It was just over a hundred years ago that a whaling ship named Antarctic anchored itself and then launched a longboat toward a wind-swept shore through the dangerous waters of the Ross Sea.The party with their Captain, Leonard Kristensen, leading them landed and left the very first set of human footprints on the shores of Antarctica. January 24,1895 was the date of their historic landing, and was only one part of their endeavor to hunt whales in unexplored waters.

The result of this first mission was a blood bath of great measure.The Industrial Revolution energized the desire to massacre millions of Antarctic animals such as whales and penguins. The oil from these animals was used as a lubricant for machinery and their fur was an added bonus.It was on Macquarie Island that countless penguins were rounded up, herded up planks, and forced to drop into boiling pots of oil so that their oil would combine with the rest.

It took 100 years, but mankind has thankfully become much wiser and finally set priorities in the right direction. Rather than exploiting the amazing Frozen Continent for money, Antarctica is now designated as a nature preserve and used only for scientific research.There has been recent discussion into the inception of a world park.It is on this continent that evidence of environmental threats such as ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect, can be observed by scientists.Considering how brief a time we have inhabited our planet, the discoveries that we have made in Antarctica since its discover are truly remarkable.It was not until the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year (also known as IGY) that more coastline, islands, and a handful of paths to the South Pole were even investigated.antarctic cruise

Our introduction to Antarctica was murderous, idealistic, nationalistic, and ferocious – with the occasional effort towards scientific advancement between this barbarism.Whaling around Antarctica occurred with more intensity during World War I, because the oil from them was refined into glycerin used in artillery shells.After the end of World War II, it became the Soviet Union and the United States that hunted the sperm whales for the extra-fine oil they produced, which was needed as lubricant for jet engines.It was not until the International Geophysical Year that Antarctica was referred to as anything but “Terra Australia Incognita,” a term used by medieval mapmakers to describe this undiscovered southern continent.

The first birth in Antarctic was witness to great controversy and nationalistic pretension and was entirely purposeful.As a matter of fact, Emilio Marcus Palmer was born at Argentina’s Esperanza Base in 1978, where his mother was brought for the sole purpose of emphasizing Argentina’s claim to this area of Antarctic territory.antarctic cruise reviews

This was similar to America claiming dominance 9 years earlier when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon and put the American flag on the moon.A similar exploit took place in 1911 when Roald Amundsen raced to be the first to the South Pole to show nobility to Norway’s King Haakon VII.Although Robert F. Scott and his team also made that trip for the British, they spent a great deal more time on their voyage so that they could collect rock and fossil samples – the weight of which only slowed them down further.

After discovering that despite all their hard work, Amundsen had beaten them to the Pole by an entire month, Scott’s party perished in Antarctica due to a combination of bad luck, the pain of hauling massive amounts of rock, and poor diet. This made them the first team of martyrs for the cause of science in Antarctica.America’s claim to the South Pole was entrenched when Richard Byrd flew a Ford Trimotor over the Pole in 1929.The Soviets made their interests in Antarctica with the journey of Russian Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshaunsen past the Antarctic Peninsula in 1821.

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