Which of the travelers discovered Antarctica? You will learn the answer from this article. Reliable, its final discovery occurred in 1820. This year begins the history of Antarctica. At first, people could only assume that this mainland exists.
Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth. More than 2 thousand meters is the average height of the surface above sea level of Antarctica. It reaches four thousand meters in the center of the mainland.
Before telling about which of the travelers discovered Antarctica, let us say a few words about sailors who came close to this great discovery.
The first guesses about the existence of the mainland
The participants of the expedition carried out by Portugal in 1501-1502, had their first guesses. Amerigo Vespucci took part in this voyage. This Florentine traveler, thanks to a very bizarre combination of various circumstances, gave his name to the name of two huge continents. However, the aforementioned expedition failed to advance further about. South Geogria, which is quite far from Antarctica. Vespucci testified that the cold was so intense that travelers could not bear it.
Antarctica has long attracted people. Travelers assumed that there is a huge mainland. James Cook entered the Antarctic waters earlier than others. He debunked the existing myth that the unknown South Land of huge sizes is located here. However, this seafarer was forced to only assume that there could be a continent near the pole. He believed that its presence proves a lot of ice islands, as well as floating ice.
Lazarev and Bellingshausen
Antarctica was discovered by an expedition led by sailors from Russia. Two names were forever inscribed in the history of geographical discoveries. This is F.F. Bellingshausen (years of life - 1778-1852) and M.P. Lazarev (1788-1851).
Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen was born in 1778. He was born on the Baltic Sea island of Saaremaa, which today belongs to Estonia. Studied the navigator in the Naval Cadet Corps.
From early childhood Bellingshausen dreamed of the open sea. He wrote that he was born in the middle of the sea, therefore, like a fish without water, he cannot live without it. In 1803-1806, Faddey Faddeevich took part in the voyage (the first round-the-world trip made by Russian sailors) on the ship Nadezhda, led by Ivan Kruzenshtern.
Lazarev was 10 years younger. He made 3 trips around the world in his life. The navigator participated in the Navarino naval battle in 1827, after which he was the commander of the Black Sea Fleet for almost twenty years. Among his students were such outstanding naval commanders of Russia as Vladimir Istomin, Pavel Nakhimov, Vladimir Kornilov.
"East" and "Peaceful"
Fate brought Lazarev and Bellingshausen in 1819. Then the Ministry of the Sea wanted to equip an expedition to the Southern Hemisphere. A difficult journey was to be carried out by two ships, well equipped. Bellingshausen was appointed commander of the Vostok sloop. Lazarev led Mirny. Many decades later, the first Antarctic stations of the USSR will be named in honor of these ships.
First discoveries
The expedition in 1819, July 16, began sailing. Its purpose was briefly formulated as follows: discoveries near the Antarctic Pole. Mariners were instructed to explore the Sandwich Land (today it is the South Sandwich Islands, which were once discovered by Cook), as well as South Georgia, after which the research should continue to a distant latitude that can only be reached.
Good luck accompanied Mirny and Vostok. The island of South Georgia has been described in detail. Mariners have established that Sandwich Land is a whole archipelago. Bellingshausen named Cook Island the largest island of this archipelago. The first instructions of the received instruction turned out to be fulfilled.
Discovery of Antarctica
On the horizon, ice open spaces were already visible. The ships continued along their edge from west to east. In 1820, on January 27, the expedition crossed the Arctic Circle. And the very next day, its participants came close to the Antarctic continent, its ice barrier. Only more than 100 years later, these places were visited again. This time they were the Norwegian explorers of Antarctica. They gave them the name Princess Martha Beach.
On January 28, Bellingshausen wrote in his diary that, continuing to move south, the expedition discovered at noon the ice, which, through the snow, appeared in the form of white clouds. Mariners, having traveled two more miles to the southeast, were already "in continuous ice." A huge field dotted with tubercles stretched around. So Antarctica was discovered by an expedition led by sailors Bellingshausen and Lazarev.
In conditions of much better visibility was the ship of Lazarev. The ship's captain observed "ice of extreme height", which extended to the horizon. He was part of the ice sheet that covered Antarctica. And on January 28 of the same year it went down in history as the date when Bellingshausen and Lazarev discovered the Antarctic continent. Two more times (February 2 and 17), Mirny and Vostok came close to the shores of Antarctica. According to the instructions, it was necessary to find the "unknown land." However, even the most decisive of the drafters of this document could not have foreseen such a successful completion of the task.
Repeated voyage to Antarctica
Winter was approaching in the southern hemisphere. Ships, shifted to the north, plowed in the temperate and tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. So a year has passed. Then Mirny and Vostok, commanded by Bellingshausen and Lazarev, headed back to Antarctica. They crossed the Antarctic Circle three times.
Island of Peter I
In the eyes of travelers in 1821, on January 22, an unknown island appeared. It was called Bellingshausen Island of Peter the Great. January 28, that is exactly one year after the discovery of Antarctica, in sunny, cloudless weather, the crews observed a mountainous coast, which extended beyond the limits of visibility to the south.
Land of Alexander I
For the first time, the land of Alexander I appeared on geographical maps. There was no doubt left: Antarctica is not just an ice mass, but a real mainland. Bellingshausen, however, never mentioned the discovery of the mainland. It was not a matter of false modesty. The navigator understood that it was possible to draw final conclusions only after conducting the necessary research on the coast of Antarctica. Neither about the shape, nor about the size of the continent, he could not make even a rough idea. Many decades went into research.
Exploration of the South Shetland Islands
Concluding the "Odyssey", sailors explored in detail the South Shetland Islands. Before, it was only known about them that W. Smith, an Englishman, observed them in 1818. These islands were mapped and described. In the Patriotic War of 1812, many satellites of Lazarev and Bellingshausen participated. Therefore, individual islands in memory of her battles received the following names: Waterloo, Leipzig, Berezina, Smolensk, Maloyaroslavets, Borodino. However, later the British sailors renamed them, which seems not entirely fair. By the way, on Waterloo (King George is its modern name), the USSR’s northernmost scientific station in Antarctica, called Bellingshausen, was founded in 1968.
Return to Kronstadt
In 1821, at the end of January, Thaddeus Faddeevich sent ships to the north, pretty battered by sailing in ice and storms. 751 days continued sailing of Russian ships. The length of the trip was approximately 100 thousand kilometers (that is, as much as it will turn out if you go around the equator two and a quarter times). 29 new islands were mapped. This was the beginning of the development and study of Antarctica.
Following the Russians
So, Antarctica was discovered by an expedition led by sailors from Russia. Two weeks after the Russian expedition, led by Lazarev and Bellingshausen, approached Antarctica in 1820, January 16, Edward Branzfield, who was moving south from the Scottish Isles to the south, saw a high coast covered with snow. He was named by this navigator the Trinity Land (i.e., Trinity). Researchers of Antarctica also saw two mountain peaks. It was the Antarctic Peninsula, its northern ledge, stretching for 1200 km in the direction of South America. There is no other long and narrow peninsula on Earth.
For the first time after the Russians, Antarctica was seen by the sailors of the Enderby company, two St. John’s warships, who traveled around the world under John Bisco. In 1831, at the end of February, these ships approached the mountainous land. She was mistaken for the island. Subsequently, this land was defined as a ledge of East Antarctica. The names of Mount Bisco (the highest peak on it) and Enderby Land appeared on the map. So the explorer discovered the navigator John Bisco.
This traveler makes another discovery next year. He encounters several islands of small size beyond the meridian zero , beyond which were the mountains of Graham Earth (this land was named by him), which continued the land of Alexander I to the east. A chain of small islands was named the proper name of this sailor, although the lands discovered by him were also considered a long time after the islands.
In the next decade of navigation in the Southern Ocean, another two or three “shores” were discovered. However, travelers did not approach any of them.
In the history of the study of Antarctica, a special place is occupied by the expedition of the French, led by J.S. Dumont Durville. In 1838, in January, two of his ships (Zele and Astrolabe) sailed to the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic, enveloping America from the south. The researcher went in search of ice-free water, far south, approaching the Antarctic Peninsula, its northern tip, which was named Louis Philippe Land by this navigator. Dumont-Durville, going into the Pacific Ocean, sent his ships into the tropical waters. However, from Tasmania then turned south and met on the latitude of the Arctic Circle the icy shore, called the Adele Earth by the name of his wife. This happened in 1840, January 20. The French landed on the island on the same day. We can say that people for the first time that day entered the land of Antarctica, although it was still not the mainland, but only the island near it.
After reading the article, you learned in what year discovered Antarctica. Only in 1956, on January 5, the first Russian researchers entered the coast of this continent. This happened, therefore, 136 years after Antarctica was discovered by an expedition led by sailors Lazarev and Bellingshausen.