Captain James Cook —­ one of the boldest and most capable seamen the world has known —­ opens the series of Antarctic expeditions properly so called.  The British Admiralty sent him out with orders to discover the great southern continent, or prove that it did not exist.  The expedition, consisting of two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure, left Plymouth on July 13, 1772.  After a short stay at Madeira it reached Cape Town on October 30.  Here Cook received news of the discovery of Kerguelen and of the Marion and Crozet Islands.  In the course of his voyage to the south Cook passed 300 miles to the south of the land reported by Bouvet, and thereby established the fact that the land in question —­ if it existed —­ was not continuous with the great southern continent.

On January 17, 1773, the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time —­ a memorable day in the annals of Antarctic exploration.  Shortly afterwards a solid pack was encountered, and Cook was forced to return to the north.  A course was laid for the newly discovered islands —­ Kerguelen, Marion, and the Crozets —­ and it was proved that they had nothing to do with the great southern land.  In the course of his further voyages in Antarctic waters Cook completed the most southerly circumnavigation of the globe, and showed that there was no connection between any of the lands or islands that had been discovered and the great mysterious “Antarctica.”  His highest latitude (January 30, 1774) was 71deg. 10’ S.

Cook’s voyages had important commercial results, as his reports of the enormous number of seals round South Georgia brought many sealers, both English and American, to those waters, and these sealers, in turn, increased the field of geographical discovery.

In 1819 the discovery of the South Shetlands by the Englishman, Captain William Smith, is to be recorded.  And this discovery led to that of the Palmer Archipelago to the south of them.

The next scientific expedition to the Antarctic regions was that despatched by the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia, under the command of Captain Thaddeus von Bellingshausen.  It was composed of two ships, and sailed from Cronstadt on July 15, 1819.  To this expedition belongs the honour of having discovered the first land to the south of the Antarctic Circle —­ Peter I. Island and Alexander I. Land.

The next star in the Antarctic firmament is the British seaman, James Weddell.  He made two voyages in a sealer of 160 tons, the Jane of Leith, in 1819 and 1822, being accompanied on the second occasion by the cutter Beaufoy.  In February, 1823, Weddell had the satisfaction of beating Cook’s record by reaching a latitude of 74deg. 15’ S. in the sea now known as Weddell Sea, which in that year was clear of ice.