Captain James Cook was the first of the great polar explorers. It was during the summer months of both 1773 and 1774 that he was defeated by heavy ice packs. His two wooden ships, the Resolution (462 tons) and Adventure (336 tons) twice penetrated far below latitude 65 degrees South. Sleet froze his rigging until it was as brittle as crystal, and ice pressed heavily against his ships' timbered hulls, but Cook persevered gallantly in his efforts to reach the mainland, and he achieved the feat-although he did not realize it at the time-of having circumnavigated the entire continent before he finally turned for England. His findings disproved the centuries -old beliefs of map-makers that an immense 'Terra Australis Incognita' (An unknown Southern Land)- lay under the equatorial belt. He calculated correctly that the frigid zone of the Antarctic extended over a greater area that its counterpart in the Artic; he had the theory that the Antarctic was colder that the Artic, and confirmed that there were glaciers and caps of ice on mountains below 50 degrees S.

   Captain Cook pioneered the passage to Antarctica, but the credit of being the discoverer of the continent does not fall to him. There are a number of contenders for the title, the British has its champion in Captain Edward Bransfield; USA has its claimant in Nathaniel Brown Palmer; and Russia has its runner-up in Admiral Fabian Gotlieb von Bellinghausen. By coincidence, each of these men was commanding ships in the southern regions at about the same period in the early 19th century; but inaccurately-kept records of their journeys have resulted in a muddle of uncorroborated detail.

    Two years before the British pioneer Captain Robert Falcon Scott and the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole, Sir Ernest Shackleton, who planned the first trans-Antarctic expedition, had been closer to it than any man before him and had made the greatest advance of all. Cook in 1774 had been 1,130 miles away; Weddell in 1823 was 945 miles off, Ross in 1842 was within 711 miles; Borchgreink in 1900 got within 670 miles; Scott in 1902 was only 463 miles away, and Shackleton was defeated by only 97 miles. 

     Shackleton was a challenging and flamboyant figure. His first Antarctic voyage had been with Scott and Dr. Wilson, in a vain attempt to reach the South Pole in 1902. They had suffered the hazards of starvation, scurvy and blizzards; and then Shackleton  burst a blood vessel and lay seriously ill in his tent. He heard Scott's voice from outside asking Wilson:  "Do you think he will last?" The doctor answered: "No, I don't think so." From the tent Shackleton barked out with all his strength: " I'm not going to die. I tell you this- I shall be alive when both of you fellows are dead." These were prophetic words, for a few years later Scott and his three gallant companions were frozen to death in the snow barely ten miles from where they were spoken. 

    In 1906 Shackleton again made a strike for the pole. His gallant attempt took up to within 3 days march of the pole. Dogged by sickness and blizzards they had to turn back. After 117 days on the ice they finally, near death, arrived back at Discovery Hut. After his arrival back in Britain he met a hero's welcome and was knighted. 

    Attention now turned to the race between Scott and Amundsen. Robert Falcon Scott, had the support of Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society and was selected to command the 1901 expedition. Scott spent two winters in the Antarctic having sailed in the Dundee whaler 'Discovery'. His second expedition in 1910, was a direct assault on the South Pole. It was only after Scott left Britain  that it turned into a race, when Amundsen announced that he also was heading south. In the end, Scott and his very gallant colleagues died in the attempt. Amundsen completing the task in a truly professional and direct manner. Without the burden of scientific necessity and an open mind to the human consumption of pack animals.

   There is just one amazing story left to tell and it is with Shackleton again. He left  Britain on the day the first world war started,4th August 1914. He sailed south for the third time. Readers might like to know that the journey in those days was expected to be about 3 months. Recently, a scientist with the British Polar Research, flew back to Britain from McMurdo Sound in 46 hours. Shackleton sailed in the specially built Endurance. The Antarctic Circle was not crossed until the last day of 1914. The Endurance continued through storms and ice until, on January 19th, she took a blind turning, found her retreat cut off and was held fast in the pack ice. Then the ice began to move north. Shackleton's adventure had truly began. The ship was held in the grip of the ice for months. The drift took it further north back to the Weddel Sea, where on October 17th, Endurance finally succumbed to the pressure and broke up. The Endurance was a total loss, 180 miles from the nearest land, and 1,000 miles away from the nearest human habitation at South Georgia. The story of how Shackleton brought every single crew member back home is one where legends are made. He completed a simply amazing  crossing of the South Atlantic Seas in James Caird a tiny (20 feet) open boat to South Georgia , then effected a rescue mission  that rescued everyone of his  22 crew left on a rocky island.

S.E.