Demény István: Dél-Amerika és az Antarktisz-félsziget (2008) / 1060-2008

Roaid Amundsen (1872-1928) Amundsen's first major polar expedition was as second mate aboard Belgica, which was the first ship to winter in the Antarctic. He showed exceptional leadership qualities and helped keep the ship's company functional while they were trapped in the ice. In 190306, he led the first expedition successfully to navigate the Northwest Passage, also proving that the North Magnetic Pole is not a fixed point but wanders through the Arctic. As a Norwegian, his ambition had always been to reach the North Pole, but when Robert E. Peary claimed to have achieved this in 1909, Amundsen decided to make an attempt on the South Pole instead. On 19 October 1911, he and a team of four experienced polar travellers set out with 52 dogs from his base Framheim, named for Fram, the ship he had borrowed from Fridtjof Nansen. Planning had been meticulous, and the party reached the Pole after an impressive journey on 14 December 1911. Amundsen disappeared in the high Arctic in 1928, while conducting an aerial search for missing Italian explorer Umberto Nobile. I CONTINENT Who first discovered the Antarctic Continent? His identity is uncertain, but the event probably happened during 1820. Was it the Estonian, Thaddeus von Bellingshausen, in charge of a Russian expedition? Or the British naval iieutenant Edward Bransfieid? Or the young American sealing captain Nathaniel Palmer, from Stonington, Connecticut? Or was it none of these, but perhaps another sealer, who chose to keep his discovery secret for commerciai reasons? Sir Vivian Fuchs (1908-99) The International Geophysical Year (1957-58) saw a revival of interest in Antarctica, and a British expedition set out to do what Shackleton had intended to do more than 40 years earlier. The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition was under the command of Vivian Fuchs, and in November 1957 six motor sledges set out from near the Weddell Sea. Meanwhile, the New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary had already laid depots on the Ross Sea side of the continent. Fuchs reached the South Pole on 20 January 1958. On 9 February, the expedition left the Pole, arriving at New Zealand's Scott Base on 2 March, having covered some 2,158 miles in 99 days. Fuchs had shown that careful planning and efficient machinery counted more than human endurance. He was director of the British Antarctic Survey from 1958-73. < • The Estonian Admiral Thaddeus von Bellingshausen was already recognised as one of Russia's great mariners when he was sent by Tsar Alexander I on a voyage of southern exploration in 1819. His ships were Vostok and Mirny. Bellingshausen first visited the South Sandwich Islands, where he conducted exhaustive surveys that were still used in the 20th century. At this point he might have made the first ever sighting of the Antarctic continent. The next year, he discovered the desolate, . steep-sided Peter I Island, and then sighted the Antarctic coast for certain. He returned home after a " >f:

t voyage of some 56,000 miles. -»p 'Ijr Baron Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery (1866-1934) In 1897, in the ship Belgica, the first truly international scientific expedition left Antwerp for the far south under the command of Gerlache. Reaching Antarctica late in the exploration season, Belgica was caught in the ice, and the party became the first ever to winter in the Antarctic. Despite being beset with numerous problems, Gerlache's expedition held together until, in March 1899, the ship was finally freed from the ice after use of explosives and saws. After being involved in a number of Arctic expeditions, Gerlache sold his ship Polaris to Ernest Shackleton. This was renamed and subsequently gained fame as Endurance. Fuchs Amundsen The first person to set foot on the Antarctic continent was probably the American sealer John Davis, who sailed from New Haven, Connecticut, and landed at what is thought to be Hughes Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula on 7 February 1821. He noted in his log that 'I think this Southern Land to be a Continent.' The first woman to land on Antarctica was Caroline Mikkelsen, the wife of Captain Kiarius Mikkelsen of the Norwegian whaling ship Thorshavn, who did so in 1934 on the Tryne Islands, in the Vestfold Hills of East Antarctica, at around 80'East. Carsten Borchgrevink (1864-1934) A Norwegian who had moved to Australia, Carsten Borchgrevink initially came to popular attention after claiming to have been the first person to step onto the Antarctic continent, at Cape Adare, as a member of a whaling expedition on board Antarctic. Using this fame as leverage, Borchgrevink gained the support «^b«^««« of the wealthy British newspaper publisher George Newnes, and led an expedition Jäfek back to Cape Adare in the ship Southern Cross. In 1899, Borchgrevink's | JfS®fi| expedition members overcame the rigours of the Antarctic winter as well as f £ V internal disagreements to become the first party to winter on the Antarctic '"Él jJÉm continent. Borchgrevink then sledged 10 miles south on the Ross Ice Shelf to | establish a 'farthest south'. I Gerlache Bellingshausen Sir Edmund Hillary (1919- ) Edmund Hillary is best known for his successful first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 with Tenzing Norgay, and his subsequent devotion to providing health care and education in Nepal. However, the New Zealander also played a significant role in Antarctic exploration, taking part in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955-58. On this expedition, he pioneered a new route onto the polar plateau and then drove tractors to the South Pole. Hillary returned to the Antarctic in 1967, leading the first ascent of Mt Herschel in the Ross Sea area. Hillary Borchgrevink ÄNTARCVQ - £!

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333'S Edward Bransfieid (C, 1795-1852) When Captain William Smith claimed to have discovered what were later called the South Shetland Islands, it was young Royal Navy Lt Edward Bransfieid who was put in command of Smith's ship and ordered to investigate. After sailing around this remote island chain, Bransfieid decided to continue travelling south, hoping to discover yet more uncharted islands. He was not disappointed. The weather was dull and foggy, but, on 30 January 1820, the mist lifted long enough for him to glimpse what was later determined to be the Antarctic Peninsula. Some polar historians claim this sighting by Bransfieid to be the first of the Antarctic continent. Long-distance private expeditions seem almost commonplace nowadays, but one of the earliest and most remarkable was the Trans-Antarctic Expedition organised by the American Will Sieger. His five companions were from France, Russia, China, Japan, and Great Britain. Using dogs to haul their sledges, they set off on 27 July 1989 from the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula and reached their destination at the Russian Mirny base on 3 March 1990, some 4,000 miles (6,400 km) in 221 days. Carl Larsen (1860-1924) Born to a seafaring family in Norway, Larsen had his master's certificate by the time he was 20, and commanded his first ship when he was 25. Seven years later, he found fossil plants in the Antarctic, the first such to be seen, and charted parts of Graham Land. During Nordenskjöld's expedition of 1901-04, Larsen was in command of the ship Antarctic when it was crushed in the ice. After wintering on Paulet Island, the party was rescued in 1903. The next year, with Argentine backing, Larsen established the first shore-based whaling station in the south at Grytviken in South Georgia. ^Orcadas (Arg.) South Orkney Islands Antarctic Circle Located at approximately 66'33'S, the Antarctic Circle marks the northern limit of the region within which the sun does not set at the summer solstice (about 22 December) or rise at the winter solstice (about / 21 June). The precise latitude varies slightly from year to year because the earth wobbles slightly on its axis. The Antarctic Circle was first crossed by Captain James Cook on 17 January 1773. SANAE IV (South Africa) Bransfieid Fimbul Ice Shelf Neumayer (Germany) ---- Maitri (India) sS

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r Novoiazarevskaya (Russia'i Sir Douglas Mawson (1882-1958) The British-born Australian geologist Douglas Mawson is best known for his expedition to Commonwealth Bay, aptly described in the title of his book The Home of the Blizzard. However, Mawson first visited the Antarctic with Ernest Shackleton, where he was one of the first party to climb Mount Erebus and then to reach the South Magnetic Pole. Mawson's own expedition of 1911-14 in Aurora was based at the windiest place in the Antarctic. In 1912, Mawson, Xavier Mertz, and B.E.S. Ninnis set off to explore George V Land. Ninnis was lost in a crevasse on 13 December, and Mertz died four weeks later, leaving Mawson alone. Mawson sawed his sledge in half with a pocket knife and made an epic journey back to base, surviving appalling weather, little food, and crevasses before arriving at his camp on 1 February 1913. He later led other expeditions to the Antarctic and was a tireless promoter of Australia's interests in the far south. William Spiers Bruce (1867-1921) Bruce first visited the Antarctic in 1892, as surgeon-naturalist on a whaling ship. The highly nationalistic Bruce declined a post on Scott's first expedition to lead an all-Scottish expedition of his own in 1902-04, when he ventured deep into the Weddell Sea and discovered Coates Land. It took many years for the scientific data collected on the expedition to be fully analysed and presented, which Bruce did with meticulous attention to detail. He then turned north, and became a leading authority on Spitsbergen, trying in vain to persuade the British government to claim it. Disillusioned when this did not happen, he became master of a Seychelles whaling station. When he died, his ashes were taken to the Antarctic. yohlthat Mass,„

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(T Lützow Holmbukta S"Owa (Japan) WEGENER, Molodezhnaya pCNPRINS 0. % V Mawson DROWNING Bruce speranza (Argentina) .# Marambio (Argentina) D running Fabiolafjella Brunt Ice Shelf S'anco Otto Nordenskjöld (1869*1928) The fact that Nordenskjöld's uncle, Adolf Eric Nordenskiöld, was the first to navigate the Northeast Passage above Siberia undoubtedly fostered an interest in the polar regions in the Swedish-born explorer. A geologist by training, Nordenskjöld led expeditions to Tierra del Fuego and the Yukon before turning to the far south. He led the Swedish Antarctic Expedition in 1901-04, which yielded very significant scientific results, but which is best known for the problems that developed when his ship Antarctic was crushed in the ice. Nordenskjöld later led expeditions to Greenland (1909) and to Peru and Chile (1920-21). Richard Evelyn Byrd (1888-1957) Admiral Byrd's polar adventures began in the north, when the US Naval officer claimed to have flown from Spitsbergen to the North Pole. In 1928, he turned his sights south, and led one of the most lavish expeditions ever to have visited the Antarctic. A base comprising a dozen huts, hundreds of crates, radio towers, and telephone communications was established, which Byrd named Little America. In 1929, he was the first man to fly over the South Pole, hurling emergency supplies overboard when the plane threatened to crash. On his next expedition, 1933-35, Byrd wintered alone in a tiny cabin 125 miles south of Little America. In all, he led five trips south, culminating in the US government's Operation Highjump and Operation Deepfreeze. NORDENSKJÖLD COAST NAfVSe/y Dismal Mountain, : t « " o ) osBrabant Island '.fe, Q \ ^ Anvers Island CifSTSS»! Palmer (US/^JÍ;'

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M Belgrano II (Argentina) , 5 MAC. ROBERTSON San Martin' ^Argentina) Nathaniel B. Palmer (1799-1877) When stocks of whales and seals became depleted in the north, attention turned to the unexploited riches of the south. Adventurous and ambitious young men like the American Nathaniel Palmer set out to discover the abundance of marine life described by Captain Cook in the 1770s. In 1820, while on the small ship Hero, as part of a larger sealing fleet, Palmer sighted land south of the South Shetland Islands. He has thus been credited (as have Bellingshausen and Bransfieid) with being the first to discover the Antarctic continent. A year later, he certainly discovered the South Orkney Islands, in company with the British sealer George Powell. Adelaide Island ' Rothera" Mi Jacfeon Jean-Baptiste Charcot (1867-1936) Charcot was away from his home in France for so long on his first expedition to the Antarctic, aboard the Frangais in 1903-05, that his wife divorced him when he returned. Although the voyage cost Charcot his marriage, it provided the French government with some very accurate charts of the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. His second expedition was in Pourquoi-Pas? (Why Not?), and allowed Charcot, now with a new wife waiting at home, to chart some 1,200 miles of previously unknown Peninsula coastline. He continued his polar travels until 1936, when Pourquoi-Pas? was wrecked near Iceland, and he and most of his crew died. hlchner Ice-Shelf LARS CHRISTENSEN COAST LAND Conquest of the Pole Roald Amundsen and his four Norwegian companions were the first human beings to reach the Geographic South Pole on 14 December 1911. Next to reach the Pole, about one month later on 17 January 1912, was the five-man British team led by Robert Falcon Scott. Although the Pole was flown over by Admiral Richard Byrd, USN, on 29 November 1929, it was not visited again until 1956, when Admiral George Dufek, USN, followed by Dr Paul Siple and a team of 17, arrived to carry out investigations for the International Geophysical Year. The American station, named Amundsen-Scott, has been occupied continuously since that time. CO,,, Marguerite Bay Cape Darnley Berkner Island "

u"lains 3355m MtMenzies Amery Ice Shelf Alexander Island Ronne Ice Shelf Palmer Charcot Charcot Island "jZhongshan (China) i O, ' Progress (Russia) °0 'W hrf^ÄSavis (Australia) \ Latady Island PRINCESS Finn Ronne (1899-1980) A mechanical engineer by training, Finn Ronne had a natural background for Antarctic exploration, since his Norwegian father had been a member of Roald Amundsen's expedition in 1910-12. The first of the younger Ronne's nine Antarctic trips was in 1933, when he was invited to be ski expert, dog handler, and radio operator on one of Richard E. Byrd's expeditions. Ronne's best-known expedition was the privately funded Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition, 1947-48, which wintered on Stonington Island. His wife Edith, for whom the Ronne Ice Shelf was named, was one of two women who accompanied him and were the first women to winter in Antarctica. Ronne made extensive surveys of Palmer Land, and his research went a long way to confirming Antarctica's status as a true continent. James Cook (1728-1779) The greatest explorer of his age, the Englishman James Cook led his first major expedition from 1768 to 1771, when he was sent to take Joseph Banks and a group of scientists to the South Pacific to observe the transit of Venus and to search for a southern continent. On this voyage, Captain Cook charted much of New Zealand and sighted and claimed the east coast of Australia. On his next voyage, 1772-1775, Cook completed the first circumnavigation of the world in a high southern latitude, dispelling the popular idea of a southern continent in a temperate zone. On 17 January 1773, his ships Resolution and Adventure became the first ever to cross the Antarctic Circle. At the end of this voyage, he also took possession of South Georgia. On his third voyage, 1776-1779, Cook explored parts of the Arctic coasts of North America and Siberia. However, he was killed in 1779 by natives on the island of Hawaii. Pole of Relative Inaccessibility Smyley Island Eltanin Bay / LAND •& o a ' o I West % ö ice shelf Davis •iiiel Range Ronne Cook POLAR PLATEAU 4897 m South Pole 2800m .AmundSén-Scott (USA) WILHELM ftnätm-MassifPeterI Island ELLSWORTH LAND ^ LAND •Mirny (Russia) Bellingshausen Sir James Clark Ross (1800-1862) A veteran of Arctic exploration, James Clark Ross was a natural choice to lead the Royal Navy's Antarctic expedition (1839-43). Ross took two ships, Erebus and Terror, which were specially adapted for polar waters, with thickened hulls and water-tight compartments. On this expedition, he proved that the ice that had stopped every other ship from nearing the continent could indeed be navigated. Ross discovered that beyond the ice pack was a huge open sea, bordered on one side by land he named Victoria Land. Near the southern extreme of what became known as the Ross Sea was Ross Island, with mounts Erebus and Terror, the former an active volcano. And beyond this were towering ice-cliffs, now known as the Ross Ice Shelf. In approaching the ice shelf, Ross attained a then 'farthest south' of 78° 10'. Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) Francis Drake was half-pirate, half-explorer, and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, especially given his role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. However, Drake's motives were more mercenary than scientific or cartographic. From 1577 to 1580, Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. On this expedition, having sailed through the Strait of Magellan, his ship was driven south to 57°S, a place that Drake considered to be the meeting place of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This allowed him to prove that Tierra del Fuego was not connected to a southern continent. The stormy seas between the Peninsula and Cape Horn are named the Drake Passage in his honour. Hudson Mountains WEST • TAR :TICA '3941m. Vostok (Russia) e ditto

1!}. Thurston Island H Masson Island ans-Antajctjc QUEEN MARY Shackleton Ice Shelf EAST ANTARCTICA Geomagnetic South Pole r liifEÄJ Glacier Drake LAND Mill Island Four Poles The Geographic South Pole is at the southern end of the earth's rotational axis, where all the lines of longitude converge. It was first reached by Roald Amundsen in 1911. The "Magnetic South Pole is where the lines of force of the earth's magnetic field converge-the point away from which compasses point in the southern hemisphere. It was first visited by the Australians, Mawson, David, and MacKay, on 16 January 1909, but it moves about 5 km/year and is currently in the Southern Ocean, off Dumont d'Urville station. The Geomagnetic South Pole is a theoretical point marking the southern end of the earth's geomagnetic field. It also moves, and is currently near the Russian Vostok station. Finally, the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility is the place that is farthest away, in all directions, from the coastlines. Mt TakShe V 3566m; ' 3fi;7« <0, /Fötiey Min Mt Frakes ^ CP Executive Committee '' C Range 1 Cape Herlacher John Rymill (1905-1968) Rymill had three Arctic expeditions, one to Canada and two to Greenland with fellow explorer Gino Watkins, under his belt before he planned and led the British Graham Land Expedition of 1934-37. The expedition was important geographically, because it proved that Graham Land was not a series of islands but a peninsula that was part of the continent. On the BGLE, Rymill combined traditional sledging with the newer technology afforded by aircraft to conduct his surveys. After service in the naval reserve during World War II, he spent the rest of his life farming in his native Australia. Erich VOI1 Drygalski (1865-1949) As professor of geography at the University of Berlin, Drygalski was already a geographer of some renown when he was chosen to lead the German Antarctic Expedition in 1901. His previous polar experience entailed a four-year scientific expedition to Greenland in the 1890s. His ship, Gauss, travelled to Wilhelm II Land, but was then trapped in the ice and remained there for 12 months, during which Drygalski undertook a 90-day sledge journey across the ice. Although he visited Spitsbergen in 1906, much of the rest of his life was devoted to writing up his Antarctic reports. Vincerines Bay Carney * Island "o Mrsltífey if GL ÄCasey (Australia) 1395iri Amundsen p

ajwin Mountains Cook /fa,.. \ Law Dome Rymill Cape Poinsett 3498m Dome Concordia (France/Italy) The remarkable Dry Valleys of Victoria Land have seen no rain for at least two million years. This unique ecosystem came about because the Transantarctic Mountains were uplifted faster than glaciers could cut their way through to the sea. The glaciers were trapped behind the mountains, and then dry winds kept the valleys free of snow. Amazingly, some communities of lichens, fungi, and algae have been found here that actually live inside rocks, either in minute cracks or even between the crystals of the more poroiis sandstones and granites. This barren, rocky landscape is likened to that of Mars. artetir! Wrigley Gulf Roosevelt Island Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) Born in the English county of Devon, Captain Robert Falcon Scott joined the Royal Navy when he was 13 years old. In 1899, then a lieutenant, he met Sir Clements Markham, the driving force behind the National Antarctic Expedition, and immediately applied to command it. He won the appointment, and the expedition headed south in Discovery in 1901. Aside from the expedition's scientific achievements, Scott also led a party that attained a 'farthest south', sledging over the Ross Ice Shelf. In 1910, he led a second expedition south, this time in Terra Nova. He and four companions,Edward Wilson, L.E.G. Oates, 'Birdie' Bowers, and Edgar Evans, reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find Amundsen's Norwegian flag already flying there. Scott and his companions met bad weather on their return journey, and their supplies of food and fuel began to dwindle. All five died, leaving behind them moving written accounts of their final struggle, which were discovered by colleagues the following summer. S-är-' Colvocoresses Bay of Whales Capo " Colbeck Jules-Sebastian Cesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842)The 1830s were a period of intense exploration in the Antarctic, with British, USA, and French expeditions sent to explore the mysterious lands to the south. Dumont d'Urville (who had helped the French government obtain the Venus de Milo and had been a founding member of the Paris Geographical Society) led an expedition from 1837 to 1840, on which he was instructed to sail farther south than anyone else had done before. Sailing in Astrolabe and Zélée, Dumont d'Urville's party became stuck in the ice of the Weddell Sea, but still eventually charted more than 300 miles of Antarctic coastline and first recorded Adélie penguins, which were named for his wife. Ross Island'a íá Mt ffelboumá Drygalski Ice Tonguts Terra Nova ® Bay (Italy) ; Scott Porpoise , Bay Dumont d'Urville C-5B Galaxy landing at McMurdo MM x Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) Ernest Shackleton first visited the Antarctic as an officer on Robert Falcon Scott's 1901-04 National Antarctic Expedition, on which he joined Scott and Edward Wilson in sledging I^ML to a 'farthest south'. In 1907-09, Shackleton led his own expedition, on which he discovered the Beardmore Glacier, •Itli reached the Polar Plateau, and came to within 97 miles of the South Pole before having to turn back. The goal HHUr^ jB;' of Shackleton's next expedition, 1914-17, was to cross the Antarctic continent. However, his ship Endurance was J^k*^' JHfl caught in the ice and sank, leaving the crew stranded. After months of camping as the floes drifted north, Shackleton SS(P led his men 100 miles in three small boats to Elephant Island. Shackleton then took one of the boats and sailed Shackleton with fiv

e companions another 800 miles through some of the stormiest seas in the world to South Georgia, where he trekked across that island's mountainous spine to a whaling station to raise the alarm about his comrades' plight. Remarkably, not a man on that part of the expedition lost his life. Shackleton died five years later on his beloved South Georgia, where he is buried. Nobu Shirase (1861-1946) Exploration of the polar regions did not generate interest in Japan in the early 20th century, and Nobu Shirase had to overcome considerable public opposition in order to organise his Antarctic expedition. When the government declined to help, he approached a wealthy former Premier, Count Okuma, and the expedition finally set off in 1911 in Kainan Maru. The first year achieved little, but Shirase returned south the following summer and landed in the Bay of Whales. They sledged 160 miles inland, raised the Japanese flag for the first time in the Antarctic, and went home to a hero's welcome. Shirase spent most of the rest of his life trying to repay the remaining costs of the expedition. He died in impoverished obscurity. Coulman Island f]^ ADELIE Hahn Island Ross Island & McMurdo Sound McMurdo Station houses over 1,000 men and women in the southern summer, but the total drops to about onefifth that number during the cold, dark winter. Most supplies, such as food, fuel, building materials, and heavy equipment reach McMurdo by sea, but people and lighter cargo are transported by air from Christchurch, New Zealand. Aircraft as big as the C-5B Galaxy land on the sea ice of McMurdo Sound, or on the Ross Ice Shelf. Planes from McMurdo also supply the American Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole, some 840 miles (1400 km) away. LAND lumont d'Urville (France) Black Island D Mawson's Hut Commonwealth Bay OAiI'EG LAND Mount' Brown Wise Peninsula COAST Dumont d'Urville Cape Hodgson COAST White Island Cape Hudson Magnetic South Pole Cape Chocolate Bratina Island McMurdo Ice Shelf 1480rti » „ Dailey Islands Balleny Islands CapeArmitage , Scott Base (NZ)f ^Scott's Discovery Hut The Strand Moraines Scott Island LEGEND Butter Point New Harbour 'ANTARCTIC {.$/ Erebus

: Jt* J, Glacier j Tongue Scientific Station (year round) Historic Hut Erebus Bay M C IV. Dellbridge Islands C'dpb Evans 'fsfctt's Hut L,CapeBarne S 0 VShackleton's Hut ' Cape Royds Lincoln Ellsworth (1880- 1951)The heir to an American mining fortune, Lincoln Ellsworth came to prominence when he linked up with the famous explorer Roald Amundsen. In May 1925, the two attempted to fly to the North Pole, but they had to make an emergency landing and were 24 days on the ice before being able to fly back to Spitsbergen. The next year, Ellsworth, Amundsen, and Umberto Nobile successfully flew over the North Pole in the dirigible Norge. In the 1930s, he took part in a series of four expeditions to the Antarctic with Hubert Wilkins. In 1936, Ellsworth and co-pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon flew across the Antarctic Continent in three steps, but ran out of fuel just 16 miles from Byrd's Little America base, which they had to reach on foot. James Weddell (1787-1834) James Weddell had a long and varied caree- in the Royal Navy, the merchant marine, and the sealing industry. From 1819 to 1822 he was involved in Antarctic sealing voyages in the brig Jane. In 1822, having unsuccessfully searched for seals between the South Shetlands and the South Orkneys, Weddell turned south to look for new sealing grounds. He found no seals, but he did sail to the east of the Peninsula 214 nautical miles farther south than had James Cook, penetrating deep into what has since been named the Weddell Sea. While exploring, Weddell took careful observations of sea-water temperature, currents, and ice movements, and helped set the tone of scientific exploration that was characteristic of many later expeditions. Turks Head Cape Bernacchi Bernacchi Bay Marble Point Windless Bight Cape Wackay 3110m Heights in metres Bay Of Sails Island 2130 m Weddell Spike Cape V , Dunlop Island Cape Dunlop Wohlschlag Bay ' Ji

T Ä S Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) If James Clark Ross's voyage was the best organised and equippec of the 1840s, Charles Wilkes's United States Exploring Expedition •If * |Sp » (1838-42) was surely the worst. None of his six ships were ice-strengthened, and two came nowhere near the Antarctic. Wilkes sighted Adélie Land, then sailed west along j|r ..V the portion of coast now called Wilkes Land. Ice battered the flimsy flotilla, and the crew suffered from sickness. Wilkes charted islands where there were none, then sailed . home with a sullen crew. He anticipated a hero's return, but instead faced a court-martial for the harsh treatment of his men. He was acquitted, but the 127 desertions suggest '"

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s wHfcl - he was an unpopular master. ^ Wilkes « sir Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958) A love of adventure prompted Wilkins to abandon his career in mining to wander Europe and America as a photographer. In 1913-17, he was the ™ photographer with Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Arctic expedition, took part in the British Imperial Expedition to the Antarctic in 1920, and served as ornithologist on Ernest Shackleton's Quest expeditio,

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k j. (1921-22). His next journey south was in 1928, funded! by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst; on this expedition he became the first man to fly in the Antarctic. In 1931 Wilkins tried MB

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^ unsuccessfully to use a submarine to dive under the North Pole. His association with Lincoln Ellsworth led him to more Antarctic expeditions in the 1930s. When he died in 1958, his ashes were Wilkins scattered at the North Pole. Edward Wilson (1872-1912) A medical doctor, naturalist, and artist particularly noted for his illustrations of birds, Edward Wilson first visited the Antarctic in 1901-04 with the British National Antarctic Expedition. In 1902 he joined Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on a sledge journey that attained a 'farthest south'. Wilson maintained his friendship with Scott, and, on Scott's second Antarctic expedition he was named chief of scientific staff. On the Terra Nova expedition, 'Uncle Bill' travelled to Cape Crozier to study emperor penguins during the winter, a trip made famous as 'the worst journey in the world'. Wilson then accompanied Scott on his ill-fated trek to the Pole, and died with Scott and Bowers in a tent just 11 miles from One Ton Depot, where supplies were waiting that might have saved their lives. Lewis Bay Cape Roberts Wood Point M Cape Tennyson Wilhelm Filchner (1877-1957) Filchner's first travels were in Asia, where he explored the Pamir range on horseback and led an expedition to Tibet. He then decided he would cross the Antarctic, and set out in Deutschland in 1910. Although he did not achieve his objective, he reached the southern parts of the Weddell Sea, which were hitherto unknown. A major ice shelf in the area was later named in his honour. Filchner never returned to the south. He led two important expeditions to Tibet (1926-28 and 1934-36) and one to Nepal (1939), and was in India during World War II. 600 Miles 60 Kilometres Beaufort Island SCALE: Approx 1:1,750,000 1000 Kilometres Wilson SCALE: Approx 1:12,250,000 Polar Stereographic Projection