Cook, Ross and Scott:  these are the aristocrats of the South.

It was the great English navigator James Cook who laid the foundations of our knowledge.  In 1772 he sailed from Deptford in the Resolution, 462 tons, and the Adventure, 336 tons, ships which had been built at Whitby for the coal trade.  He was, like Nansen, a believer in a varied diet as one of the preventives of scurvy, and mentions that he had among his provisions “besides Saur Krout, Portable Broth, Marmalade of Carrots and Suspissated juice of Wort and Beer.”  Medals were struck “to be given to the natives of new discovered countries, and left there as testimonies of our being the first discoverers."[1] It would be interesting to know whether any exist now.

After calling at the Cape of Good Hope Cook started to make his Easting down to New Zealand, purposing to sail as far south as possible in search of a southern continent.  He sighted his first ‘ice island’ or iceberg in lat. 50 deg. 40’ S., long. 2 deg. 0’ E., on December 10, 1772.  The next day he “saw some white birds about the size of pigeons, with blackish bills and feet.  I never saw any such before."[2] These must have been Snowy Petrel.  Passing through many bergs, where he notices how the albatross left them and penguins appeared, he was brought up by thick pack ice along which he coasted.  Under the supposition that this ice was formed in bays and rivers Cook was led to believe that land was not far distant.  Incidentally he remarks that in order to enable his men to support the colder weather he “caused the sleeves of their jackets (which were so short as to expose their arms) to be lengthened with baize; and had a cap made for each man of the same stuff, together with canvas; which proved of great service to them."[3]

For more than a month Cook sailed the Southern Ocean, always among bergs and often among pack.  The weather was consistently bad and generally thick; he mentions that he had only seen the moon once since leaving the Cape.

It was on Sunday, January 17, 1773, that the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time, in longitude 39 deg. 35’ E. After proceeding to latitude 67 deg. 15’ S. he was stopped by an immense field of pack.  From this point he turned back and made his way to New Zealand.

Leaving New Zealand at the end of 1773 without his second ship, the Adventure, from which he had been parted, he judged from the great swell that “there can be no land to the southward, under the meridian of New Zealand, but what must lie very far to the south.”  In latitude 62 deg. 10’ S. he sighted the first ice island on December 12, and was stopped by thick pack ice three days later.  On the 20th he again crossed the Antarctic Circle in longitude 147 deg. 46’ W. and penetrated in this neighbourhood to a latitude of 67 deg. 31’ S. Here he found a drift towards the north-east.

On January 26, 1774, in longitude 109 deg. 31’ W., he crossed the Antarctic Circle for the third time, after meeting no pack and only a few icebergs.  In latitude 71 deg. 10’ S. he was finally turned back by an immense field of pack, and wrote: