Antarctica was discovered by an expedition headed by seafarers Bellingshausen and Lazarev. The history of the discovery of Antarctica

Which of the travelers discovered Antarctica? You will learn the answer from this article. Reliable, its final discovery occurred in 1820. It is this year that the history of Antarctica begins. At first people could only guess that this continent exists.

Antarctica is the highest continent on earth. More than 2 thousand meters is the average height of the surface above the sea level of Antarctica. It reaches four thousand meters in the center of the mainland.

Before you tell us about which of the travelers discovered Antarctica, let us say a few words about the seafarers, who have come close to this great discovery.

The first guesses about the existence of the continent

The participants of the expedition, carried out by Portugal in 1501-1502, had their first guesses. Amerigo Vespucci took part in this voyage. This Florentine traveler, thanks to a very bizarre confluence of various circumstances, gave his name to the name of two huge continents. However, the aforementioned expedition failed to advance further on. South Geogria, which is located quite far from Antarctica. Vespucci testified that the cold was so strong that the travelers could not bear it.

Long ago people attracted people from Antarctica. Travelers assumed that there is a huge continent. James Cook penetrated before others in the Antarctic waters. He debunked the existing myth that here is located the Unknown Southern Earth of enormous dimensions. However, this navigator had only to assume that near the pole there could be a continent. He believed that his presence proves a lot of ice islands, as well as floating ice.

Lazarev and Bellingshausen

Antarctica was discovered by an expedition headed by seafarers from Russia. Forever were entered two names in the history of geographical discoveries. This F.F. Bellingshausen (years of life - 1778-1852) and M.P. Lazarev (1788-1851).

Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen was born in 1778. He was born on the island of Saaremaa, located in the Baltic Sea , which belongs to Estonia today. The navigator studied at the Naval Cadet Corps.

Bellingshausen dreamed of the vastness of the sea from early childhood. He wrote that he was born in the middle of the sea, therefore, like a fish without water, he can not live without him. Thaddeus Faddeevich in 1803-1806 took part in the journey (the first round-the-world, accomplished by Russian sailors) on the ship "Nadezhda", led by Ivan Krusenstern.

Lazarev was 10 years younger. He made 3 round-the-world trips for his life. The navigator participated in the Navarino battle in 1827, after which he was commander of the Black Sea Fleet for almost twenty years. Among his students there were such outstanding naval commanders of Russia as Vladimir Istomin, Pavel Nakhimov, Vladimir Kornilov.

"East" and "Peaceful"

Lazarev and Bellingshausen fate brought in 1819. Then the Naval Ministry wanted to equip the expedition to the Southern Hemisphere. An uneasy journey was to be carried out by two ships, well equipped. The commander of the sloop "Vostok" was Bellingshausen. Lazarev led the "Peace". In honor of these ships, the first Antarctic stations of the USSR will be named many decades later.

First discoveries

Expedition in 1819, July 16, began swimming. In short, its goal was formulated as follows: opening near the Antarctic Pole. The Mariners were instructed to explore the Sandwich Land (today it is the South Sandwich Islands, which were once discovered by Cook), and also to South Georgia, after which the exploration continues to a remote latitude that can only be achieved.

Luck accompanied "Peace" and "East". The island of South Georgia was described in detail. The navigators established that the Sandwich Land is an entire archipelago. Cook Islands Bellingshausen called the largest island of this archipelago. The first instructions of the received instruction were met.

The discovery of Antarctica

On the horizon, the icy expanses were already visible. The ships continued their journey along their edges from west to east. In 1820, on January 27, the expedition crossed the Southern Arctic Circle. And the very next day its participants came close to the Antarctic continent, its ice barrier. Only more than 100 years later, these places were visited again. This time it was the Norwegian explorers of Antarctica. They gave them the name of the Coast of Princess Martha.

Bellingshausen on January 28 wrote in his diary that, while continuing to move south, the expedition found ice at noon, which, through the passing snow, appeared as white clouds. The navigators, having passed to the southeast two more miles, were already "in solid ice". A huge field, dotted with hills, stretched around. So Antarctica was discovered by an expedition headed by seafarers Bellingshausen and Lazarev.

In the conditions of much better visibility was the ship Lazarev. The captain watched the "ice of extreme height", which stretched to the horizon. He was part of the ice shield that covered Antarctica. And on January 28 of the same year went down in history as the date when Bellingshausen and Lazarev discovered the Antarctic continent. Two more times (on February 2 and 17), Mirny and Vostok came close to the shores of Antarctica. According to the instruction, it was necessary to find "unknown lands". However, even the most determined of the drafters of this document could not foresee such a successful accomplishment of the task.

Repeated voyage to Antarctica

Winter was approaching in the southern hemisphere. Ships, moving to the north, plowed the temperate and tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. So a year passed. Then, "Peaceful" and "East", commanded by Bellingshausen and Lazarev, went to Antarctica again. They crossed the South Polar Circle three times.

The Island of Peter I

The eyes of travelers in 1821, January 22, appeared an unknown island. It was named Bellingshausen as the island of Peter the Great. January 28, that is exactly a year since the discovery of Antarctica, in sunny, cloudless weather, the crews observed a mountainous shore that extended beyond the visibility to the south.

Land of Alexander I

For the first time, the Earth of Alexander I appeared on geographic maps. There was no more doubt: Antarctica is not just an ice massif, but a real continent. Bellingshausen, incidentally, never mentioned the discovery of the mainland. It was not a matter of false modesty. The seafarer understood that it was possible to draw definitive conclusions only by carrying out the necessary investigations on the coast of Antarctica. Neither about the outlines, nor about the dimensions of the continent, he could not even make an approximate representation. Many decades have gone into research.

Study of the South Shetland Islands

Completing the "odyssey", the explorers explored in detail the South Shetland Islands. Before about them it was only known that V. Smith, an Englishman, observed them in 1818. These islands were mapped and described. In the Patriotic War of 1812, many satellites Lazarev and Bellingshausen participated. Therefore, the individual islands in memory of its battles were given the following names: Waterloo, Leipzig, Berezina, Smolensk, Maloyaroslavets, Borodino. However, later English sailors renamed them, which is not entirely fair. On Waterloo, among other things (King George - its modern name), the most northern scientific station of the USSR in Antarctica, called Bellingshausen, was founded in 1968.

Return to Kronstadt

In 1821, at the end of January, Thaddeus Faddeevich sent ships to the north, pretty battered by swimming in ice and storms. 751 days continued the sailing of Russian ships. The length of the trip was about 100 thousand kilometers (that is, as much as it will be if we circle the Earth two and a quarter times along the equator). On the map were 29 new islands. This was the beginning of the exploration and study of Antarctica.

Following the Russians

So, Antarctica was discovered by an expedition headed by seafarers from Russia. Two weeks after, in 1820, on January 16, the Russian expedition headed by Lazarev and Bellingshausen approached Antarctica, Edward Branzfield, who was moving from the South Scottish Islands to the south, saw a high, snow-covered beach. He was called this navigator by Trinity Earth (that is, Trinity). Researchers of Antarctica also saw two peaks of the mountains. It was the Antarctic Peninsula, its northern ridge, stretching for 1200 km in the direction of South America. On Earth there is no other such long and narrow peninsula.

Antarctica for the first time after the Russians saw the sailors of the Enderby Company, two malleable ships of England, who under John Bisco conducted a round-the-world trip. In 1831, at the end of February, these ships approached the mountainous land. It was taken by them for the island. Subsequently, this land was defined as the protrusion of East Antarctica. Appeared on the map are the names of Mount Bisco (the highest peak on it) and the Land of Enderby. Thus, the explorer John Bisco discovered Antarctica.

This traveler next year makes another discovery. He encounters several small islands along the zero meridian , behind which were the mountains of the Graham Land (as he called this land), which continued the Land of Alexander I to the east. The seaman's own name was a chain of small islands, although the lands discovered by him were also considered a long time after the islands.

In the subsequent decade of navigation in the Southern Ocean, two or three "shores" were discovered. However, the travelers to none of them did not fit.

In the history of the study of Antarctica a special place is occupied by the expedition of the French, headed by J.S. Dumont-Durville. In 1838, in January, two of his ships ("Zele" and "Astrolabe") went to the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic, from the south rounding America. The researcher went in search of ice-free water, far to the south, approaching the Antarctic Peninsula, the northern tip of it, which was named this navigator by Louis Philippe Land. Dumont-Durville, going to the Pacific, sent his ships to the tropical waters. However, from Tasmania, then turned south and met at the latitude of the Arctic Circle an ice coast, called Adelie Land by the name of his wife. This happened in 1840, on January 20. The French landed on the island the same day. We can say that people for the first time on this day entered the land of Antarctica, although it was still not the mainland, but only an island near it.

After reading the article, you learned in which year Antarctica was discovered. Only in 1956, January 5, the first Russian researchers entered the coast of this continent. This happened, therefore, 136 years after Antarctica was discovered by an expedition headed by seafarers Lazarev and Bellingshausen.