Did Bellingshausen travel around the world? Antarctica was discovered by a Russian expedition. Discovery of the Coast of Alexander I
At the beginning of the 19th century, ships of the Russian fleet made a number of trips around the world. These expeditions enriched world science with major geographical discoveries, especially in the Pacific Ocean. However, the vast expanses of the Southern Hemisphere still remained a “blank spot” on the map. The question of the existence of the Southern Continent was also unclear.
In 1819, after long and very careful preparation, the south polar expedition set sail, consisting of two military sloops - “Vostok” and “Mirny”. The first was commanded by Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, the second by Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. Captain Bellingshausen was appointed head of the expedition. In total, 111 people set sail on the Vostok and 70 people on the Mirny. On July 16, 1819, the ships “Vostok” and “Mirny” weighed anchor and left their native Kronstadt roadstead amid the fireworks of artillery coastal batteries.
In the large English port of Portsmouth, Bellingshausen stayed for almost a month to replenish provisions, purchase chronometers and various seafaring instruments. In early autumn, with a fair wind, the ships headed across the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of Brazil. The weather was favorable for swimming.
After 21 days of sailing, the sloops approached the island of Tenerife. While the ship's crews stocked up on fresh water and provisions, the officers explored the mountainous, picturesque island.
In the seventies of the eighteenth century, the great British navigator J. Cook tried to establish the presence of a continent in the area of the south pole. And when he found himself at the southernmost point of his journey, located at 71 degrees south. sh., he considered that there was no Antarctica or that it was impossible to get to it. His path further south was blocked by the so-called pack ice (perennial sea ice thickness of at least three meters). Cook's authoritative opinion was largely the reason why navigators abandoned the search for Antarctica for a long time.
Preparation and start of the expedition
However, on April 12, 1819 (hereinafter - all dates in the new style) Ivan Kruzenshtern wrote a note to the Minister of the Russian Empire, Ivan de Traverse, stating that it was necessary to explore “countries South Pole"and fill in possible gaps in this part of the Earth map. The main goal of the planned Russian expedition was obvious: to confirm or not confirm the hypothesis about the sixth continent - Antarctica. And a few months later, in June 1819, having made serious preparations, two sloops of war - “Mirny” and “Vostok” - set out from Kronstadt and set off on a long and dangerous voyage. “Vostok” was led by captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen, and “Mirny” was led by Mikhail Lazarev.
A significant drawback of this expedition was that the sloops were very different in their characteristics. "Mirny", created according to the design of domestic engineers Kurepanov and Kolodkin, and additionally strengthened, was significantly superior to the second ship. The Vostok, designed by British engineers, was never made as stable as the Mirny. The hull of the Vostok was not strong enough to travel among hard ice. And it had to be repaired several times during the expedition. Ultimately, the condition of the Vostok turned out to be so deplorable that Bellingshausen decided to interrupt the expedition ahead of schedule and return home. Both of its leaders constantly expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that they had two very different ships at their disposal, in particular in terms of speed.
The first long stop was made in the English port city of Portsmouth. The expedition ships stayed here for almost a whole month. This stop was needed to stock up on food, buy chronometers and various nautical equipment.
In the autumn, after waiting for a fair wind, the Vostok and Mirny sailed across the Atlantic to the exotic Brazilian lands. From the very beginning of the voyage, team members began to conduct scientific observations. Thaddeus Bellingshausen and his subordinates carefully reflected all these observations in the appropriate journal. On the 21st day of the voyage, the ships ended up at one of the Canary Islands - Tenerife.
The next stop was after crossing the equator - the ships of Bellingshausen and Lazarev docked in the port of Rio de Janeiro. Having filled the holds with food and checked the chronometers, the ships left this populated area, choosing a course for its as yet unexplored areas of the cold Southern Ocean.
The main discoveries of the team of Bellingshausen and Lazarev
IN last days In 1819, the sloops approached the subantarctic island of South Georgia. Here the ships were slowly moving forward, maneuvering between the ice floes. A little later, Annenkov, one of the members of the expedition, discovered and made a description of a small, previously unknown island. In addition, he gave the island his last name as its name.
It is also known that Bellingshausen tried to measure the water depth several times, but was never able to reach the bottom. On ships making long voyages, sailors in those days often suffered from a lack of fresh supplies of fresh water. During the expedition described, Russian sailors figured out how to obtain it from the ice of icebergs.
At the very beginning of 1820, Russian sloops sailed next to an unknown island, completely covered with ice and snowdrifts. The next day, members of the expedition saw two more new islands. They were also marked on the travel maps, calling them by the names of the team members (Leskov and Zavadovsky). By the way, Zavadovsky Island, as it turned out later, is an active volcano. And all new group The islands began to be called the Traverse Islands - after the surname of the already mentioned Russian minister.
Moving further south, the ships came across another group of islands, which were immediately named the Candlemas Islands. Next, the expedition sailed to the Sandwich Islands, once described by James Cook. It turned out that Cook considered the entire archipelago to be one large island. Russian navigators noted this inaccuracy on their maps. Bellingshausen eventually gave the entire archipelago the name South Sandwich Islands.
In the third decade of January 1820, thick, broken ice appeared in front of the sloops, which covered the space to the very horizon. The expedition decided to go around it, turning north. Because of this maneuver, the ships again had to pass near the South Sandwich Islands, and then finally went beyond the Arctic Circle.
The most significant event occurred on January 28, 1820. It was on this day that our navigators discovered Antarctica, approaching it closely at a place with the following coordinates 2° 14" 50" W. long and 69° 21" 28" south. w. This is the area of the current Bellingshausen shelf near the so-called Princess Martha Coast. It is described that through the fog, travelers were able to see a real wall of ice, which stretched as far as the eye could see.
On February 2, the expedition members saw the shores of Antarctica for the second time. The expedition's sloops were also close to the coastal cliffs of the southernmost continent on February 17 and 18, but they were never able to land there. Near the end of the Antarctic summer climatic conditions became more complex, and the expedition ships moved along ice blocks and icebergs in the Pacific Ocean - several more previously unknown islands were additionally discovered here.
On March 21, 1820, in the same Indian Ocean, the sloop crews encountered a strong storm that lasted for more than one day. For the sailors, exhausted by the long journey, this became a severe test, which, however, they passed.
One April day, the ship “Vostok” anchored in the harbor of the village of Port Jackson (now Sydney, Australia). And only a week later the ship “Mirny” arrived there. This completed the first stage of the expedition.
Sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny"
The second stage of the Antarctic expedition
In subsequent winter months Russian sloops plied the calm tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. Members of the expedition at this time were performing useful geographical work: they were already clarifying the location famous islands and their contours, determined the height of the mountains, plotted on maps 15 new geographical objects they encountered along the way, etc.
Returning to Port Jackson, the sloop crews began preparing for the swim to the polar latitudes. This preparation lasted approximately two months. The next Antarctic summer was approaching (and in the southern hemisphere the seasons are arranged “in reverse”: December, January, February are the warmest months, and June, July are very cold), and in mid-November the sloops again found themselves in Antarctic waters, moving according to compasses at southeast. And soon the sloops managed to go further than the 60th parallel south.
At the beginning of 1821, skirting Antarctica from the western side, Bellingshausen and Lazarev made several more discoveries. On January 22, a fairly large (154 square kilometers) island of Peter I was discovered - that is, it was named after the emperor who founded the Russian navy. However, ice prevented them from getting close to it, so it was decided not to land on it. And later, members of the expedition saw another island with a long mountainous coast, which was not covered with ice. It was called the Land of Alexander I. Subsequently it turned out that this is the largest island in Antarctica, its area is more than 43 thousand square kilometers.
Then the expedition reached the South Shetland Islands (they were discovered a little earlier by the British sailor Smith) and mapped them onto geographic Maps. Then the ships moved in a northeast direction, and as a result, another small group of three islands was discovered. They came up with a very poetic name - Three Brothers, but at the moment these islands are called differently. The islands of Mikhailov, Shishkov, Mordvinov and Rozhnov, mapped during the same voyage, were also subsequently renamed (in modern cartography these geographical objects are called Cornwalls, Clarence, Elephant and Gibbs).
The results of a journey lasting more than two years
Under the pressure of circumstances and in connection with the completion of most of the assigned tasks, the expedition from the Shetland Islands moved to Rio, and from there along the Atlantic Ocean to the European shores. “Vostok” and “Mirny” returned to Russia on August 5, 1821 - their journey lasted exactly 751 days. The expedition was greeted in Kronstadt by the ruler Alexander I himself. Many participants in this outstanding voyage were rewarded with awards, new titles, etc.
The results of the journey of Lazarev and Bellingshausen are difficult to overestimate. The treasured mainland was discovered, and with it 29 islets and islands. The expedition's sloops actually circumnavigated the entire Antarctica. In addition, amazing collections (ethnographic and natural science) were collected, which are now at Kazan University, and excellent sketches of Antarctic landscapes and animals living in those places were made. The first published account of the trip, created by its direct participants, consisted of two volumes with an atlas of maps and other additional materials.
Subsequently, of course, Antarctica was subjected to extensive study by specialists from various countries. Now Antarctica is a neutral land that does not belong to anyone. The construction of military facilities is prohibited here, and the entry of armed and combat vessels is prohibited. All these details are spelled out in the Antarctic Treaty, signed back in 1959.
In the eighties, Antarctica was additionally recognized as a nuclear-free zone. This formulation implies a strict ban on the appearance of nuclear-powered ships in the cold Antarctic waters, and on land - nuclear units. Today, more than 50 countries are parties to the Antarctic Treaty, and several dozen more states have observer status.
“Our absence lasted 751 days; Of this number of days, we were at anchor in different places for 224, under sail for 527 days; the difficulty covered was only 86,475 miles; this space is 2 1/4 times larger than the circles on globe. During our voyage, 29 islands were discovered, including two in the southern cold zone, eight in the southern temperate zone, and 19 in the hot zone; one coral shoal with a lagoon was found” (F.F. Bellingshausen. Double exploration in the Southern Arctic Ocean and voyage around the world. Part II, Chapter 7).
Since ancient times, geographers believed in the existence of the Southern Continent (Terra Australis), which, despite all the efforts of navigators, remained unknown (Incognita) for a long time. Over the years, Tierra del Fuego, New Guinea, Australia (hence the name of the continent), and New Zealand were taken as its northern tip. The persistent search for the Southern Continent was explained not only by scientific interest and by no means idle curiosity: they were dictated primarily by practical - economic and geopolitical - considerations.
The most famous navigator of the 18th century. James Cook also searched for land in the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Thanks to his two trips around the world, it was proven that New Zealand is not part of the south polar continent; the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia were discovered. Cook's ships sailed in the ice, went beyond the Antarctic Circle, but never encountered anything similar to the mainland. The Englishman's enthusiasm diminished significantly after these expeditions, although he did not exclude the possibility of the existence of a large land mass at the Pole itself. After Cook's voyage, the topic of searching for the Southern Continent was closed for almost half a century. Even cartographers, who until then had constantly drawn the undiscovered continent, erased it from their maps, “burying it in the abyss of the World Ocean.”
However, in the 19th century. interest in research in Antarctica was revived - in connection with the accidental discovery of small islands in the southern high latitudes (Antipodes, Auckland, Macquarie, etc.). At the beginning of 1819, the English captain William Smith, who was sailing around South America, was carried by a storm from Cape Horn to the South Shetland Islands. Late that year he visited the area again and landed on King George Island, the largest of the group.
In February 1819, Russian Emperor Alexander I approved the proposal of famous navigators I. F. Kruzenshtern, G. A. Sarychev and O. E. Kotzebue to equip a research expedition to the south polar waters in order to search for an unknown land. In July 1819 (44 years after Cook’s second voyage), the sloops “Vostok” and “Mirny” under the command of Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, respectively, set off for the southern polar latitudes. At the same time, the sloops “Otkritie” and “Blagomarnenny”, led by M. N. Vasiliev and G. S. Shishmarev, left Kronstadt, following a circuitous southern route into the Arctic waters to search for the Northern sea route from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.
At the end of July, all four ships arrived in Portsmouth. There at that time there was the sloop "Kamchatka" under the command of V.M. Golovnin, returning to Kronstadt from a circumnavigation. And the ship “Kutuzov” (captain - L.A. Gagemeister) also came to Portsmouth, also completing a circumnavigation. At first glance, an amazing coincidence. But if you remember how much Russians swam in those years, there is nothing to be surprised about. In November, the ships of the south polar expedition stopped in Rio de Janeiro, and at the end of the month they parted in pairs: “Otkrytie” and “Blagonomerenny” went to the Cape of Good Hope and further to the Pacific Ocean, “Vostok” and “Mirny” moved south, to high latitudes.
In mid-December, Vostok and Mirny approached South Georgia, previously explored by Cook. The expedition managed to clarify its map and discover the small Annenkov Island nearby. Proceeding then to the southeast, Bellingshausen and Lazarev discovered several islands, which were named after the officers from the expedition (Zavadovsky, Leskov and Thorson). All these fragments of land turned out to be links in an arched island chain, which Cook mistakenly took for part big Earth Sandwich. Bellingshausen named the entire chain the South Sandwich Islands, and gave one of them the name Cook.
Having left the islands in early January 1820, the expedition continued sailing south. Bypassing solid ice, on January 15, the sailors crossed the Antarctic Circle, and on January 16 (28 new style), reaching a latitude of 69° 23’, they saw something unusual. Bellingshausen testifies: “... We met ice that appeared to us through the snow that was falling at that time in the form of white clouds... Having walked... two miles, we saw that solid ice stretched from the east through the south to the west; our path led straight into this ice field, dotted with hillocks.” This was the ice shelf covering the Princess Martha Coast, later named after Bellingshausen. The day when Russian sailors saw it is considered the date of the discovery of Antarctica.
And at this time, the Briton Edward Bransfield, together with the discoverer of the South Shetland Islands, William Smith, was also approaching the Southern Continent. On January 18 (30 new style) he approached land, which he called Trinity Land. The British claim that Barnsfield reached the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, but the maps he made were not accurate, and the ship's log, unfortunately, was lost.
But let's return to the Russian expedition. Moving eastward, "Vostok" and "Mirny" on February 5-6 once again approached the mainland in the area of the Princess Astrid Coast. Bellingshausen writes: “The ice towards SSW is adjacent to mountainous, firmly standing ice; its edges were perpendicular and formed bays, and the surface rose gently to the south, to a distance the limits of which we could not see from the saling” (saling is an observation deck at the junction of the mast with the topmast).
Meanwhile, the short Antarctic summer was ending. According to the instructions, the expedition should spend the winter in the tropical Pacific Ocean in search of new lands. But first it was necessary to stop at Port Jackson (Sydney) for repairs and rest. For the passage to Australia, the sloops - for the first time during the voyage - split up to explore an almost unexplored area of the World Ocean.
Having found nothing worthy of attention, Bellingshausen and Lazarev arrived in Sydney - the first on March 30, the second on April 7. At the beginning of May they went to sea again. We visited New Zealand and stayed in Queen Charlotte Sound from May 28 to June 31. From here we headed east-northeast to the island of Rapa, and then north to the Tuamotu Islands. Here, a “rich catch” awaited travelers: one after another, the islands of Moller, Arakcheev, Volkonsky, Barclay de Tolly, Nihiru were discovered and mapped (neither a sailor nor a political figure with that name exists, that’s what the natives called the island), Ermolov, Kutuzov-Smolensky, Raevsky, Osten-Sacken, Chichagov, Miloradovich, Wittgenstein, Greig. In Tahiti, we stocked up on provisions and checked the instruments. We returned to the Tuamotu Islands and discovered an atoll named after M.P. Lazarev (now Mataiva). From here the expedition headed west.
South of Fiji, the islands of Vostok, Grand Duke Alexander, Mikhailov (in honor of the artist of the expedition), Ono-Ilau and Simonov (in honor of the astronomer of the expedition) were discovered. In September, the sloops returned to Australia, only to leave again for the icy continent a month and a half later. In mid-November, the expedition approached Macquarie Island, and from there headed southeast.
The circumnavigation of the ice continent from west to east continued, and at the first opportunity the sloops rushed to the south. The choice of the general direction of movement was not accidental. In the oceanic ring that covers Antarctica, westerly winds dominate and, naturally, it is easier to sail with tailwinds and with the current. But near the very shores of the icy continent, the winds are no longer western, but eastern, so every attempt to get closer to the mainland is fraught with considerable difficulties. In the Antarctic summer of 1820-1821. The expedition managed to penetrate the Antarctic Circle only three times. Nevertheless, on January 11, the island of Peter I was discovered, and a little later the Land of Alexander I. It is curious that the navigators believed that the lands they discovered were not parts of one continent, but islands of a huge polar archipelago. Only after the English oceanographic expedition on the corvette Challenger (1874) was a map of the coast of Antarctica drawn up - not very accurate, but it removed all questions regarding the existence of the continent.
From Antarctica, the sloops headed to the South Shetland Islands, thanks to which new Russian names appeared on the map. At the end of January, after the sloop Vostok sprung a leak and continued navigation in the polar latitudes became impossible, Bellingshausen decided to return to Russia. At the beginning of February, the expedition crossed the meridian of the capital of Russia, and on July 24, 1821, it returned to Kronstadt.
The voyage of Bellingshausen and Lazarev was marked not only by numerous discoveries - it turned out to be very effective in terms of scientific research. Thanks to the latest instruments and numerous measurements, geographic coordinates, as well as magnetic declination, were very accurately determined. During anchorages, the height of the tides was determined. Constant meteorological and oceanological observations were carried out. The expedition's ice observations are of great value.
Bellingshausen was promoted to captain of the 1st rank, and two months later to captain-commander, Lazarev to captain of the 2nd rank. Already as a rear admiral, Bellingshausen participated in the Turkish campaign of 1828-1829, then commanded a division of the Baltic Fleet, in 1839 he became the military governor of Kronstadt, received the rank of admiral and the Order of Vladimir, 1st degree.
Lazarev became the only Russian sailor in the sailing fleet to sail around the world three times as a ship commander. Soon after sailing around Antarctica, he commanded the battleship Azov. The crew of the battleship distinguished itself in the famous Battle of Navarino (1827), and Lazarev was promoted to rear admiral. In 1832, he took the post of chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet. Then, already with the rank of vice admiral, Lazarev became its commander, as well as the Nikolaev and Sevastopol military governor.
FIGURES AND FACTS
Main characters
Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, head of the round-the-world expedition; Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, commander of the sloop "Mirny"
Other characters
English sailors Edward Bransfield and William Smith
Time of action
Route
Around the world in high southern latitudes
Target
Searches for the Southern Continent
Meaning
Evidence of the existence of land in the south polar region has been obtained
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By the beginning of the 19th century, there were still many corners of the earth where no human had set foot. It seemed that the Great Geographical Discoveries were left behind: the last triumph of travelers - the discovery of Australia - took place in 1606. People suspected that somewhere beyond the Antarctic Circle there was an unknown land back in the 16th century. But it was impossible to swim to it - the climatic conditions were too harsh, and the ships were not built the strongest at that time.
For many years extreme point For many restless travelers, the subantarctic island of South Georgia remained.
James also wanted to try to discover the unknown Southern Land. He failed to do this - they interfered multi-year ice, although Cook continued to believe in the existence of an as yet undiscovered continent. A couple of years later, the famous captain set off to meet his fate: in 1779, Cook was killed by the natives of the Hawaiian Islands. And the next attempts to discover an unknown continent will fail.
In 1819, the admiral sent to the Naval Ministry Russian Empire a letter in which he stated the need to prepare expeditions to reach the South and North Poles, respectively. The sloops Mirny and Vostok were supposed to reach the South Pole. The first was commanded by lieutenant, and the second by captain 2nd rank Thaddeus Bellingshausen.
"Vostok" was built by British engineers and was quite inferior to "Mirny" in terms of characteristics. The main problem was the insufficient density of the hull and low speed.
On July 15, 1819, both sloops left Kronstadt. This daring attempt to reach the South Pole went down in history as the First Russian Antarctic Expedition.
Russian sailors set off in the direction Latin America. Already in early November, Mirny and Vostok arrived in Rio de Janeiro. Here the sailors were horrified by the slave trade that flourished in those parts. However, in Russia at that time, not all was well with personal freedoms: at that time there were still 42 years left before the abolition of serfdom. From the coast of Brazil, the expedition set off towards the island of South Georgia. The researchers managed to map that part of the island that James Cook failed to reach.
The further course of the expedition was rich in minor geographical discoveries. For example, sailors discovered Annenkov Island, named after Vostok crew member Mikhail Annenkov.
In general, the Russians saw a lot of interesting things on this expedition. Along the way, the sailors increasingly came across giant icebergs. They also saw whales.
On the island, named after the assistant commander of the sloop “Vostok” Ivan Zavadovsky, the sailors managed to feast on penguin eggs.
Russian sailors managed to refute, or rather expand, one of James Cook’s discoveries: Sandwich Island turned out to be a group of 11 small islands. Subsequently, the crews of “Vostok” and “Mirny” had to perform miracles of navigation every now and then, rescuing ships from seemingly hopeless captivity in the ice. Despite deteriorating conditions, the expedition continued.
And on January 28, 1819, the sloops reached 69°25′ south latitude. And Bellingshausen and Lazarev discovered Antarctica.
“I call this finding a shore because the distance of the other end to the south disappeared beyond the limit of our vision. This coast is covered with snow, but the scree on the mountains and steep cliffs had no snow. A sudden change of color on the surface of the sea gives the idea that the coast is extensive or, at least, does not consist only of the part that was before our eyes,” Thaddeus Bellingshausen wrote in the logbook the next day.
The first Russian Antarctic expedition lasted 751 days. Its participants mapped 29 new islands. And most importantly, they were the first to discover a new continent.
Only 120 years have passed since people began to explore the continent known as Antarctica (1899), and nearly two centuries have passed since sailors first saw its shores (1820). Long before Antarctica was discovered, most early explorers were convinced that there was a large southern continent. They called it Terra Australis incognita - Unknown Southern Land.
The origins of ideas about Antarctica
The idea of its existence came to the minds of the ancient Greeks, who had a penchant for symmetry and balance. There must be a large continent in the South, they postulated, to balance the large land mass in the Northern Hemisphere. Two thousand years later, extensive experience in geographical exploration gave Europeans sufficient reason to turn their attention to the South to test this hypothesis.
16th century: first erroneous discovery of the Southern Continent
The history of the discovery of Antarctica begins with Magellan. In 1520, after he sailed through the strait that now bears his name, the famous navigator suggested that he South coast(we now assume that this is the island of Tierra del Fuego), may be the northern edge of the great continent. Half a century later, Francis Drake established that Magellan's supposed "continent" was only a series of islands near the tip of South America. It became clear that if there really was a southern continent, it was located further south.
XVII century: one hundred years of approaching the goal
Subsequently, from time to time, sailors, carried off course by storms, again discovered new lands. They often lay further south than any previously known. Thus, while attempting to navigate around Cape Horn in 1619, the Spaniards Bartolomeo and Gonzalo García de Nodal veered off course, only to discover tiny pieces of land they called the Diego Ramírez Islands. They remained the southernmost of the discovered lands for another 156 years.
The next step on a long journey, the end of which was to be marked by the discovery of Antarctica, was taken in 1622. Then the Dutch navigator Dirk Gerritz reported that in the region of 64° south latitude he allegedly discovered a land with snow-capped mountains, similar to Norway. The accuracy of his calculation is doubtful, but it is possible that he saw the South Shetland Islands.
In 1675, the ship of the British merchant Anthony de La Roche was carried far to the southeast of the Strait of Magellan, where, at latitude 55°, he found refuge in an unnamed bay. During his stay on this landmass (which was almost certainly the island of South Georgia) he also saw what he thought was the coast of the Southern Continent to the southeast. In reality it was most likely the Clerk Rocks Islands, which lie 48 kilometers southeast of South Georgia. Their location corresponds to the shores of Terra Australis incognita, placed on the map of the Dutch East India Company, which at one time studied the reports of de La Roche.
18th century: the British and French get down to business
The first truly scientific search, the purpose of which was the discovery of Antarctica, took place at the very beginning of the 18th century. In September 1699, scientist Edmond Halley sailed from England to establish the true coordinates of ports in South America and Africa, take measurements of the Earth's magnetic field and search for the mysterious Terra Australis incognita. In January 1700, he crossed the border of the Antarctic Convergence Zone and saw icebergs, which he wrote down in the ship's log. However, cold stormy weather and the danger of colliding with an iceberg in the fog forced him to turn north again.
Next, forty years later, was the French navigator Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozières, who saw an unknown land at 54° south latitude. He named it "Cape of Circumcision", suggesting that he had found the edge of the Southern Continent, but it was actually an island (now called Bouvet Island).
The Fatal Misconception of Yves de Kergoulin
The prospect of discovering Antarctica attracted more and more sailors. Yves-Joseph de Kergoulin sailed with two ships in 1771 with specific instructions to search for the southern continent. On February 12, 1772, in the southern Indian Ocean, he saw land shrouded in fog at 49° 40", but was unable to land due to rough seas and bad weather. A firm belief in the existence of the legendary and hospitable southern continent blinded him to believe that that he actually discovered it, although the land he saw was an island. Returning to France, the navigator began to spread fantastic information about the densely populated continent, which he modestly called “New Southern France." His stories convinced the French government to invest in another expensive expedition. In 1773 Kergulen returned to the said site with three ships, but never set foot on the island that now bears his name.Even worse, he was forced to admit the truth and, returning to France, spent the rest of his days in disgrace.
James Cook and the search for Antarctica
The geographical discoveries of Antarctica are to a large extent connected with the name of this famous Englishman. In 1768 he was sent to the South Pacific to search for a new continent. He returned to England three years later with a variety of new information of a geographical, biological and anthropological nature, but found no signs of the southern continent. The sought-after shores were again moved further south from their previously assumed location.
In July 1772, Cook sailed from England, but this time, on instructions from the British Admiralty, the search for the southern continent was the main mission of the expedition. During this unprecedented voyage, which lasted until 1775, he crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time in history, discovered many new islands and went south to 71° south latitude, which no one had previously achieved.
However, fate did not give James Cook the honor of becoming the discoverer of Antarctica. Moreover, as a result of his expedition, he became confident that if there was an unknown land near the pole, then its area was very small and was of no interest.
Who was lucky enough to discover and explore Antarctica?
After the death of James Cook in 1779, European countries stopped searching for the great southern continent of the Earth for forty years. Meanwhile, in the seas between the previously discovered islands, near the still unknown continent, whalers and hunters of sea animals were already in full swing: seals, walruses, fur seals. Economic interest in the circumpolar region grew, and the year of the discovery of Antarctica was steadily approaching. However, only in 1819, Russian Tsar Alexander I ordered an expedition to be sent to the southern circumpolar regions, and thus the search was continued.
The head of the expedition was none other than Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen. He was born in 1779 in the Baltic states. He began his career as a naval cadet at the age of 10 and graduated from the Kronstadt Naval Academy at the age of 18. He was 40 when he was called to lead this exciting journey. His goal was to continue Cook's work during the voyage and move as far south as possible.
The then famous navigator Mikhail Lazarev was appointed deputy head of the expedition. In 1913-1914 He made a trip around the world as a captain on the sloop Suvorov. What else is Mikhail Lazarev known for? The discovery of Antarctica is a striking, but not the only impressive episode from his life dedicated to serving Russia. He was the hero of the Battle of Navarino at sea with the Turkish fleet in 1827, and for many years he commanded the Black Sea Fleet. His students were famous admirals - heroes of the first Sevastopol defense: Nakhimov, Kornilov, Istomin. His ashes deservedly rest with them in the tomb of the Vladimir Cathedral in Sevastopol.
Preparation of the expedition and its composition
Its flagship was the 600-ton corvette Vostok, built by English shipbuilders. The second ship was the 530-ton sloop Mirny, a transport ship built in Russia. Both ships were made of pine. The Mirny was commanded by Lazarev, who was involved in the preparations of the expedition and did a lot to prepare both ships for sailing in the polar seas. Looking ahead, we note that Lazarev’s efforts were not in vain. It was “Mirny” that showed excellent performance and endurance in cold waters, while “Vostok” was taken out of sailing for a month ahead of schedule. Vostok had a total of 117 crew members, and 72 were on board Mirny.
Beginning of the expedition
She started on July 4, 1819. In the third week of July, the ships arrived in Portsmouth, England. During a short stay, Belingshausen went to London to meet with the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks. The latter sailed with Cook forty years ago and now supplied the Russian sailors with books and maps left over from the campaigns. On September 5, 1819, Bellingshausen's polar expedition left Portsmouth, and by the end of the year they were near the island of South Georgia. From here they headed southeast to the South Sandwich Islands and conducted a thorough survey of them, discovering three new islands.
Russian discovery of Antarctica
On January 26, 1820, the expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time since Cook in 1773. The next day, her log shows that the sailors sighted the Antarctic continent while 20 miles away. The discovery of Antarctica by Bellingshausen and Lazarev took place. Over the next three weeks, the ships continuously cruised in the coastal ice, trying to approach the mainland, but they were unable to land on it.
Forced voyage across the Pacific Ocean
On February 22, “Vostok” and “Mirny” suffered from the most severe three-day storm during the entire voyage. The only way to save the ships and crews was to return to the north, and on April 11, 1820, the Vostok arrived in Sydney, and the Mirny entered the same harbor eight days later. After a month of rest, Bellingshausen led his ships on a four-month exploratory voyage to Pacific Ocean. Arriving back in Sydney in September, Bellingshausen was informed by the Russian consul that an English captain named William Smith had discovered a group of islands at the 67th parallel, which he named South Shetland and declared them part of the Antarctic continent. Bellingshausen immediately decided to take a look at them himself, hoping at the same time to find a way to continue further movement to the south.
Return to Antarctica
On the morning of November 11, 1820, the ships left Sydney. On December 24, the ships crossed the Antarctic Circle again after an eleven-month break. They soon encountered storms that pushed them north. The year of the discovery of Antarctica ended hard for Russian sailors. By January 16, 1821, they had crossed the Arctic Circle at least 6 times, each time a storm forced them to retreat north. On January 21, the weather finally calmed down, and at 3:00 am they noticed a dark speck against the background of the ice. All the telescopes on the Vostok were aimed at him, and, as the daylight grew, Bellingshausen became convinced that they had discovered land beyond the Arctic Circle. The next day, the land turned out to be an island, which was named after Peter I. Fog and ice did not allow landing on land, and the expedition continued its journey to the South Shetland Islands. On January 28, they were enjoying fine weather near the 68th parallel when land was once again sighted about 40 miles to the southeast. Too much ice lay between the ships and land, but a number of mountains free of snow were seen. Bellingshausen called this land the Alexander Coast, and it is now known as Alexander Island. Although it is not part of the mainland, it is nevertheless connected to it by a deep and wide strip of ice.
Completion of the expedition
Satisfied, Bellingshausen sailed north and arrived in Rio de Janeiro in March, where the crew remained until May, making major repairs to the ships. On August 4, 1821 they dropped anchor in Kronstadt. The journey lasted two years and 21 days. Only three people were lost. The Russian authorities, however, turned out to be indifferent to such a great event as the discovery of Antarctica by Bellingshausen. Ten years passed before the reports of his expedition were published.
As with any great achievement, Russian sailors found rivals. Many in the West doubted that Antarctica was first discovered by our compatriots. The discovery of the mainland was once attributed to the Englishman Edward Bransfield and the American Nathaniel Palmer. However, today practically no one questions the primacy of Russian navigators.