expedition, Shackleton decided to try Siberian ponies instead. He also took the first car to Antarctica though it soon broke down in the cold.

In January 1908, when Shackelton reached the Ross Sea he turned east. This was partly because a winter base in the area would mean the least distance to the Pole. In addition, Scott had claimed the Ross Island region as 'his' territory, and Shackleton had agreed to avoid it. But pack ice barred his way and the Bay of Whales had disappeared in a massive breakout of the ice shelf. Now there was nowhere else except Ross Island for a winter base. So despite his promise to his rival, Shackleton was forced to return there.

Next spring, one party which included Douglas Mawson set out to locate the South Magnetic Pole in Victoria Land. Shackleton with three companions and four remaining ponies pulling the sledges, headed for the main goal. They soon passed Scott's furthest south point. At the end of the ice shelf they found a natural staircase, the Beardmore Glacier. This took them through the Transantarctic Mountains and up onto the polar plateau. It was a steep and dangerous climb, criss-crossed by crevasses. The last pony fell into one and could not be rescued. On the plateau, at over 3000 metres, it was far colder and windier and the thinner air made manhauling the sledge harder than ever.

Shackleton turns back

By 9 January, Shackleton had to face an agonising choice. They were at 8823'S, only 160 km from the Pole. With the food they had left, they could reach the Pole, or get back to the base; but not both. As Shackleton later wrote to his wife 'I would rather be a live donkey than a dead lion' and so they turned back. On his return to England, Shackleton was showered with praise for his achievement. But this only increased Scott's determination to outdo his rival.

Scott's second expedition

Despite Shackleton's achievement Sir Clements Markham, the President of the Royal Geographical Society, still wanted an Englishman to be the first at the South Pole. So he helped Scott organise another expedition.

Scott's second expedition reached Ross Island in the Terra Nova in January 1911. Next spring he set out from his base at Cape Evans for the Pole once more. This time, although he took both ponies and dogs, Scott intended to rely on manhauling for most of the journey. He followed Shackleton's track to the top of the Beardmore Glacier. On this plateau, the last of the support parties turned back, leaving Scott and his four companions, Evans, Oates, Bowers and Wilson with 240 km to go.

Struggle for survival

They reached their goal on 17 January 1912, but their joy and relief was overwhelmed by disappointment. Amundsen had beaten them to it by over a month. Now, as well as hunger, cold and illness they carried the burden of failure in their desperate struggle for survival. Evans was the first to die, after a fall into a crevasse. A month later, Oates feet were so frostbitten that he was delaying the whole party. Tormented by this knowledge he left the tent one night in a blizzard with the words 'I am just going outside and I may be some time'. He was never seen again.

The three survivors stumbled on. It was now late March and winter was fast approaching. When a blizzard pinned them in their tent for a week without food, only 18 km from their next depot, it was the end. Their bodies were found next spring by a search party. Scott's diary was open beside him, the last entry dated 29 March.

So who was the intruder who snatched the great prize from the British?

Amundsen

Roald Amundsen was a Norwegian with years of Arctic exploration behind him. He had also wintered in Antarctica on the Belgica in 1898. His original goal was the North Pole. But that was conquested in 1909, just when Amundsen had got his expedition organised. So he switched his sights to the South. Only weeks after Scott arrived at Ross Island, Amundsen reached the Bay of Whales. From there, he had 100 km less to travel to the South Pole.

Amundsen used dogs

In addition he had 97 dogs, and years of experience in the Norwegian tradition of dog driving on skis. These skills gave him huge advantage over Scott. With four companions and four sledges pulled by 13 dogs each, Amundsen set off for the Pole on 20 October 1911.

This was only four days before Scott, but he was able to travel much faster. He average 25-30 km a day compared to Scott's 15-20 km. Also, because the Transantarctic Mountains run south east, more of Amundsen's route was on the ice shelf and less was on the higher, colder plateau than Scott's. But Amundsen was pioneering a new route. He was confronted by an even steeper glacier with huge ice falls as his only way through the mountains.

Amundsen's triumph

Once on the plateau, the route was much easier, and by 14 December 1911 his party reached the Pole. After spending three days there to fix their position accurately, they set off for home, now with only eleven dogs. The rest had been killed in stages to feed the remainder. This careful planning and the laying of frequent depots gave Amundsen a reliable lifeline on the return journey, unlike Scott.

Once back at the Bay of Whales the expedition was picked up by Fram, and on 7 March 1912 Amundsen cabled the news of his triumph to the world - from the Hobart Post Office.

The Imperial Transantarctic Expedition

Although Scott became a national hero after his death became known in 1913, it was still a blow to British pride that the great prize had gone to another country.

Shackleton's reputation was still high, and with the Pole conquered by others, his restless spirit and love of Antarctica had to find a new challenge. So when he chose the most ambitious challenge of all - to cross the continent from Weddell to the Ross Sea via the Pole - it was greeted with enthusiastic support. It would need two ships and two expeditions. One to land the party in Vashal Bay in Coats Land for the crossing; the other to winter at Ross Island and lay depots to the south to provide supplies for the last leg of the voyage.

The voyage south

After a year of preparation, Shackleton was ready to sail in August 1914, just as World War I broke out in Europe. He offered his ship and men to the war effort, but the British government decided that the expedition was of greater value to national morale.

So, Shackleton sailed south once more. His ship Endurance had been built specially for the voyage. He left South Georgia in December and made good progress towards Vashal Bay by dodging through pack ice. He was lucky to find an ice-free channel along the coast. But then the wind changed and closed the channel. Shackleton tried desperately to find a way out, but it was no use. On 18 January 1915 Endurance became firmly locked into the ice.

Endurance Sinks

For the next ten months she drifted north west. Gradually the ice pressed closer until Endurance finally sank in late November. By then the men had moved all their supplies and the ship's lifeboats to a camp on the ice. With the help of their dogs they hauled everything over the pressure ridges to a safe floe. There they set up 'Patience Camp' and drifted for another five months. Finally, in April 1916 the ice at last set them free. They launched the lifeboats and sailed to the nearest land, Elephant Island off the Antarctic Peninsula.

Voyage to South Georgia

Leaving most of his men there, Shackleton and four others set out in one of the lifeboats, the James Caird. It was 300 km across one of the world's stormiest oceans to South Georgia, the nearest inhabited island. But they could only land on the south coast, while the whaling station was on the north coast. Shackleton and two others made a final desperate dash to reach help. They had to climb an unknown 1000 metre mountain range, and guess which was the right valley on the other side. Their luck held and they reached the whaling station safely.

Rescue from Elephant Island

The men left on Elephant Island lived on seals and seaweed. They were afraid they might have to spend the rest of their lives there if Shackleton failed to get through. But on 30 August, three month after they had landed, 'the Boss' brought a ship to their rescue. This is still the greatest Antarctic epic of all, and miraculously not a single life was lost.

The Ross Sea Saga

Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent another saga was unfolding. The Ross Sea party had the job of laying depots south towards the Pole, to provide fuel and food for Shackleton's party on the last leg of their journey as they crossed from the Weddell Sea.

They landed at Cape Evans in January 1915 and moored their ship Aurora to the ice for the winter. But she was blown away in a ferocious blizzard in May, with her crew, and also with most of the stores and fuel still on board. Luckily they found food and fuel left behind by previous expeditions. With this, and the meat and blubber from seals, they lived on for two winters. They even managed to lay all the depots Shackleton had asked for, though they didn't know their efforts were in vain.

Like the men on Elephant Island, they had to live with the fear that Aurora had been lost, and so no-one knew where they were. But Aurora was luckier than Endurance. Although she too was trapped in the ice for ten months, she eventually reached New Zealand intact. There she was refitted and sent south again in December 1916 on a rescue mission. Shackleton had by then returned from South Georgia and accompanied the ship. So it was with amazement that the Ross Sea party saw their leader approaching over the sea ice from the north, instead of across the ice shelf from the south.

Sir Douglas Mawson and Australian Antarctica

Mawson first went to Antarctica as the physicist on Shackleton's 1907-09 Nimrod expedition. Scott invited him to join his second expedition, but it was Mawson's ambition to lead his own.

As a scientist he was more interested in investigating a new region, rather than pushing the extra 100 km to the South Pole. He wanted to explore the unknown coast of Antarctica directly south of Australia, west of Cape Adare, and in 1910 he organised an expedition to do so.

Planning the expedition

Combined with his scientific qualification, Mawson was an outstanding leader and organiser. His plan was to establish four main bases, one at Macquarie Island and three others on the continent. The Macquarie Island base would send regular weather observations to Melbourne by radio. For the first time in Antarctica, both the Main Base and the expedition ship Aurora had radio as well. Mawson also planned to use an aircraft, another Antarctic first. However, it was damaged in Australia, and so only the fuselage and engine were taken, and used as an 'air tractor'.

Aurora's voyage

After leaving Hobart, Aurora landed the Macquarie Island party then sailed south. She soon met impenetrable pack ice, and turned south westwards, looking for land. Mawson eventually found an ice-free bay and a rocky cape on which to set up his Main Base. From Commonwealth Bay, Captain John Davis pushed Aurora westwards looking for the land recorded by Wilkes in 1840, the last to have sailed this coast. But after nearly a month and 3000 km he could find none. So he was finally forced to leave the Western party, not on solid land but on the Shackleton ice shelf.

'The home of the blizzard'

Back at the Main Base Mawson's party were discovering that they had chosen 'the Home of the Blizzard' for their winter quarters. The katabatic wind roared down from the ice sheet rising steeply behind them, gusting to 200 km/h. Merely living in such conditions was a battle for survival; travelling inward was even worse.

Disaster strikes

Mawson had chosen dogs as his main form of transport, and hired two expert drivers, Ninnis and Mertz. Next spring these three men and the twelve best dogs made up the Far Eastern exploring party. Despite the cold and wind they made good progress until disaster struck. On 14 December 1912, Ninnis, with his sledge carrying the tent and most of the food, and the six fittest dogs, disappeared down a crevasse.

Mawson and Mertz were left 500 km from base, with barely any food and no tent. They killed and ate their remaining dogs, finding the livers easiest to chew. Then Mertz became ill and too weak to march, and died after a sudden fit, probably of Vitamin A poisoning from the dog livers.

Struggle for survival

Now Mawson was alone, still 160 km from base, and desperately ill himself. Cutting his sledge in half to save weight, he stumbled on. Only 50 km from base he found a food dump which saved his life. It had been left by a search party and he had missed them by only two hours. But an even more dramatic near miss was in store. Delayed by blizzards Mawson finally reached Main Base five days later, just in time to see Aurora disappearing to the north. She was urgently recalled by radio but the ferocious winds prevented her from returning. Davis could not wait. He had to rescue the Western base party, who had no supplies for a second winter.

The following summer, Aurora returned to Commonwealth Bay to retrieve the remaining men. By then Mawson was fully recovered from his ordeal.

Filling the void

By the end of the first phase of Antarctic exploration in 1917, less that 5% of the continent had actually been surveyed. When interest in Antarctica revived a decade later, new techniques of aerial photography rapidly expanded the rate of surveying and mapping.

First Antarctic flight

In 1928 Sir Hubert Wilkins made the first Antarctic flight across 1000 kms of the Peninsula, equipped with a hand-held camera. The following year an American expedition led by Richard Byrd made an aerial survey of Amundsen's route. He flew from the Bay of Whales on the Ross Sea to the Pole and back in 16 hours. Amundsen had taken three months.

In East Antarctica, Sir Douglas Mawson led two expeditions in 1929-31. They surveyed the coast from Cape Adare to Enderby Land, to reinforce the British claim to what is now the Australian Antarctic Territory. He used a Gipsy Moth seaplane to make aerial photographs and sketch maps. At the same time a Norwegian expedition surveyed the coast further west. By 1940 much of the coast of East Antarctica had been sighted and named, but very few landings had actually been made.

Large scale mapping

The modern period of Antarctic exploration began after World War II. In 1946, the United States set the future pattern with Operation Highjump. It was a large expedition consisting of 13 ships, 23 aircraft and over 4000 men in three separate task forces. Its objective was to photograph the entire Antarctic coastline. Altogether, Operation Highjump took over 70 000 aerial photographs of nearly 4 million km2 of Antarctica, covering about 60% of the coast and interior; 25% had never been seen before.

But aerial photographs are not maps. They have to be related to known features. So the following year surveyors were landed by helicopters on peaks and rocks shown in the photographs, to fix their position and height.

By 1950, although almost the entire coastline was known, the interior of East Antarctica remained a blank on the map. In the next decade land traverses by dog teams, snowmobiles and tractors gnawed away at this void. The International Geophysical Year of 1957-58 increased this activity and saw the first crossing of the continent from the Weddell to the Ross Sea.

Satellite technology

Antarctic mapping has been revolutionalised in the last 20 years by two major advances in satellite technology. The first was the development of remote sensing. From the 1970's this made satellite images of Antarctica available. One image could show the area covered by a thousand aerial photographs and also reveal areas that had never been photographed. The second more recent advance is GPS, or the Global Positioning System. These computerised instruments can receive signals from satellites moving in known orbits around the earth. By measuring the distance from four or more satellites at the same time, the computer can work out its exact position and height on the ground. One GPS fix of a key point on the map can be used to recalculate the heights and locations of other features measured by earlier methods.