Ross's discoveries

Antarctic waters were busy from the late 1830s to the mid-1840s: three great national expeditions were sent south to explore, discover and collect, and if possible reach the South Magnetic Pole. This was surmised to exist following the discovery of the North Magnetic Pole in 1831 by James Clark Ross. Carl Gauss, an expert on magnetism, had predicted that the South Magnetic Pole would be found at latitude 66 degrees S, 146 degrees E. The expeditions were American, led by Captain Charles Wilkes (1838-42); French, led by Dumont D'Urville (1837-42); and English, led by James Clark Ross (1839-43).

James Clark Ross left London with the ships Erebus and Terror (commanded by Captain Francis Crozier) in October 1839. His brief was to establish magnetic observatories on St Helena in the South Atlantic, at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and at Hobart, Tasmania, before proceeding to the Antarctic. The expedition arrived in Hobart in August 1840 to begin construction of the observatory. Named Rossbank, it was built in the grounds of Government House with the assistance of the Governor, Sir John Franklin (who would subsequently attempt to discover the North West Passage and die in the attempt). In Hobart Ross heard reports of the activities of the Wilkes and Dumont D'Urville expeditions and, based on these, decided to make his voyage to the Antarctic further to the east.

Ross and Crozier left Hobart in November 1840, sailing to the Auckland and Campbell Islands south of New Zealand where specimens of flora and fauna were collected and observations made. They then proceeded south and encountered their first iceberg on 28 December. A week later they entered the icepack, which they pushed through in only four days, and then the expedition entered an open sea: the Ross Sea. As they headed towards the predicted location of the South Magnetic Pole, they saw mountains ahead: the Admiralty Range which soared to over 2,400 metres. The behaviour of the compass indicated that the South Magnetic Pole was beyond the mountains and over 1,300 kilometres away. The expedition would be unable to reach it.

Ross continued sailing, and named the region Victoria Land. He took possession of the land for Britain on an offshore island, Possession Island. Shortly afterwards the expedition discovered an erupting volcano, which was named Mt Erebus after their ship. An adjacent mountain was named Mt Terror. A high wall of ice barred further movement to the south and so they followed its front to the east: this wall of ice was named the Victoria Barrier (later the Ross Ice Barrier, subsequently the Ross Ice Shelf). It towered above the ships.

Ross returned to Hobart and the following summer headed south to the Antarctic again: this summer the expedition was not so fortunate. Hemmed in by pack ice, New Year's Day 1842 was celebrated with a grand ball on the ice. Later several weeks of clear sailing was all that was experienced before the ships were assailed by a violent storm amid icebergs. The Terror and Erebus clashed heavily and Erebus sustained considerable damage. Expert seamanship enabled the ships to be separated, Erebus was repaired and the ships sailed for the Falkland Islands.

From here Ross directed the ships south intending to explore the Weddell Sea: ice conditions impeded this, but he reached 71 degrees 30' S, 14 degrees 51' W, further south than Dumont d'Urville had reached in 1838, but short of James Weddell's record of 74 degrees 15' S, 34 degrees 16' W. Ross's expedition returned to England, successful both scientifically and geographically and having made a major contribution to the understanding of terrestrial magnetism. The South Magnetic Pole would not be reached for another 50 odd years, when Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David and Alistair McKay, members of Ernest Shackleton's expedition of 1907-09 reached it on 16 January 1909.

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