Bellingshausen & Lazarev: Discovering the 6-th continent
There was a big question in XVIII century: is there a sixth continent, South continent? Famous British explorer captain James Cook in 1770 was the first who reached the South Pole seas, but he met the great icefields and couldn’t overcome them. That’s why he said: we will never know about South Pole lands.
South Georgia Island
Faddey Bellingshaus en was famous as a prominent cartographer and navigator. And he was appointed by Russian emperor Alexander I to command the Russian circumnavigation to explore the Southern Ocean and to find land near the South Pole. Geographers wanted to know is there any land or only ice islands, drifting in the ocean
4-th July, 1819. Start of the expedition. There were two ships: Mirny and Vostok. Vostok was under command of Bellinsghausen. And Mirny was under command of another experienced navigator Mikhail Lazarev.
Exploration of South Sandwich Islands and Traversay Islands
One of the Islands was 900 m height
Location of Traversay islands
People sailed in very heavy conditions. It was a low temperature, strong winds and frequent snowfalls. When the ships were in solid ice, they were forced to turn to the north and got out of ice captivity.
28-th of January, 1819 ships reached 69 degree south latitude and discovered Antarctic continent
Alexander I Land. Sea around is Bellinsghausen Sea
Ships three times were very near to Antarctic coast but couldn’t make a landing. They charted the 6-th continent, researched different kinds of ice and Antarctic animals and plants
Bellingshausen and Lazarev were in expedition 750 days, discovered 28 new islands and new continent.
Antarctica is still the most mysterious and unexplored continent. Who is the next to make a new discovery?
Thank you for your attention.