Expeditions To Antarctica (A summary by Nick Wright)

1773 James Cook on the Resolution,  first to cross the Antarctic Circle reaching latitude 71°10' south.
1820 Edward Bransfield On January 30, was the first to lay eyes on the mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula, a place he called "Trinity Land" .
1821 Captain John Davis, American sealer on the Cecilia.  The first recorded landing on the Antarctic continent took place and landed at Hughes Bay (64°01'S) looking for seals. Though they were on shore for less than an hour, these men were the first humans to set foot on this new southern land.
1821,  British sealer Lord Melville was forced to spend the winter on King George Island after their ship was driven offshore by a storm and didn't return. This was the first time men had endured the Antarctic winter. They were rescued the following summer.
1823,  Englishman James Weddell sails to 74 degrees south. This is the farthest south yet reached and the sea that bears his name today.
1841-1843, James C. Ross commanded two vessels Erebus & Terror on an expedition that discovered Victoria Land, the Ross Sea, and the Ross Ice Shelf .
1898-1899, Belgium expedition led by Adrien de Gerlach on the Belgica, with Amundsen, 19 members.  1) Amundsen was the first to ski on Antarctic terra firma, on the island Two Hummocks. 2) The first Antarctic sledging journey, on Brabent Island; 3) the first overnight camp on Antarctica; 4) the first ship to winter in the Antarctic, by accident; and 5) the first complete year of meteorological records.  (Frederick Cook wrote a book about it called "Through the First Antarctic Night").
1899, British expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink (a Norwegian) crew of the Southern Cross became the first people to winter over on the continent, at Cape Adare.
1901-1904, Scott and Shackleton on the Discovery expedition built the base at Hut Point in McMurdo on the first attempt to reach the South Pole. Although Scott failed to reach the pole, he achieved the farthest south record of 82°17' south. Expedition was later re-supplied by the The Morning and Terra Nova ships.  Scott thought Shackleton was "soft" and sent him home on the supply ships before the pole assault.
1902: German Erich von Drygalski and the crew of the Gauss discover Wilhelm II Land. Stuck in the ice for a year, the party does extensive scientific research filling 20 volumes of reports.
1907-1909 Ernest Shackleton onboard the Nimrod, led a British expedition expressly to reach the South Pole, but lack of food forced the party to turn back within 179 km (111 mi) of the pole. He knew that reaching the pole would condemn the crew.
1910-1912, The Terra Nova Expedition at Cape Evans, Scott reached South pole January 18, but died March 29, 1912 within 18 km (11 mi) of a supply depot (only one day hike away).  They were discovered 10 months later in November 1912.
1910-1912 Amundsen on the Fram, December 14, 1911 reached South pole
1914-1916, Shackleton Antarctic expedition, the Endurance intending to cross the continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea by way of the pole. But his ship never reached the continent; it became trapped by the ice and sank. The Chilean ship Yelcho rescued the 22 survivors from the Endurance.  They were within 30 mi, or one day sail, of the continent.  The sea came within 400 yards of their ship the next summer before freezing again.
1922 January 5, Shackleton on the Quest and a number of his men from the Endurance sailed again toward the Antarctica, but Shackleton died in his sleep after a massive heart attack on South Georgia Island were he is buried.
1929, Richard Evelyn Byrd first to fly to the South Pole and back on Nov. 29 from the Bay of Whales on the Ross Ice Shelf.
1936 Lincoln Ellsworth accomplished the first flight across Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. in a balloon.
1939-1941 U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition
1946-1947, Operation Highjump
1955 Byrd was appointed head of US Operation Deep-Freeze
1957-1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY)  US concentrated on the building of McMurdo Station, five other U.S.  stations were established, including one at the South Pole.
1958 March 2, Vivian Fuchs & Edmund Hillary and the team completed their historic trek of 3473 km (2158 mi) across Antarctica, the first crossing of this continent. Fuchs's team set off in November 1957 from the edge of the Weddell Sea, which is south of the Falkland Islands; passed the South Pole; and arrived at the edge of the Ross Sea after a 99-day journey.
 

Explorers

Amundsen, Roald (1872-1928)
Bransfield, Edward (1795-1852), British Royal Navy
Borchgrevink, Carsten (1864-1934), Norwegian-Australian antarctic explorer
Byrd, Richard Evelyn  (1888-1957), American explorer, author, aviator, and naval officer
Cook, James  (1728-1779), British navigator
Ellsworth, Lincoln (1880-1951) mining engineer
Fuchs, Sir Vivian (1908-1999), British geologist and explorer
Hillary, Sir Edmund 1919-, New Zealand mountain climber and explorer
Nansen, Fridtjof [1861 - 1930]
Palmer, Nataniel B. A young sealing Captain, discovered Antarctica on November 17, 1820. Palmer became a trader in China. After 'discovering' Antarctica, the young whaling Captain went on to become a merchant, designer and owner of some of the greatest clipper ships involved in the China trade.
Ross, Admiral Sir James Clark, R.N. (1800-1862) discovered the North Magnetic Pole in 1831. During 1840-43 he made three voyages to Antarctica in an attempt to reach the South Magnetic Pole, and to undertake a range of scientific studies of the region.
Scott, Robert Falcon  (1868-1912)
Shackleton, Sir Ernest  (1874-1922), Irish explorer. Shackleton was the editor and printer of the first newspaper on Antarctica called the South Polar Times.
Weddel, James (1787-1834), Sealer & Navigator
Wilkes, Lt. Charles.  Given the command of the U.S. Exploring Expedition in 1838 for America's first official expedition to include Antarctica. During his expedition 62 men were discharged as unsuitable, 42 deserted, and 15 died.



Ships

The Terra Nova, said to be the last whaler built in Dundee Scotland (1884), was leased in 1903 to sail with The Morning to McMurdo Sound to relieve Scott's Discovery expedition. Returning to sealing with Bowring Brothers, she was resold in November 1909, for Scott's second journey. In 1914 Bowring Brothers bought her again for work in Newfoundland and Labrador waters. Springing a leak 38 miles off Hollander Island, Greenland, she sank without loss of life on September 12, 1943.

Mt. Erebus was named for the flag ship of Captain James Ross in 1841. It is a fitting name for a volcano that reaches perhaps a hundred kilometers into the earth. In the Greek myth, Erebus is the personification of primeval darkness, born together with "Nyx" (night) from the primordial Chaos. Erebus was the dark region beneath the earth through which the shades passed to the realm of Hades below

Scott's old ship, the Discovery, made thirteen successive summer cruises in the Southern Ocean to investigate the biology and oceanography of the region.   800 gallons of rum and 45 sheep were packed on the "Discovery" in 1902. They were part of the provisions for 48 men for three years, which included 42,000 pounds of flour, 10,000 pounds of sugar, 3,000 pounds of roast beef and 23 sledge dogs (not part of the menu).


Other

The name Antarctica is derived from the Greek word "Antarktikos" meaning "opposite the bear". "Arktos", "The Great Bear" (or Big Dipper) is the constellation above the North Pole. The ancient Greeks felt that the earth was a sphere and that it was logical that a southern landmass would be present to balance the known, northern world. Early map makers named the assumed continent "Terra Australis Incognita" - "The Unknown Southern Land."