Bellingshausen then made for the South Shetlands, where he
met the American sealers, and thence returned to Russia. The
voyage was a worthy pendant to that of Cook; it was carried
out with a faithful devotion to instructions and consummate
seamanship, and as a result it left only half the periphery
of the Antarctic Circle within which land could possibly project
beyond the Frigid Zone.
The next episode in the history of Antarctic exploration was the voyage of James Weddell, a retired master R.N., in 1823. Weddell was in command of the “Jane,” a brig of 160 tons, with the cutter “Beaufoy” of 65 tons in company, and after cruising among Weddell.the South Orkneys during January he started for the south on exploration, and as he was well equipped with chronometers his positions may be taken as of a far higher degree of accuracy than those of ordinary sealers. On the 20th of February he reached the highest latitude yet attained, 74° 15′ S. in 34° 17′ W., having seen much ice but no impenetrable pack, and at the farthest point the sea was clear and open, but the lateness of the season and the length of the return voyage decided him to go no farther. Weddell made interesting collections of Antarctic animals, including the type specimen of the seal which bears his name, and the book in which he describes his voyage testifies to the keenness of his observations and the soundness of his reasoning. The sea which he penetrated so far to the south he named after the reigning king, George IV., but it is now known as Weddell Sea.
In 1829 Captain Henry Foster, R.N., in H.M.S. “Chanticleer” spent some months in the South Shetlands carrying on pendulum and gravity observations at the most southerly harbour that could be found, and though he did not go south of 63° 50′ S. the careful observations which were made threw much light on the physical conditions of the Antarctic regions.
The firm of Enderby Brothers of London took a conspicuous part in the exploration of the Antarctic seas during the first four decades of the 19th century. They encouraged the masters of the whaling and sealing craft which they sent to the southern seas Biscoe.to take every opportunity that offered for exploration and to fix the position of any land seen with the greatest possible accuracy. The voyage of the Enderbys’ brig “Tula,” under the command of John Biscoe, R.N., with the cutter “Lively” in company, is worthy to rank with Cook’s and Bellingshausen’s expeditions, for it repeated and advanced upon their achievements with a mere fraction of their resources. Biscoe, who apparently had never heard of Bellingshausen’s discoveries, was a keen explorer and a man given to thinking over and reasoning upon all that he saw, and in many of his conclusions he was far in advance of his time. At the beginning of January 1831 Biscoe, who had been hunting vainly for seals on the Sandwich group, started on a voyage easterly to look for new islands, and in trying to get south of 60° S. he had to coast the impenetrable ice-pack as far as 10° W., and continuing he got within the Antarctic Circle in 1° E. on a track parallel to that of Bellingshausen but farther east. Contrary winds delayed the little vessels, no seal-bearing lands were to be found, but in spite of difficulties, constant danger from fogs and icebergs, and disappointed crews he held on eastward for five weeks far to the south of Cook’s track, and, except at one or two points, to the south of Bellingshausen’s also. Though his highest latitude was only 69° S. in 10° 43′ E. on the 28th of January, he remained south of the Antarctic Circle, or within a few miles of it, for another month, when, in longitude 49° 18′ E., he was rewarded by the discovery of land. But just as he was entering on a clear lead of water running straight for a promontory which he named Cape Ann, a terrific storm descended on the vessels, damaged them seriously and drove them helpless before it with the driving ice. A fortnight’s struggle with the wind and ice brought Cape Ann into sight again on the 16th of March. but the weather was not to be conquered, the sea was beginning to freeze and half the crew were helpless with the effects of exposure, so Biscoe was compelled to give up the fight and reluctantly let the land—now known as Enderby Land—drop out of sight astern. With only three men able to stand, Biscoe brought the “Tula” into Hobart Town, Tasmania, and the “Lively,” with only the master one man, and a wounded boy alive, just escaped shipwreck in Port Philip Bay. After recruiting their health and completing their crews the two captains put to sea again and spent some time in sealing on the shores of New Zealand and neighbouring islands. They started south once more, and crossed 60° S. in 131° W. on the 28th of January 1832. Biscoe kept between 60° and the Antarctic Circle, north of Bellingshausen’s route, for he dared not risk the lives of his second crew, but he got south to 67° S. in 72° W., and here, on the 14th of February, he again sighted land, which, in ignorance of Bellingshausen’s discoveries in the same region, he believed was the most southerly land yet known. He named it Adelaide Land after the queen. A few days later he passed a row of low ice-covered islands—the Biscoe Islands-running from W.S.W. to E.N.E. Beyond these islands lay the mountains of an extensive land of which Biscoe took possession in the name of King William IV., and to which the name of Graham Land was subsequently given. Biscoe returned home after an arduous two months’ sealing in the South Shetlands, and the splendid results of his relentless determination as an explorer won for him the gold medals of the young Geographical Societies of London and Paris.
In 1833 another of Enderbys' captains named Kemp reported the discovery of land in 66° S. and 60° E. about 10° east of Enderby Land. The last of the great voyages of exploration due to Enderby Brothers was the cruise of the “Eliza Scott” under Balleny.the command of John Balleny, with the cutter “Sabrina” in company. This voyage is interesting because it was the first attempted in high latitudes from east to west, and all those made in the opposite direction had suffered much from the buffetings of head winds. Balleny left Campbell Island south of New Zealand on the 17th of January 1839 and crossed the Antarctic Circle in 178° E. on the 29th. Heavy pack ice stopped him in 69° S., a higher latitude than had previously been reached in that region. On the 9th of February, after the little vessels had been working north-westward along the edge of the pack ice for more than a week, land was seen and found to be a group of mountainous islands—the Balleny Islands—one of which rose to a height of 12,000 ft., and another was an active volcano. Captain Freeman of the “Sabrina” made a momentary landing on one of the islands and was nearly drowned in the attempt, but secured a few stones which showed the rocks to be volcanic. The vessels held on their way westward between latitudes 63° and 65° S., far south of any earlier voyager, and land, or an appearance of land, to which the name of the “Sabrina” was given, was reported in 121° E. In 103° 40′, E. an iceberg was passed with a rock embedded in the ice, clear proof of land existing to the southward. A few days later the “Sabrina” was lost in a gale, but Balleny returned in safety.
About 1835 the importance of obtaining magnetic observations in the far south, and the scientific interest of the study of the south polar regions led to plans being put forward for expeditions in the United States, France and Great Britain. The French were Dumont D’Urvile.first in the field; an expedition, equipped in the frigates “Astrolabe” and “Zelée” under Jules Dumont D’Urville for ethnographical research in the Pacific Islands, was instructed to make an attempt to surpass Weddell’s latitude in the South Atlantic Ocean, and this D’Urville tried to do with conspicuous ill-success, for he never reached the Antarctic Circle though he spent the first two months of 1838 round the edge of the ice-pack south of the South Shetlands and the South Orkneys. Some portions of the land south of the South Shetlands were charted and named Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land; but the addition to knowledge was not great. Two years later, after fulfilling the main purpose of his expedition in the Pacific, D’Urville resolved for the glory of France to attempt to reach the Magnetic Pole, towards which he was aware that a British and an American expedition were directing their course. He left Hobart Town on the 1st of January 1840, and on the 20th he crossed the 66th parallel in 140° E. and discovered land 3000
