Antarctica delimited

The ancient Greek philosophers postulated a large southern continent to balance the Eurasian continent in the northern hemisphere. Dutch explorers gradually discovered the west and northern coast and limited the southern extent of Australia during the 17th century; James Cook established the eastern limit of the continent in 1770 during his first voyage of discovery in the Pacific Ocean (1768-1771). But it was considered that there must be more land in the southern hemisphere to fill the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Cook decided that a second voyage to the south was needed and his plans were supported.

Cook's second voyage comprised two vessels: the Resolution and the Adventure (commanded by Tobias Furneaux). Both vessels were Whitby colliers as the Endeavour had been. The scientific staff consisted of Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg, Anders Sparrman, William Wales and William Bayly. A special piece of equipment would also be thoroughly tested on this voyage: John Harrison's chronometer, a clock designed to keep accurate time aboard ship. It was hoped chronometers would enable longitude to be accurately plotted, rather than using time consuming mathematical calculations. Cook planned to spend the summer sweeping the southern Pacific in search of further continental land masses: the southern winters would be spent in further exploration of warmer climes.

The expedition left England in July 1772 and from Capetown Cook headed south. By 6 December the ships were at 48 degrees south and the temperature was below freezing. On 10 December the first tabular iceberg was seen: these were new to the seamen many of whom were used to northern ice conditions. By Christmas 1772 they were at 57 degrees 50' S, 29 degrees 32' E: no land had been sighted, only ice. In mid-January 1773 the ships crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. Shortly after this the ships were separated and Cook anticipated meeting up with Furneaux and the Adventure at their rendezvous in New Zealand. By mid-March Resolution was south of Tasmania and during the previous four months sailing continuously in high latitudes no land had been discovered. He headed to New Zealand as the southern summer neared its end.

After the winter spent recuperating and exploring in a warmer climate Cook headed south again and by Christmas 1773 the ice conditions were already bad: the fog fortunately lifted in time for the ship to avoid the icebergs. Two days later over 200 were counted. They continued south; ice-blink indicated pack ice ahead and when observed from the mast head was seen to extend east/west as far as the eye could see. It was studded with nearly 100 large icebergs. Further progress south was blocked.

Cook wrote: 'I will not say it was impossible any where to get farther to the South; but the attempting it would have been a dangerous and rash enterprise, and what, I believe, no man in my situation would have thought of. It was, indeed, my opinion, as well as the opinion of most on board, that this ice extended quite to the pole, or perhaps joined to some land, to which it had been fixed from the earliest time; ... I, who had ambition not only to go farther than any one had been before, but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry at meeting with this interruption; as it, in some measure, relieved us; at least, shortened the dangers and hardships inseparable from the navigation of the southern polar regions.' (Cook, volume 1, p. 268) It was latitude 71 degrees 10' south, longitude 106 degrees 54' west. He headed north and another winter was spent in warmer climes before he again turned south.

In the following southern summer Cook headed into Antarctic waters once more, this time examining the waters south of Cape Horn and Staten Island. He discovered South Georgia and the South Sandwich islands. By the end of that summer's cruising Cook was convinced that if a southern continent existed it lay well within the Antarctic Circle and must be the source of much of the ice they had encountered. He had circumnavigated the world in high southern latitudes, crossing south of the Antarctic Circle three times. His ship's rigging was dangerously worn and his men had done enough. Cook headed home and reached England July 1775. He had shown that no Great Southern Land existed in the southern Pacific, and if any continent did exist in the southern hemisphere it lay in an area of almost perpetual ice.

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