Timeline for Polar Exploration (From Ancient Times to 1917)

Timeline for Polar Exploration (from Ancient Times to 1917) from Polar Discovery by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

-330 BC Arctic: A Greek merchant named Pytheas discovered a land north of Britain he called “Thule” which might have been Iceland or other islands or the coast of Norway. His descriptions of the midnight sun, the Northern Lights, and the Polar ice are the first recorded.

-350 BC Antarctic: The Greeks reasoned that if there was a northern land there should be a southern one also to balance the world. They never attempted exploration that far.

870 AD Arctic: A Norwegian Viking named Floki Vilgerdarson discovered Iceland.

983 AD Arctic: “Erik the Red,” Erik Thorvaldsson from Iceland, discovered and settled in Greenland.

1594 – 1597 Arctic: William Barents, a Dutch explorer, tried three times to find “The Northeast Passage” along the coast of Siberia. On his last voyage, the ship was trapped in ice and destroyed and they had to spend the winter. They survived, but Barent s and some of his men died as they tried to reach home in two open boats.

1607-1610 Arctic: Henry Hudson, an Englishman, tried to find the Northwest Passage north of the American Continent to Asia through the Arctic Ocean. He discovered and named Hudson Bay in Northeastern Canada. Their ship became stuck in the ice and they had to spend the winter on shore. The ship was freed from ice in the spring, but his men later mutinied, put Hudson and some others in an open boat without food or water, and Hudson was never heard from again.

1725-1742 Arctic: The Russians, led by Vitus Bering and Mikhail Lomonosov explored and mapped their northern coast and beyond.

1772 -1775 Antarctic: Captain James Cook provided the first well-documented proof of the existence of a frozen southern continent. His ship crossed the Antarctic Circle and saw the icebergs of the far southern ocean. He said, "I make bold to declare that the world will derive no benefit from it."

1776-1779 Arctic: Captain James Cook from England tried to find the supposed Northwest Passage and found that the American and Asian continents were separated to the North by ice.

1819-1820 Antarctic: William Smith and James Bransfield led expeditions which discovered the Shetland Islands and the shore of the Antarctic Peninsula.

1819 – 1821 Antarctic: Russian Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen sailed all the way around the Antarctic continent. He may have been the first to see the land of the continent. This was the first time a continent had truly been “discovered” since there weren’t any people living there.

1821 Antarctic: American Captain John Davis landed on the continent at Hughes Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula looking for hunting grounds for seals.

1821 Antarctic: The first time a group of men spent the winter in the Antarctic happened when a British sealing ship was driven ashore on King George Island.

1819-1831 Arctic: William Parry, John Franklin, and James Clark Ross continued to search for the Northwest Passage on several expeditions. Eleven of the twenty members of Franklin’s expedition died of starvation. Ross’s was the first to reach the North Magnetic Pole, but they were trapped in the ice for several winters.

1820 to 1840 Antarctic: Several expeditions were led by British, French, American, and Russian explorers.

1823 Antarctic: British Whaler James Weddell discovers the Weddell Sea. Ms. Dorsey for English 7 Period A3 2/25/2010 1840s Antarctic: British, French, and American Expeditions show that Antarctica is a continent by sailing along a continuous coastline.

1840 Antarctic: British naval officer and scientist James Ross led an expedition stopped by what is now called the Ross Ice Shelf. His expedition discovered the active volcano Erebus.

1845-1873 Arctic: Sir John Franklin led an expedition to find the Northwest Passage with 129 men. None returned. Other expeditions searched for them and found some signs, including a message in a cairn (pile of rocks) that told that Franklin and twenty-four others had died and the rest had abandoned ship. What happened to rest remains a mystery. American Charles Hall died while leading one of the search parti es.

1878 Arctic: Baron Nordenskiöld found a Northeast Passage.

1879- 1882 Arctic: US Naval Officer Lt. George Washington DeLong led an expedition in an attempt to reach the North Pole starting at the Bering Strait. Most members of the expedition died during and after “hauling tons of supplies and three boats over hundreds of miles of ice, a blizzard swept voyage, and an arduous trek across the Siberian tundra.”

1882 to 1884 Arctic: American Adolphus Greely led an expedition to set up an observation station in the Arctic. They broke the record for furthest north, but only six of the twenty-four men survived.

1890’s Antarctic: Norwegian and Scottish expeditions explored the area for whaling.

1898 Antarctic: The first scientific expedition to the Antarctic survives a winter with their ship trapped and drifting in the ice.

1899 Antarctic: Carsten Borchgrevink led a British expedition that was the first to winter on the Antarctic continent, probably also the first landing on the continent.

1902 Antarctic: Captain Scott with Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson tried to reach the South Pole and reached 82 degrees south, but had to turn back because of snow blindness and scurvy.

1886 to 1909 Arctic: Robert Perry led eight expeditions to try to reach the North Pole.

1907-1909 Antarctic: Ernest Shackleton led an expedition to within 97 miles of the South Pole. He turned back because they had run out of supplies

1909 Antarctic: Australian Douglas Mawson reached the South Magnetic Pole.

1908 Arctic: Perry reported that he and Matthew Henson reached the North Pole, but there are questions whether they really did.

1911 Antarctic: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole.

1912 Antarctic: Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole with four other men, only to discover he had been beaten by Amundsen. All five men died on their way back from the pole (only 11 miles from a supply deposit).

1910-1915 Arctic: The Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition explored, surveyed and charted the Northern Sea Route.

1914-1917 Antarctic: Sir Ernest Shackleton of Britain led an expedition, planning to cross the Antarctic continent.

Ms. Dorsey for English 7 Period A3 2/25/2010