It was over a century ago when a whaling ship called the 'Antarctic' found itself anchored along the arctic, volcanic coast in the Ross Sea. It sent a longboat to shore. The leader of this party was Captain Leonard Kristensen and they were the first people to set foot on Antarctica. This historic event happened on January 24, 1895 while on a mission to kill whales in waters that remained unclaimed.
The baptism of Antarctica was bathed in blood. 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 hundreds of thousands of scared penguins were rounded up, forced up boards leaning on pots of boiling oil, and forced to fall in to add their own oil to the mix.
Finally, after exploiting the Frozen Continent more than 100 years, it seems humans are willing to let go of the easy money and fast kill opportunities to allow Antarctica to be a place of preserving both science and nature for the future. There is even discussions about making a world park on this continent. Many scientists see Antarctica as a place to study the effects of global pollutant threats like the depletion of the ozone layer and the green house effect. Our perspectives on Antarctica have changed rapidly, when you consider our minimal, but violent, presence in the area. Small areas of the coastline, some trails to the South Pole and a few islands were explored up until 1958.
From the time Antarctica was discovered its history has been filled with fierceness, nationalism, idealism, and constant killing. Only on occasion were attempts made at scientific research on this continent. One remarkable event in the history of this continent was the increase of whaling during World War I so that the oil could be refined into glycerin and used for artillery shells. Whale oil continued to be a commodity after World War II, as the Soviet Union and the United States began to require more of the substance for use as a jet engine lubricant. Until the advent of the IGY, most of Antarctica was termed "Terra Incognita" - which is a medieval map making term for thed southern continent that was thought to exist.
The birth of the first individual in Antarctica was a witness to dutiful conceit. That person has not yet reached adulthood. Because Argentina has a claim on a large part of Antarctica, they decided to fly Emilio Marcus Palmer's mother to to their Esperanza Base in 1978 for the purpose of giving birth to him there and further cement their claim.
This occurred nine years after two American astronauts (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin)had walked on the moon to plant the flag of their nation as a bold symbol of America's prominence there. In one of the most ambitious attempt to show dominance was when Roald Amundsen rushed to the South Pole in 1911 to honor Norway's King Haakon VII. This same journey was made by Robert F. Scott of England, though his team took the time to amass fossil and rock samples along the way, carrying these things all on sleds.
Unfortunately, Scott arrived at the South Pole only to find that Amundsen had already been there the month before, and thanks to the depression over this realization, their poor diet, the effort of dragging those rocks, and some bad luck, Scott's party never made it back, and became the first to give their lives for the sake of Antarctic science. America staked their claim to the South Pole when Richard Byrd took a flight over it in 1929 using a Ford Trimotor. The Soviets made their interests in Antarctica with the journey of Russian Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshaunsen past the Antarctic Peninsula in 1821.
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
