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Captain James Cook
History of Antarctic Exploration
 

By Jack A. Bobo

Terra Australis Incognita

The intention of the Voyage has in every respect been fully Answered, the Southern Hemisphere sufficiently explored and a final end put to the searching after a Southern Continent, which has at times ingrossed the attention of some of the Maritime Powers for near two Centuries past and the Geographers of all ages. That there may be a Continent or large tract of land near the Poles, I will not deny, on the contrary I am of the opinion there is...
                Journals of Captain James Cook, 21 February 1775
The early history of Antarctica is filled with controversy and competition. Indeed, the controversy began early with the question of the continent's discovery. In 1820 the American captain, Nathaniel Palmer, claimed to have sighted the Antarctic continent. The Soviet Union disputed the primacy of this claim, asserting that the Russian, Thaddeus von Bellinghausen, deserved that distinction. Neither actually stepped foot on the continent. And then there is Mr. Edward Bransfield of the Royal Navy who has an equally colorable claim to the title... Alan Gurney summarizes the controversy in his book "Below the Convergence Voyages Toward Antarctica1699-1839": "The Palmer adherents claim the honor for him. And are then gently reminded that Bransfield in the Williams sighted the Antarctic Peninsula ten months before their claims for the young sealer... The Russians counter with a checkmate move and claim the game won with Bellinghausen's sighting of the Finibul Ice Shelf a few days before Branfield's sighting of Trinity Land."
    I firmly believe that there is a tract of land near the pole, which is the source of most of the ice which is spread over this vast Southern Ocean.
                Journals of Captain James Cook, 6 February 1775
Explorers were unable to reach the continent itself until the late eighteenth century due to the impenetrability of the ice fields. However the inaccessibility of the continent did not deter exploitation of the surrounding islands. Commercial activity in the region increased in the 1820s with the advent of the sealing industry, then waned in the 1830s when the sealing industry died out. The economic importance of Antarctica was reestablished in the late nineteenth century with the advent of the whaling industry. 
    Nothwithstanding the length of time which has elapsed since the discovery of the western continent, and the consequent impulse given to the spirit of discovery, it is a remarkable fact that the most interesting section of this terraqueous gloabe still remains unexplored, and almost totally unknown. It is a reproach to every civilized country, that the people of this enlightened age possess so little accurate knowledge of the seas, islands, and perhaps continents which exist in the polar regions of the southern hemisphere.
                Benjamin Morrell, A Narrative of Four Voyages 1822-31, 1832
Systematic scientific exploration of Antarctica only began around the turn of this century. The period from 1894 to 1941 has been termed the "heroic age" for Antarctica. The summer of 1911-12 featured a race to the South Pole by British, Sir Robert Scott, and the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen. Attention focused on Antarctica for geopolitical rather than economic reasons at this time, since Antarctica was the last uncharted and unclaimed land on earth.

By Letters patent of July 21, 1908 Great Britain made the first claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica, comprising all areas and islands between 20 and 50 degrees West longitude and south of 50 degrees South latitude, as well as those south of 58 degrees South latitude, and between 50 and 80 degrees West longitude. A principal objective of this claim, which was finally delimited in 1917, was to control whaling in the Southern Ocean. 

Seven nations eventually laid territorial claims to parts of the continent: Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. In addition to being based on different theories of sovereignty, the territorial claims are in some cases overlapping.

After World War II, five countries stated that they would neither assert nor recognize any territorial claims to Antarctica. These states, known as the non-claimant states, included: the Japan, Belgium, South Africa, the United States and the Soviet Union. However, differences exist even among the non-claimants; the latter two stated that they retained the basis of a claim which could be asserted in the event the agreement ended.

During the early period of Antarctic exploration and exploitation the issue of tourism did not exist. The remoteness and inhospitability of the continent were adequate obstacles to paying customers.

    As for the Resolution, that honest product of Mr Fishburn's yard at Whitby, she proved one of the great, one of the superb, ships of history; of all the ships of the past, could she by magic be recreated and made immortal, one would gaze on her with something like reverence.
                J.C. Beaglehole, Introduction to Journals of Captain James Cook, 1969