The race to the white continent...

The title of this blog entry is also the title of a book I read recently, "The Race to the White Continent: Voyages to the Antarctic" by Alan Gurney. This book was one of the dozen or so on the suggested reading list I received with my first set of travel documents. Several of the books were under a heading marked "Essential Reading". Hmmm. I wonder what happens if one doesn't read all of these? Do you get smacked by an angry penguin?

In any case, I obtained and read as many of the books as I could locate in the relatively short time I had to prepare for this journey. Since I signed on in November, I am a johnny-come-lately to the group, most of the others having signed up in the spring or summer. Better late than never, but not much time to waste if I wanted to read many of those books.

"Race" chronicles the tale of three major sailing expeditions to Antarctica, all taking place in the late 1830's. The three expeditions launched almost simultaneously from the United States, Great Britain, and France, each nation trying to be the first to reach the Pole and venture further south than any previous voyages to the unexplored and mysterious territory of the Antarctic. The French were led by the seasoned explorer Dumont d'Urville. Royal Navy captain James Clark Ross, a veteran of several Arctic voyages, headed the British flotilla, and the American expedition was led by U.S Navy officer Charles Wilkes, a comparative novice when it came to sailing in uncharted, icy waters.

Wilkes had experienced twenty years in the American Navy, but very little of that time had been spent at sea, and most of that in the Mediterranean! He did have extensive scientific and surveying expertise, and, according to Gurney, boundless "energy, determination, ruthlessness, ambition, and an even greater sense of his 'consequence' " than that of some of his more seasoned crew. In addtion he was apparently of a very suspicious nature, almost to the point of paranoia.

While it would be lovely to be able to say the American expedition accomplished great things, the truth is considerably disappointing to anyone who thinks Americans are and always have been the best at everything. Wilkes' limited seamanship, rancorous personality and harsh disciplinary measures resulted in a difficult voyage that accomplished only a small part of the intended goals, and actually surveyed and mapped several islands that were proven not to exist when Ross's expedition later sailed directly through the coordinates where Wilkes had supposedly documented land. Wilkes' career ultimately ended in a court marshall in 1864, after which he was retired and later commissioned to the rank of rear admiral. Leave it to us Americans to make the best of a bad thing.

Sir James Clark Ross had accompanied his uncle Captain John Ross on several historic Arctic voyages, including the discovery of the magnetic North Pole. During the British Antarctic expedition, which lasted from 1839 until 1843, a number of important geographical discoveries were made and correctly charted, but Ross, confronted by the massive eastern Antarctic ice shelf that now bears his name, was unable to achieve his dream of reaching both Poles. His discovery that Wilkes' coordinates for several "land masses" were, in fact, incorrect, led to a bitter transoceanic rivalry between the two explorers that lasted throughout their lifetimes. Although Ross charitably commented publicly that the fog and icebergs, which often combined to present the illusion of land, made Wilkes' errors understandable, Wilkes reacted in typical fashion, taking the corrected and more accurate British charts as a personal affront. He never forgave Ross for exposing the errors.

Leader of the French expedition, d'Urville is described as "an aloof, serious, clever young man", born to a family of minor aristocrats who were fortunate to escape the guillotine. He later married Adele Pepin, an action which infuriated d'Urville's mother, who felt he had married beneath his station. I found it interesting to note that among his earlier accomplishments in life, d'Urville was responsible for the French purchase of a marble statue that had been dug up by a Greek peasant. Having experienced a classical education, D'Urville recognized the subject of the statue as Aphrodite/Venus, and persisted in convincing the French ambassador to purchase the artifact--which now resides in the Louvre and is known as the "Venus de Milo"!

D'Urville's ships were the first of the three groups to sail in September, 1837. D'Urville's goals included attempting to sail his primary vessel, the Astrolabe, as far south as possible, particulary trying to best the previous mark of 75 degrees south achieved by American sealer James Weddell. Sailing with its sister ship, the Zelee, Astrolabe made two probes into the Antarctic from 1837 to 1842. The expedition accomplished multiple important chartings, and on the second trip was successful in reaching the South Magnetic Pole. With both crews diminished by dysentary (from rotten canned French meat!) and scurvy and d'Urville himself suffering with gout and stomach pains, the French expedition was forced to return home sooner than planned, but was still considered a rousing success. Upon his return to France, D'Urville was also commissioned a rear admiral. He died, along with his wife and children, in a fiery train deraillment in France a few years later.

A bit here about the "South Pole". The South Magnetic Pole is a wandering compass point where the Earth's geomagnetic field lines are directed vertically upwards. It changes due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field and appears to be moving northwest by about 10 to 15 kilometers a year. The South Magnetic Pole is not to be confused with the South Geomagnetic Pole, a different point, which is also "wandering" for the same reason. Furthermore, these two are not to be confused with the Geographic South Pole, the southernmost point on the surface of the earth. This one is fixed (thank goodness!) and lies somewhat southwest of the center of the Antarctic continent. It is the site of the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

(Got all that? There will be a test.)

Early explorers in the Antarctic were keen on locating all these poles and other reference points, since the far southern latitudes remained the only uncharted places on the earth. These were unquestionably brave individuals, sailing in wooden ships through poorly charted or uncharted waters, struggling through rough seas, churning ice and cutting winds to forge further and further south, each nation trying to be first to claim "The Pole" and describe as accurately as possible the characteristics of the bottom of the world. Their efforts resulted in detailed new maps, replacing maps that since Captain Cook's voyages in the 1780's had only shown detail to 72 degrees south, with a notation below saying "The Antarctic Ocean: Many Isles & firm fields of Ice; Islands of Ice innumerable; Firm Field and Vast Mountains of Ice."

Next time: Shackleton: the stuff heroes are made of.