Which country is credited with the discovery of Antarctica? Discoverer of Antarctica

“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 internal 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 from different countries sacrificed their strength and even their lives to Antarctica.

On one of the Antarctic islands, from where Robert Scott began his tragic journey to the South Pole, a monument was erected in memory of him and his dead friends - 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 near as possible to the pole, 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: Bellingshausen will call the largest island of the archipelago 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 the Antarctic ice sheet. 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.

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

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. The English navigator, making a round-the-world expedition, penetrated much further south than his 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 the western edge of the Ross Sea - from McMurdo Bay - on Scottish ponies and skis. The expedition, led by experienced polar explorer Roald Amundsen, set off by dog sled from the eastern edge of the 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 the Second World War, the modern stage of research in Antarctica begins 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 are less severe than in the Mirny area.

The most remote, cold and mysterious of all the continents of our planet, which holds many secrets, is Antarctica. Who is the discoverer? What is the flora and fauna on the continent? All this and more will be discussed in the article.

general description

Antarctica is a large desert, a deserted continent that does not belong to any of the existing states. In 1959, an agreement was signed, according to which citizens of any state have the right to access the mainland to study any of its points and only for peaceful purposes. In this connection, more than 16 scientific stations were built in Antarctica to study the mainland. Moreover, the information obtained there becomes the property of all mankind.

Antarctica is the fifth largest continent, with a total area of over 14 million square kilometers. It is characterized by low temperatures. The lowest recorded was 89.2 degrees below zero. The weather on the mainland is changeable and unevenly distributed. On the outskirts it is one, and in the center it is completely different.

Climatic features of the mainland

A distinctive feature of the climate of the continent is not only low temperatures, but also dryness. Here you can find dry valleys that form in the upper ten-centimeter layer of falling snow. The continent has not seen precipitation in the form of rain for more than 2 million years. On the continent, the combination of cold and dryness is at its peak. Despite this, the mainland contains more than 70% of fresh water, but only in the form of ice. The peculiarity of the climate is similar to the climate on the planet Mars. In Antarctica, strong and continuous winds are concentrated, which reach up to 90 meters per second, and powerful solar radiation.

Flora of the continent

Features of the climatic zone of Antarctica affect the scarcity of plant and animal diversity. The mainland is practically devoid of vegetation, however, some species of mosses and lichens can still be found along the edge of the mainland and on areas of land that have thawed from snow and ice, the so-called oasis islands. These representatives of the plant species often form peat bogs. Lichens are represented in a wide variety of more than three hundred species. In the lakes formed due to the melting of the earth, lower algae can be found. During the summer, Antarctica is beautiful and in places is represented by colorful spots of red, green and yellow, where you can see the lawns. This is the result of the accumulation of protozoan algae.

Flowering plants are rare and not found everywhere, there are more than two hundred of them, among them Kerguelen cabbage stands out, which is not only a nutritious vegetable, but also a good remedy for preventing the appearance of scurvy, due to the high content of vitamins. It is found on the Kerguelen Islands, from where it got its name, and South Georgia. Due to the absence of insects, pollination of flowering plants occurs by wind, which causes the absence of pigment in the leaves of herbaceous plants, they are colorless. Scientists note that once Antarctica was the center of flora formation, however, changing conditions on the continent led to a change in its flora and fauna.

Fauna of Antarctica

The fauna in Antarctica is scarce, especially for terrestrial species. There are some species of worms, lower crustaceans and insects. Of the latter, you can meet flies, but they are all wingless, and indeed, there are no winged insects on the continent due to constant strong winds. But in addition to wingless flies, wingless butterflies, some species of beetles, spiders and freshwater mollusks are also found in Antarctica.

In contrast to the poor terrestrial fauna, the Antarctic continent is rich in marine and semi-terrestrial animals, which are represented by numerous pinnipeds and cetaceans. These are fur seals, whales, seals, whose favorite place is floating ice. The most famous marine animals of Antarctica are penguins - birds that are excellent swimmers and divers, but do not fly because of their short, flipper-like wings. The main food ingredients of penguins are fish, but they do not disdain to eat mollusks and crustaceans.

The Importance of Exploring Antarctica

For a long time, navigation on the seas after the voyage of the navigator Cook was stopped. For half a century, not a single ship managed to do what the sailors of England did. The history of the study of Antarctica began in the late 18th - early 19th century. It was the Russian navigators who managed to do what Cook failed to do, and the door to Antarctica that they once closed opened. It was possible to accomplish this during the period of intensive construction of capitalism in Russia, during a period of special attention to geographical discoveries, since the formation of capitalism required development in the industrial industry and trade, which, in turn, required the development of scientific activity, the study of natural resources and the establishment of trade routes. It all started with the development of Siberia, its vast expanse, then the shores of the Pacific Ocean and, finally, North America. The interests of politics and navigators diverged. The purpose of travel researchers set the discovery of unknown continents, the knowledge of something new. For politicians, the significance of the study of Antarctica was reduced to expanding the market in the international arena, strengthening colonial influence and raising the level of prestige of their state.

The history of the discovery of Antarctica

In 1803-1806, Russian travelers I. F. Kruzenshtern and Yu. F. Lisyansky made the first trip around the world, which was equipped with two companies - Russian and American. Already in 1807-1809, V. M. Golovin was sent to sail on a military boat.

The defeat of Napoleon in 1812 inspired many naval officers to long voyages and exploratory trips. This coincided with the desire of the king to annex and secure separate lands for Russia. Research during a sea voyage led to the designation of the boundaries of all continents, in addition, the boundaries of the three oceans - the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific, were studied, but the spaces at the Earth's poles have not yet been explored.

Who are the discoverers of Antarctica?

F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev became the first explorers of Antarctica, representatives of the Russian expedition led by I. F. Krusenstern. The expedition consisted mainly of young people who wanted to go to the continent - military personnel. A team of 205 people was placed on two boats "Vostok" and "Mirny". The expedition leadership received the following instructions:

Strict adherence to assigned tasks.
Full compliance with the rules of navigation and full supply of the crew.
Comprehensive surveillance and ongoing travel journaling.

Bellingshausen and Lazarev were inspired by the belief in the existence of new lands. The discovery of new lands is the new main goal of inspired sailors. The presence of such in the region of the south pole could be found in the works of M. V. Lomonosov and Johann Forster, who believed that icebergs formed in the ocean are of continental origin. During the expedition, Bellingshausen and Lazarev made corrections in Cook's notes. They succeeded in giving a description of the shores towards Sandwich Land, which Cook failed to do.

Discovery of the continent

During the expedition, approaching the South Pole, well-known researchers of Antarctica first encountered one large iceberg, and then with a group of mountainous islands made of snow and ice. Moving between the snowy peaks, Russian sailors for the first time approached the Antarctic continent. A snowy shore opened up before the eyes of the travelers, but the mountains and rocks were not covered in snow. It seemed to them that the coast was endless, however, having decided to make sure that this was the southern continent, they traveled around it along the coast. It turned out that this is an island. The result of the expedition, which lasted 751 days, was the discovery of a new continent - Antarctica. The navigators managed to map the islands, bays, capes, etc., encountered on the way. During the expedition, some species of animals, plants, rock samples were obtained.

damage to fauna

The discovery of Antarctica brought great damage to the fauna of this continent, some species of marine animals were completely exterminated. In the 19th century, when Antarctica became the center of whaling, many species of marine life were significantly affected. The fauna of the continent today is under the protection of the international association.

Scientific delights

Scientific research of Antarctica boiled down to the fact that researchers from different countries, in addition to catching whales and other representatives of the animal world, discovered new territories, studied the climate. They also measured the depth of the sea.

Already in 1901, the modern explorer of Antarctica, Robert Scott, traveled to the shores of the southern continent, where he made many important discoveries and collected a lot of information about both the flora and fauna, and minerals. Since the 1930s, not only the water and land parts of Antarctica, but also its air spaces have been explored on a full scale, and since the 1950s, oceanic and geological work has been carried out.

Russian explorers in Antarctica

Our compatriots have done a lot to explore these lands. Russian researchers opened a scientific station in Antarctica and founded the village of Mirny. Today, people know much more about the continent than a hundred years ago. There is information about the weather conditions of the mainland, its flora and fauna, geological features, but the ice itself has not been fully studied, the study of which continues today. Today, scientists are concerned about the movement of Antarctic ice, their density, speed and composition.

Our days

One of the main values of the study of Antarctica is the search for minerals in the depths of the endless snowy desert. As established, the continent contains coal, iron ore, non-ferrous metals, as well as precious metals and stones. Of no small importance in modern research is the reconstruction of a complete picture of the old period of ice melting. It is already known that the Antarctic ice was formed earlier than the ice sheets of the Northern Hemisphere. The researchers came to the conclusion that the geostructure of Antarctica is similar to that of South Africa. The once uninhabited expanses are the source of research by polar explorers, who today are the only inhabitants of Antarctica. They include biologists, geologists and other scientists from different countries. They are the modern explorers of Antarctica.

The impact of human intervention on the integrity of the mainland

Modern opportunities and technologies allow wealthy tourists to visit Antarctica. Each new visit to the continent has a negative impact on the ecological background as a whole. The biggest danger appears to be global warming affecting the entire planet. This can lead to the melting of ice, to changes not only in the ecosystem of the mainland, but also in the entire World Ocean. That is why any scientific research of the continent is under the control of the world scientific community. A reasonable and cautious approach to the development of the mainland is important in order to allow it to be preserved in its original form.

The activities of modern polar explorers on the mainland

Scientists are increasingly interested in the question of the survival of microorganisms in extreme environmental conditions, for which a proposal was made to bring certain types of microbial communities to the mainland. This is necessary to breed the most resistant to cold, low humidity and solar radiation species for its further use in the pharmaceutical industry. Scientists are trying to study data on the course of modification of living organisms and the impact on them of a prolonged absence of contact with the atmosphere.

Living on a cold continent is not easy, climatic features are considered difficult for a person, even though the expedition members spend most of their time indoors, where comfortable conditions are created. In preparation, the polar explorers are subjected to special testing by medical workers in order to select the psychologically stable from among the applicants. The modern life of polar explorers is due to the presence of fully equipped stations. There is a satellite dish, electronic communications, devices that measure the temperature of air, water, snow and ice.

At the beginning of the 19th century, conflicting legends circulated about this mainland. The first guesses about the existence of the mysterious mainland dawned on travelers on the expedition of Amerigo Vespucci back in 1502.

But the cold stopped the Portuguese sailors many miles from the supposed mainland. James Cook penetrated the Antarctic waters further than others, but he was also stopped by great frosts. Cook believed in the existence of Antarctica.

Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen was born on the island of Ezel, into a German noble family. There were many of them in the Russian service - glorious Otssee (Baltic) Germans.

At birth, the future marine pioneer bore a name unusual for the Russian ear: Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen. Nowadays, the island of Ezel is called Saaremaa and is located in Estonia. There were serious battles during the First and Second World Wars.

Bellingshausen did not imagine any other vocation for himself than the naval service. “I was born on the sea, the sea is my whole life,” the captain had such a credo.

Bellingshausen participated in the first Russian round-the-world trip - and earned the trust of Kruzenshtern. But they did not see him as the head of the first Antarctic expedition.

The idea of a sea voyage to the South Pole had been in the air for a long time, but it was only at the beginning of 1819 that Russian sailors turned to the government with a detailed plan for the expedition.

Emperor Alexander I approved the idea. He was not an enthusiast of the fleet, but in this undertaking he saw the continuation of the great deeds of Peter. And the plan was not shelved, they got down to business energetically.

Who should be appointed as leader? Kruzenshtern was going to entrust this mission to Vasily Golovnin, but during the preparation of the expedition Golovnin was on a trip around the world.

Bellingshausen's candidacy arose, but the government proposed Makar Ivanovich Ratmanov, a well-known brave man, an experienced captain.

But it was then that Ratmanov was shipwrecked, returning to his homeland from a voyage to Spain. He had to stay in a Danish hospital. So Bellingshausen stood at the head of the expedition, dreaming of discovering the mysterious mainland.

They approached the preparation thoroughly, although mistakes were not avoided. The sloops were built according to the designs of Russian engineers. Masters thoroughly strengthened them - in case of a possible fight with the ice.

The restructuring of the ships was led by Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev - the second captain, the second person in the expedition. Lazarev and recruited a team, meticulously checking experienced sailors. The best went on the expedition.

The Vostok sloop was commanded by Bellingshausen, another sloop, which was called Mirny, was commanded by Lazarev. It was indeed a peaceful mission that required selflessness and courage from the participants. Many years later, the first Soviet Antarctic stations would be named after these ships. "Vostok" proved to be a faster ship, "Mirny" was more reliable, much less likely to require repairs.

In the ministerial instructions, Bellingshausen was instructed not only to step into the unknown, but to record all observations: "Try to write down everything in order to inform future readers of your journey." A perfectly fitting program for the sons of the Age of Enlightenment.

In August, the ships headed for the Atlantic. November 2 anchored in Rio, rested three weeks in Brazil. Replenished stocks, repaired the sloops. And again the ocean.

In mid-December, Bellingshausen and Lazarev saw the islands discovered by Cook - primarily South Georgia. From there we went to the land of Sandwich. Icebergs appeared. It became frosty - like winter in the Russian north.

It was then that they refuted the assumption of Cook, who stated: “The risk associated with sailing in these unexplored and ice-covered seas in search of the Southern Continent is so great that I can safely say that not a single person will ever dare to penetrate further south, what made it possible for me."

In the last days of 1819, Russian ships were already breaking through the ice - to the South, to the South! On January 15 they crossed the Antarctic Circle.

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."

Finally, on January 28 (16th, old style), the sailors saw a bright strip of solid ice and at first mistook it for a bank of clouds. Before them, no one had seen this picture: Antarctica! Bellingshausen led the ships along the ice bulk. He was not yet sure that the mainland was in front of him.

“Here, behind the ice fields of small ice and islands, a continent of ice is visible, the edges of which are broken off perpendicularly and which continues as far as we see, rising to the south like a coast. Flat ice islands located near this mainland clearly show that they are a fragment of this mainland, because they have edges and an upper surface similar to the mainland, ”wrote Faddey Faddeevich.

For a long time they walked along the icy shores - towards dangers. They discovered new islands, gave explanations for natural phenomena. The name of Emperor Alexander I was also immortalized. The existence of Antarctica has been proven.

The expedition was attended by a remarkable scientist, at that time still a young astronomer Ivan Mikhailovich Simonov. He stoically endured all the hardships of the journey. In swimming for a year and a half, Simonov became a competent sailor. He was the first to establish that the South magnetic pole of the Earth is located at 76 ° south latitude and 142.5 ° east longitude - for that time it was accurate data. He will continue his research at Kazan University, the experience of the expedition will be useful to him for the rest of his life.

The voyage lasted 751 days. Vostok and Mirny traveled almost 50,000 miles.

Bellingshausen showed unprecedented determination: he went towards the cold, did not reckon with the warnings of Cook and other predecessors. At the time, it was an unheard of dangerous journey. Wooden sloops had to maneuver through the fog among the ice and icebergs.

Experienced sailors said that Bellingshausen and Lazarev were accompanied by the blessing of the Lord. They went through all the misfortunes with minimal losses, achieved the most daring goal - and returned alive. It was seen as a miracle.

This was a miracle - bold, but prudent navigation. Two captains, two outstanding naval commanders, for a common cause, they knew how to tame ambition. How often contradictions between commanders appear in campaigns, how often this hinders success. Bellingshausen and Lazarev worked in concert.

Russian ships circled the entire Antarctic continent. Dozens of new islands were discovered and mapped, unique natural science and ethnographic collections were collected and stored at Kazan University. Made excellent sketches of Antarctic species and animals living there.

The most severe continent on earth became related to Russia. It was in Antarctica, at the Soviet station Vostok, on July 21, 1983, scientists noted the lowest air temperature on Earth in the entire history of meteorological measurements: 89.2 degrees below zero.

Thaddeus Bellingshausen finished his capital work “Twice surveys in the Southern Arctic Ocean and sailing around the world on the sloops Vostok and Mirny ...” in 1824, but the publication had to wait seven years. The book was translated into several languages, it aroused the admiration of specialists, and was reprinted more than once in our time.

Bellingshausen will finish his service with the rank of admiral, as military governor-general of Kronstadt. Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev will also rise to the rank of admiral, become commander of the Black Sea Fleet, and bring up a galaxy of outstanding naval commanders: Nakhimov, Kornilov, Putyatin.

And yet, the finest hour of both outstanding navigators is precisely January 1820, the blinding ice of the mysterious mainland. A discovery that is not subject to cancellations and revisions. The names of the heroes are forever written in the ice. They were ahead of their time for a long time: attempts to explore Antarctica will begin only after 70 - 75 years!

Not far off is the bicentenary of the glorious expedition, which is associated with, perhaps, the loudest of Russian geographical discoveries.

Until now, there is no worthy feature film about the feat of the Columbuses of Antarctica, but a short cartoon of 1972 based on the script by Leonid Zavalnyuk, in which the old sailor tells the guys about the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev, remained in my memory.

There are also good children's books about brave travelers. And, therefore, the memory of the pioneer sailors lives in generations.

This day in history:

On January 28, 1820, Russian navigators Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev discovered a new continent - Antarctica. Before the discovery of Antarctica, there was no consensus on the existence of another part of the world. Some scientists argued that in the south is not a continent, but a continuation of South America.

In addition, a common misconception prevailed, the culprit of which was the famous navigator James Cook. In his round-the-world trip, he came close enough to Antarctica, but he saw ice and decided that a further journey was impossible.

In the summer of 1819, the First Russian Antarctic Expedition began, the main task of which was precisely the search for a new continent or the final refutation of its existence.

At first, Makar Ratmanov was expected to be the head of the expedition, but due to health problems he could not take command, and the position went to Thaddeus Bellingshausen, a native of the Baltic Germans, who had already managed to participate in the first Russian circumnavigation.

The expedition consisted of two sloops, "Vostok" and "Mirny", Russian and British construction. Mirny was commanded by Mikhail Lazarev, who also had experience of circumnavigating the world.

In July 1819, two ships left Kronstadt and headed south. On January 28 of the following year, sailors reached the ice of Antarctica at a point that is now called the Bellingshausen Glacier (see route).

They did not try to land on the coast - passing by, the researchers headed for Australia, and then returned with the onset of the Antarctic summer, with more favorable weather. On the way, the sailors discovered about 30 new islands - and, of course, a new continent, rounding Antarctica and thus proving that this is a separate continent.

Bellingshausen and Lazarev

The expedition returned to Kronstadt two years later, in July 1821. Emperor Alexander I himself took part in the solemn meeting of the ships in the port.

The sailors received numerous awards. Both officers were promoted to two ranks at once and subsequently held the highest posts. Bellingshausen rose to the rank of admiral, received many orders, during the Russian-Turkish war he commanded the Guards crew and eventually became the military governor-general of Kronstadt.

Mikhail Lazarev also rose to the rank of admiral and commanded the Black Sea Fleet for 17 years - at that time the main naval force of Russia. After him, no admiral held this post for so long.

Antarctica has become the last continent to be put on the geographical map of the world. Its large-scale study began almost a century later, when technological progress allowed researchers to survive in the harsh polar climate.

DISCOVERY OF ANTARCTICA:

Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev

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 internal regions are actually less known to us than the illuminated side of the Moon ".

So wrote in 1947 the American explorer of Antarctica Richard Baird. At that time, scientists had just begun a systematic study of the sixth continent - the most mysterious and harsh area of \u200b\u200bthe globe.

The final, reliable discovery of Antarctica dates back to 1820. Previously, people only assumed that it existed. The very first guesses 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.

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."

However, the honor of discovering the sixth continent fell to Russian navigators. Two names are forever inscribed in the history of geographical discoveries: Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen (1778-1852) and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev (1788-1851).

Bellingshausen was born in 1778 on the island of Saaremaa (now the territory of Estonia) in the Baltic Sea, and was educated in the Naval Cadet Corps.

From early childhood, he dreamed of the open spaces of the sea. “I was born in the middle of the sea,” he wrote, “as a fish cannot live without water, so I cannot 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.

Ten years younger was Lazarev, who made three trips around the world in his entire life. 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 instructed 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 a whole 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 "continuous 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.

Winter was approaching in the Southern Hemisphere. Having shifted to the north, the ships of the expedition plowed the waters of the Pacific Ocean in tropical and temperate latitudes.

A year has passed. "Vostok" and "Mirny" again headed for Antarctica; they crossed the Antarctic Circle three times. 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 stretched south beyond the limits of visibility.

Land of Alexander I first 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 their "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 companions of Bellingshausen participated in the Patriotic War of 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, on Waterloo (its modern name is 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 would be obtained if two and a quarter times 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.