The Diminishing Desire to Explore Antarctica.
It was one hundred years ago when the whaling ship called Antarctic lowered its anchor of the volcanic coast of this wind-battered landmass. Soon it sent a longboat to the landmass through the rough waters of the Ross Sea. On January 24, 1895, in their quest to travel to unknown seas with the purpose of slaughtering whales, a landing group, led by Captain Leonard Kristensen, were the first people to step foot on the Antarctic continent.
The baptism of Antarctica was bathed in blood. Millions of seals were slaughtered and their fur was collected. Penguins and whales were killed for their precious oils, which were used in the machinery used by the Industrial Revolution. 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’s even talks of establishing a park where people from all over the world can visit. In an effort to understand global pollutants and their impact on ozone depletion and greenhouse effect, the continent is essential for science. Considering how brief a time we have inhabited our planet, the discoveries that we have made in Antarctica since its discover are truly remarkable. The degree of exploration was limited to a small fraction of coastline and islands, and included only a few routes to the South Pole up until the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year.
From the very first, the appearance of men on this continent has resulted in a convoluted story of nationalism, aggression, idealism, and unchecked slaughter, with sporadic, cavalier attempts toward scientific research. The artillery shells of World War One required oil from whales to operate, so whaling increased during this period. 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. Until the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58, much of this continent was considered ‘Terra Incognita’ – a theoretical continent delineated by medieval mapmakers.
It may be surprising to note that the first person born in Antarctica was born there out of patriotic pretentiousness. In 1978, Emilio Marcus Palmer was born at Esperanza Base, owned by Argentina in order to reinforce claims by Argentina to large portions of the territory.
This occurred nine years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon and placed America’s flag on it as a symbol of America’s dominance over other nations. In 1911, Roald Amundsen’s trek to the South Pole, honoring King Haakon VII of Norway, was the most productive, determined venture of this sort. This trip was also made by Robert F. Scott and his team in honor of the British Empire. The difference was that this team took the time to collect rock and fossil samples which they hauled with them in their man-pulled sleighs.
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. A rather unique attempt to stake America’s claim on the territory took place when a Ford Trimotor was flown over the South Pole by Richard Bryd in 1929. In 1821, the soviets utilized Russian Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshausen’s voyage passed Antarctica in 1821 to justify their interests in the continent.
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