POLAR REGIONS

Antarctic Exploration

B ellingshausen (1778-1852) was a Russian explorer who sailed to 70°S. He was

The Second Circumnavigation Forty-five years passed before Antarctica was sailed around again. Many sealers went to islands such as South Georgia looking for fur seals. They probably saw many parts of Antarctica, but there are few records of their voyages. It took another clever seaman to attempt what Cook had done. He was a Russian naval officer named Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen. He left Russia in 1819 with two ships, Mirny and Vostok . Bellingshausen knew of Cook’s voyage. Where Cook was forced north by ice or poor weather, he would try to go south. For days all he could see was pack ice. On January 20, 1820, Mirny crashed into a large floe . The crew survived and pressed on. Several months later in Australia, they discovered that the ice had made a yard-long hole in the ship’s side. Only a layer of tarred canvas had stopped the sea rushing in. Bellingshausen discovered several new islands. On January 27, 1820, he came within 19 miles (32 km) of the coast of Antarctica. At that point the coast is made up of long low ice cliffs. To Bellingshausen they looked just like a line of icebergs. Because he

probably the first person to discover Antarctica but did not realize it, thinking he was looking at icebergs.

did not see any rock he did not recognize it as the continent.

Cook and Bellingshausen had

similar bad luck. Both made extraordinary voyages around

Antarctica. Somehow they survived seas full of ice and Antarctic storms. Yet neither could say that they had seen the continent.

C ook and Bellingshausen both circumnavigated Antarctica. They showed that the continent was far smaller than previously thought. Both discovered several new islands, many full of fur seals.

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