From Cook crossing the Antarctic Circle in 1773 to the first sightings of the continent, Ross’s wall of ice, the race to the pole between Amundsen and Scott, Shackleton’s Endurance, the Antarctic Treaty and the ozone hole — two centuries of reaching for the frozen continent
Frank Hurley · Public domain · Source
On his second voyage James Cook’s Resolution and Adventure became the first ships to cross the Antarctic Circle (66.5° S). Blocked by ice, Cook never saw the continent.
In January 1820 the Russian Bellingshausen and the Briton Bransfield, days apart, sighted the icy coast and land of the Antarctic continent. Who was first is still told differently from country to country.
With the Erebus and Terror the Briton James Clark Ross sailed into a deep sea of Antarctica (the Ross Sea) and found a smoking volcano, Mount Erebus, and a vast wall of ice barring the sea (the Ross Ice Shelf).
The British party of five led by Robert Scott reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912 to find Amundsen’s Norwegian flag already there. All five died of cold and hunger on the way back.
The Norwegian Roald Amundsen and four companions became the first people to reach the South Pole, by dog sledge. Britain’s Scott and his party, arriving a month later, all died on the way back.
Shackleton’s Endurance, setting out to cross Antarctica on foot, was trapped and crushed by the ice of the Weddell Sea. After a year and a half on the ice and in small boats, all 28 men came home alive.
Twelve nations with stations in Antarctica signed the Antarctic Treaty in Washington, reserving the continent for peace and science, freezing territorial claims and banning military activity and nuclear explosions.
Scientists of the British Antarctic Survey reported that the ozone over Antarctica was falling sharply every spring — leading to the Montreal Protocol (1987) to cut CFCs.
Korea’s first Antarctic station, King Sejong Station, was built on King George Island. In 2014 a second, Jang Bogo Station, was built on the Antarctic mainland.
British navigator who made three voyages across the Pacific, charting New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, and was killed in Hawaii
Russian naval explorer who in January 1820, commanding the Vostok and Mirny, was among the first to sight the icy coast of the Antarctic continent
British naval officer and explorer who reached the North Magnetic Pole in 1831 and in 1841 discovered the Ross Sea, the Ross Ice Shelf and Mount Erebus
British naval officer and Antarctic explorer who reached the South Pole in January 1912, a month after Amundsen, and died with his companions on the way back
Norwegian polar explorer, first to sail the Northwest Passage and, on 14 December 1911, the first person to reach the South Pole; lost in the Arctic in 1928 while flying to search for missing colleagues
Irish-born British Antarctic explorer who, after the Endurance was crushed by the ice in 1915, brought all 28 of his men home alive