The man who discovered Antarctica. Great geographical discovery. Controversial Discoverers – Whalers Bransfield and Palmer

The assumption of the existence at the South Pole of a mysterious Terra Australis Incognita - Southern unknown land - they spoke out long before the equipment of the first real expeditions there. Ever since scientists realized that the Earth is spherical, they have assumed that the areas of land and sea in the northern and southern hemispheres are about the same. Otherwise, they say, the balance would be disturbed, and our planet would be oriented towards the Sun with a side with a larger mass.

Once again, one has to be surprised at the clairvoyance of M.V. Lomonosov, who in 1763, even before Cook's expeditions, very clearly formulated his idea of ​​​​the Southern land: “In the vicinity of the Strait of Magellan and opposite the Cape Good Hope about 53 degrees of midday width, great ice moves, why there should be no doubt that in a great distance the islands and the hardened land are covered with many and non-sinking snows, and that a large expanse of the earth's surface near the South Pole is occupied by them than in the north ".

A curious moment: at first, the opinion prevailed that the southern continent was much larger than it really was. And when the Dutchman Willem Janson discovered Australia, he gave it a name, based on the assumption that it is part of the same Terra Australis Incognita…

Off the coast of Antarctica. Photo: Peter Holgate.

The first who managed, albeit not of their own free will, to cross the Antarctic Circle and, in all likelihood, see Antarctica became the Dutch. In 1559, the ship commanded by Dirk Geeritz, in the Strait of Magellan fell into a storm and was carried far to the south. Having reached 64 degrees south latitude, the sailors saw « high ground» . But besides this mention, history has not preserved other evidence of a possible discovery. As soon as the weather permitted, Geeritz immediately left the inhospitable Antarctic waters.

Dutch galleon of the 16th century.

It is possible that the case with the ship Geeritsa was not the only one. Already in our time, on the coast of the Antarctic islands, wrecks of ships, clothes and kitchen utensils, dating back to the 16th-17th centuries, have been repeatedly found. One of these wrecks, which belonged to an 18th-century Spanish galleon, is kept in the museum of the Chilean city of Valparaiso. True, skeptics believe that all this evidence of shipwrecks could be brought to Antarctica waves and currents.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, French sailors distinguished themselves: they discovered the islands South Georgia, Bouvet and Kerguelen located in "roaring forties" latitudes. The British, not wanting to lag behind their competitors, in 1768-1775 also equipped two expeditions in a row. It was they who became an important stage in the study of the southern hemisphere.

Both expeditions were led by the famous captain James Cook. He repeatedly crossed the Arctic Circle, was covered with ice, crossed the 71st degree south latitude and was only 75 miles from the coast of the sixth continent, but an insurmountable wall of ice prevented them from reaching.

Cook's expedition ship Endeavor, modern replica.

Despite failing to find mainland land, in general, Cook's expeditions brought impressive results. It was found that New Zealand- this is an archipelago, and not part of the southern mainland, as previously assumed. In addition, the coasts of Australia, vast water areas Pacific Ocean, several islands were discovered, astronomical observations were made, etc.

In domestic literature there are allegations that Cook did not believe in the existence of the Southern Land and allegedly openly declared this. Actually it is not. James Cook argued just the opposite: “I will not deny that there may be a continent or a significant land near the pole. On the contrary, I am convinced that such a land exists, and it is possible that we have seen part of it. Great cold, a huge number of icy islands and floating ice - all this proves that the land in the south must be ".

He even wrote a special treatise "Arguments for the existence of land near the South Pole", and open South Sandwich named the islands in honor of the first Lord of the Admiralty Sandwich Land, mistakenly believing that this is a ledge of the continental land of the southern continent. However, Cook, faced with the extremely harsh Antarctic climate, came to the conclusion that further research was pointless. Because the mainland “Being open and examined, it would still not benefit either navigation, or geography, or other branches of science”. Probably, it was this statement that for a long time discouraged the desire to send new expeditions to the South Land, and for half a century, the harsh Antarctic waters were visited mainly by whaling and hunting ships.

Captain James Cook.

The next and possibly the most important discovery in history Antarctica was made by Russian sailors. In July 1819, the first Russian antarctic expedition as part of two Russian Imperial fleets Vostok and Mirny. The first of them, and the detachment as a whole, was commanded by a captain of the 2nd rank, the second - by lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. It is curious that the goals of the expedition were exclusively scientific - she had to explore the remote waters of the oceans and find the mysterious southern mainland, penetrating "to the farthest latitude that can be reached".

The Russian sailors fulfilled the assigned tasks brilliantly. On January 28 (according to the ship's "mean astronomical" time, ahead of St. Petersburg by 12 hours), 1820, they came close to the ice barrier of the Antarctic continent. According to them, before them was "Ice field dotted with mounds". Lieutenant Lazarev spoke more specifically: “we met hardened ice of extreme height ... it extended as far as vision could only reach ... From here we continued our way to the east, encroaching at every opportunity to the south, but we always met an ice continent”. This day is now considered the opening day. Antarctica. Although, strictly speaking, the earth itself Russian sailors then they did not see: they were 20 miles from the coast, later called Queen Maud Land, and only an ice shelf appeared to their eyes.

It is curious that just three days later, on the other side of the mainland, an English sailing ship under the command of captain Edward Bransfield approached the Antarctic Peninsula, and the land was supposedly visible from its side. The same was claimed by the captain of the American hunting ship Nathaniel Palmer who visited the same place in November 1820. True, both of these ships were engaged in fishing for whales and seals, and their captains were primarily interested in commercial benefits, and not in the laurels of the discoverers of new lands.

American whaling ships in Antarctic waters. Artist Roy Cross.

In fairness, we note that, despite a number of controversial issues, recognition and Lazareva pioneers Antarctica deserved and fair. January 28, 1821 - exactly one year after the meeting with "ice continent"- Russian sailors sunny weather clearly saw and even sketched a mountainous coast. The last doubts disappeared: not just an ice massif stretched to the south, but snow-covered rocks. The open land was mapped as Alexander I Land. It is interesting to note that for a long time Alexander I Land was considered part of the mainland, and only in 1940 it became clear that it was an island: a strait was discovered under a multi-meter thick ice shelf separating it from the continent.

For two years of navigation, the ships of the first Russian Antarctic expedition went around open mainland, leaving more than 50 thousand miles astern. 29 new islands were discovered, a huge amount of various research was carried out.

Sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" off the coast of Antarctica. Artist E.V.Voishvillo.

The first person to set foot on the ground - or rather, ice - of the southern continent, in all likelihood, was the American St. John Davis. On February 7, 1821, he landed from a fishing vessel ashore in West Antarctica near Cape Charles. However, this fact is not documented in any way and is given only from the words of a sailor, so many historians do not recognize it. The very first confirmed landing on the ice continent took place 74 years (!) Later - on January 24, 1895. Norwegian

“On the edge of our planet lies, like a sleeping princess, the earth, chained in blue. Sinister and beautiful, she lies in her frosty slumber, in the folds of a mantle of snow, glowing with amethysts and emeralds of ice. She sleeps in the iridescence of the icy halos of the Moon and the Sun, and her horizons are painted in pink, blue, gold and green tones of pastel ... Such is Antarctica - a continent almost equal in area to South America, whose inner regions are actually less known to us than the illuminated side of the Moon.

This is not an excerpt from a popular article; so wrote in 1947 the American explorer of Antarctica Richard Baird. At that time, scientists were just beginning a systematic study of the sixth continent - the most mysterious and harsh area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe globe.

For many years researchers different countries sacrificed their strength and even their lives to Antarctica.

On one of the Antarctic islands, from where he began his tragic journey to South Pole Robert Scott, in memory of him and his dead friends, a monument was erected - a simple wooden cross. On the tree blackened from time, the words are still clearly visible: "Fight and seek, find and not give up." The whole history of the study and development of high latitudes passed under this motto.

The discovery of Antarctica dates back to 1820 - the final, reliable discovery. Previously, there were only assumptions about its existence. It is believed that the ancient inhabitants of the islands of New Zealand, the ancestors of modern Polynesians - the Maori, were the first to get acquainted with the icy expanses of Antarctica.

Even closer to the discovery was James Cook, who debunked the myth of the notorious "Unknown Southern Land". He penetrated farther than others into Antarctic waters. But Cook was forced to limit himself to only an assumption: “I will not deny that there may be a continent or a significant land near the pole. On the contrary, I am convinced that such a land exists, and it is possible that we have seen part of it. Great cold, a huge number of ice islands and floating ice - all this proves that the land in the south must be ... "He even wrote a special treatise" Arguments in favor of the existence of land near the South Pole. In 1774 he reached a record latitude of 71010". Cook said: "... no man will ever dare to do more than I did ... The lands that may be in the south will never be explored." But this statement turned out to be overly self-confident.

But, apparently, the “iron” rule is always and everywhere observed: there is a time for everything. On the "clock" of the history of Antarctica, it struck a little over 40 years after Cook's wanderings. Russian navigators had the honor to start a new countdown. Two names once and for all fit into the history of great geographical discoveries: Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev.

Fate brought Bellingshausen and Lazarev together in 1819. The Naval Ministry planned an expedition to the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Two well-equipped ships were to make a difficult journey. Bellingshausen commanded one of them, Vostok, and Lazarev commanded the other, Mirny. Many decades later, the first Soviet Antarctic stations would be named after these ships.

On the calendar - July 16, 1819. On this day, the expedition sets sail. Its goal is formulated briefly: discoveries "in the possible vicinity of the Antarctic Pole." Navigators are ordered to explore South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands (discovered at one time by Buk) and "continue their explorations to the remotest latitude that can be reached", using "every possible diligence and the greatest effort to reach as close to the pole as possible, looking for unknown lands". The instruction was written with a sublime "calm", but no one knows yet how it will be possible to implement it in practice. “Lady Luck” accompanies, however, “Vostok” and “Mirny”. The island of South Georgia is described in detail; it is shown that Sandwich Land is not one island, but an entire archipelago: the most big Island Bellingshausen archipelago will be called Cook Island. The first instructions of the instruction have been completed.

Already visible on the horizon are endless expanses of ice; along their edge, ships continue their journey from west to east. On January 27, 1820, they crossed the Antarctic Circle and the next day came close to the ice barrier of the Antarctic continent. Only after more than a hundred years will the Norwegian explorers of Antarctica visit these places again: they will call them the Princess Martha Coast. Bellingshausen, in his diary on January 28, writes: “Continuing our journey south, at noon at latitude 69021 "28", longitude 2014 "50" we met ice, which seemed to us through the falling snow in the form of white clouds. After going another 2 miles to the southeast, writes Bellingshausen, they managed to observe "solid ice", "an ice field dotted with mounds."

Lazarev's ship was in conditions of much better visibility. The captain observed "hardened ice of extraordinary height", and "it extended as far as sight could only reach."

This ice was part of ice sheet Antarctica. So January 28, 1820 went down in history as the date of the discovery of the Antarctic continent. Two more times (February 2 and 17) "Vostok" and "Mirny" come close to the coast of Antarctica.

The instruction prescribed "to search for unknown lands", but even the most determined of its compilers could not foresee such an enchanting execution.

Winter is approaching in the Southern Hemisphere. The ships of the expedition are heading north, plying the waters of the tropical and temperate latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. A year passes. "Vostok" and "Mirny" are again heading for Antarctica, crossing the Antarctic Circle three times.

January 22, 1821 the eyes of travelers appear unknown island. Bellingshausen calls it the island of Peter I - " high name culprit of existence Russian Empire navy." And on January 28 - exactly a year has passed since the day historical event- in cloudless sunny weather, the crews of the ships observe a mountainous coast extending to the south beyond the limits of visibility, - on future geographical maps Alexander I Land will appear. Now there was no doubt: Antarctica is not just a giant ice massif, but a real “earthly” continent, by no means a “continent of ice”, as Bellingshausen called it in his report.

However, he himself never spoke about the discovery of the mainland. Not out of a sense of false modesty: he understood that it was possible to draw final conclusions only by “stepping over the side of the ship”, having carried out research on the shore. Neither the size nor the outlines of the continent Bellingshausen could not form even a rough idea. This took many decades.

Completing its "odyssey", the expedition examined in detail the South Shetland Islands, about which until then it was known only that they were observed in 1818 by the Englishman W. Smith. The islands were described and mapped. Many satellites of Bellingshausen were participants in the Patriotic War of 1812. In memory of its episodes, individual islands received the corresponding names: Borodino, Maly Yaroslavets, Smolensk, Berezina, Leipzig, Waterloo. Isn't it true how bizarre geographical toponymy can be?! And it is unfair that they were subsequently renamed by English navigators. By the way, in 1968, the northernmost Soviet scientific station in Antarctica, Bellingshausen, was founded on Waterloo,

The voyage of Russian ships lasted 751 days, and its length did not reach 100 thousand km: it's the same as going around the Earth two and a quarter times along the equator. 29 new islands have been mapped.

Thus began the chronicle of the study and development of Antarctica, in which the names of researchers from many countries are inscribed.

January 28, 1820 the day of the discovery of Antarctica, the sixth continent of the Earth. But only almost 80 years, in 1899, here, at Cape Adair, people landed for the first time - 10 people, led by the Norwegian Karsten Borchgrevink. These people for the first time dared to spend the Antarctic wintering. And although it turned out to be difficult, it was found that you can live in Antarctica.

It was actually discovered in 1820, when on January 16 (28) an expedition led by the great Russian seafaring officers Mikhail Lazarev and Thaddeus Bellingshausen noticed an unknown land nearby. This land turned out to be the sixth, the last of the discovered globe- Antarctica.

The distance traveled by the Mirny and Vostok boats was 100,000 km.

The expedition members managed to accomplish what was previously considered impossible.

Indeed, back in 1775, the famous James Cook, who could not break through the ice (he stopped about two hundred kilometers from Antarctica), wrote in his diaries that not a single person could move south further than him.

The Russian expedition did not land on the coast of Antarctica, and this is one of the reasons for the disputes about the discovery of the continent.

The expedition of Lazarev and Bellingshausen lasted a little more than two years (751 days), and the path they covered was equal to two trips around the world.

Discovery of Antarctica: speculation and assumptions

The version about the existence of the continent itself was expressed in the second century AD by the ancient Greek geographer and astronomer Ptolemy. However, his assumptions for many centuries were not confirmed by scientific facts.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese, led by Amerigo Vespucci, reached the island of South Georgia, but returned due to extreme cold, which none of the members of the flotilla could endure. In 1775, James Cook went deep into the Atlantic waters, but he could not break through the cold and ice close to the mainland, and was also forced to retreat. Although he was in the existence of Antarctica.

Whoever set foot on earth first discovered

Recently, the assertion that it is not open until a person has set foot on it has become popular. Hence, another date for the “discovery” of the sixth continent is January 23, 1895, when the Norwegians Christensen (the captain of the Antarctic vessel) and Carlsen Borchgrevink (teacher of natural sciences) reached the coast of Antarctica and landed on its land.

Their expedition managed to get samples of minerals and describe the aurora. A few years later, Borchgrevink returned to Antarctica, but already as the leader of an expedition called the Southern Cross.

The discovery of Antarctica dates back to 1820.

However, the fact that there is a mainland at the South Pole was guessed before. The ancient Greeks were the first to express the idea of ​​Antarctica. They knew about the Arctic - Arktos is an icy region in the Northern Hemisphere. And they decided that in order to balance the world, there should be a similar cold area in the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite area "Ant - Arktos" - opposite the Arctic.

Assumptions about Antarctica arose among the participants of the Portuguese expedition of 1501-1502., in which the Florentine traveler Amerigo Vespucci took part (his name, thanks to a bizarre coincidence, was subsequently immortalized in the name of the huge continents). But the expedition could not advance further than the island of South Georgia, which lies quite far from the Antarctic continent. “The cold was so strong that none of our flotilla could bear it,” Vespucci testified.

James Cook penetrated the Antarctic waters furthest, debunking the myth of the giant Unknown Southern Land. But even he was forced to confine himself to a mere assumption: “I will not deny that there may be a continent or a significant land near the pole. On the contrary, I am convinced that such a land exists, and it is possible that we have seen part of it. Great cold, a huge number of ice islands and floating ice - all this proves that the land in the south must be ... ". He even wrote a special treatise "Arguments for the existence of land near the South Pole."

Naval Cadet Corps. From an early age, he dreamed of sea ​​spaces. “I was born in the middle of the sea,” he wrote, “as a fish cannot live without water, so I cannot I can live without the sea." In 1803-1806. Bellingshausen took part in the first Russian round-the-world voyage on the ship "Nadezhda" under the leadership of Ivan Kruzenshtern.

Was ten years younger Lazarev who has made three world travel. In 1827 he took part in the naval battle of Navarino against the Turks; later, for almost 20 years, he commanded the Black Sea Fleet. Among the students of Lazarev were outstanding Russian naval commanders Vladimir Kornilov, Pavel Nakhimov, Vladimir Istomin.

Fate brought Bellingshausen and Lazarev together in 1819. The Naval Ministry planned an expedition to the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Two well-equipped ships were to make a difficult journey. One of them, the Vostok sloop, was commanded by Bellingshausen, the other, bearing the name Mirny, was commanded by Lazarev. Many decades later, the first Soviet Antarctic stations would be named after these ships.

July 16, 1819 the expedition set sail. Its goal was formulated briefly: discoveries "in the possible vicinity of the Antarctic Pole." Mariners were ordered to explore South Georgia and Sandwich Land (now the South Sandwich Islands, once discovered by Cook) and "continue their explorations to the remotest latitude that can be reached", using "every diligence and the greatest effort to reach as close to the pole as possible, looking for unknown earth." The instruction was written in a "high calm", but no one knew how it could be implemented in practice. However, luck accompanied the "East" and "Mirny". The island of South Georgia has been described in detail; it was established that Sandwich Land is not one island, but an entire archipelago, and Bellingshausen called the largest island of the archipelago Cook Island. The first prescriptions of the instruction were fulfilled.

Already one could see endless expanses of ice on the horizon; along their edge, the ships continued their journey from west to east. On January 27, 1820, they crossed the Antarctic Circle and the next day came close to the ice barrier of the Antarctic continent. Only more than 100 years later, Norwegian explorers of Antarctica visited these places again: they called them the Princess Martha Coast. On January 28, Bellingshausen wrote in his diary: “Continuing our journey south, at noon at latitude 69 ° 21 "28", longitude 2 ° 14 "50" we met ice, which seemed to us through the falling snow in the form of white clouds. After going another two miles to the southeast, the expedition found itself in " solid ice»; all around stretched "an ice field dotted with mounds."

Lazarev's ship was in conditions of much better visibility. The captain observed "hard (i.e., very powerful, solid) ice of extraordinary height", and "it extended as far as vision could only reach." This ice was part of the Antarctic ice sheet. And January 28, 1820 went down in history as the date of the discovery of the Antarctic continent. Two more times (February 2 and 17) Vostok and Mirny came close to the coast of Antarctica.

The instruction ordered "to search for unknown lands", but even the most determined of its compilers could not foresee such an amazing implementation.

On January 22, 1821, an unknown island appeared to the eyes of travelers. Bellingshausen called it the island of Peter I - "the high name of the culprit of the existence of a navy in the Russian Empire." January 28 - exactly one year has passed since the historic event - in cloudless, sunny weather, the crews of the ships observed a mountainous coast that extended south beyond the limits of visibility.
For the first time, Alexander I Land appeared on geographical maps. Now there is no doubt left: Antarctica is not just a giant ice massif, not a “continent of ice”, as Bellingshausen called it in his report, but a real “earthly” continent.

However, he himself never spoke about the discovery of the mainland. And the point here is not a sense of false modesty: he understood that it was possible to draw final conclusions only by “stepping over the side of the ship”, having carried out research on the shore. Neither the size nor the outlines of the continent F. Bellingshausen could not form even a rough idea. This took many decades.

Completing its "odyssey", the expedition examined in detail the South Shetland Islands, about which it was previously known only that the Englishman W. Smith observed them in 1818. The islands were described and mapped. Many satellites of Bellingshausen participated in Patriotic war 1812. Therefore, in memory of her battles, individual islands received the corresponding names: Borodino, Maloyaroslavets, Smolensk, Berezina, Leipzig, Waterloo. However, later they were renamed by English sailors, which seems unfair. By the way, at Waterloo ( modern name his - King George) in 1968 the northernmost Soviet scientific station in Antarctica - Bellingshausen was founded.

The voyage of Russian ships lasted 751 days, and its length was almost 100 thousand km (the same amount will be obtained if two and a quarter times go around the Earth along the equator). 29 new islands have been mapped. Thus began the chronicle of the study and development of Antarctica, in which the names of researchers from many countries are inscribed.

And the astronomer K., who lived in the I-II centuries. ad. Then the assumption was born that the ratio of land and sea areas in the Northern and Southern hemispheres should be approximately the same. For many centuries this hypothesis was not confirmed.

In 1774-1775. English navigator, making round the world expedition, penetrated much further south than its predecessors. But he could not break through the cold and ice to the mainland. The journey of J. Cook ended the first period in the history of the discovery and exploration of Antarctica - the period of assumptions about the existence of Antarctica.

The second period ended with the discovery of Antarctica. The honor of discovering the continent belongs to Russian sailors - the first Russian Antarctic expedition of 1819-1821. On the sloops Vostok and Mirny under the command of F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev. The direct discovery of the coast of Antarctica took place on January 28, 1820.

The third period begins with the study of Antarctic waters and coasts. For many decades, ships of researchers of a number have been sent to the shores of Antarctica. In 1882-1883. For the first time, studies of Antarctica were carried out according to the agreed program of the first International Polar Year.

The fourth period of the study of Antarctica begins with the first wintering on the mainland by K. Borchgrevink in 1898 on the coast of Robertson Bay near Cape Adare. This stage ended with the conquest of the South Pole in 1911-1912. The expedition of the Englishman Robert went to the Pole from western edge Ross Seas - from McMurdo Bay - on Scottish ponies and skis. The expedition, led by experienced polar explorer Roald Amundsen, went to dog sledding from eastern edge Ross Sea - from the Bay of Whales. The Norwegian expedition was the first to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911, and its members successfully returned to the coast and sailed home. R. Scott came to the South Pole with four comrades on skis 35 days later - January 16, 1912. On the way back, R. Scott and his companions died from exhaustion and cold ... History in a special way reconciled the rivals in the tragic race to the South Pole: there now The American scientific station “-Scott” is constantly working.

Among the researchers of the Antarctic, one should also mention the Australian D. Mawson and the Englishman E. Shelkton, as well as the American expeditions of 1928-1930, 1933-1936, 1939-1941. under the direction of R. Baird. After World War II begins modern stage research of Antarctica within the framework of the program of the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958). According to this program, our country was assigned the study of East Antarctica - the most inaccessible and unexplored part of the mainland. The first complex Antarctic expedition of the USSR (1955-1956), headed by M.M. Somov, left the port of Kaliningrad on a diesel-electric ship and founded the research station Mirny on the coast of Antarctica. In subsequent years, other stations were created within the continent and in coastal areas: “Vostok”, “Pole of inaccessibility”, “Pionerskaya” and others. The Center for Soviet Antarctic Research was moved to the Molodezhnaya station, where natural conditions less severe than in the Mirny area.