The Antarctic Adventure

On January 5, 1922, legendary and at times controversial Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack aboard converted Norwegian sealer Quest, the night before his party was about to set off from the island of South Georgia towards his third trip to the Antarctic mainland. Shackleton's death and the arrival of his ship in Plymouth harbor on September 16, 1922, after an uneventful expedition marked the end of the so-called "Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration". This period lasted for 25 years and produced many firsts in the history of the Antarctic continent as well as first-hand accounts of the geological, zoological, and biological diversity of this almost completely uncharted continent. As our chart shows, the discoveries were mostly driven by UK expeditions – with one notable exception.

This exception, of course, refers to Roald Amundsen's trek to the geographic South Pole, which was met with criticism from contemporary sources due to its secrecy. Amundsen's journey and Norway's only Antarctic endeavor between 1897 and 1922 started in Kristiansand on August 9, 1910. Amundsen originally planned to travel to the North Pole but was dissuaded by the successes of fellow explorers Frederick Cook and Robert Peary. Claiming to still plan on heading to the Arctic after a detour to Antarctica and keeping his new plans under wraps, his ship, the Fram, anchored at Bay of Whales on the southern edge of the Antarctic mainland on January 14, 1911. After spending the first Arctic winter there, a crew of five men including Amundsen set out on October 19, 1911, and reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911, preceding Robert Falcon Scott's doomed Terra Nova expedition by 34 days. While Amundsen and his men made it back safely, the last members of Scott's party died on March 29, 1912, during a blizzard on their way back to camp.

Even though the British explorer and former Royal Navy officer didn't reach his goal, his expeditions are still considered landmarks in the exploration of the Antarctic. He led the first British expedition to the Antarctic in the "Heroic Age", an endeavor which is estimated to have cost 90,000 British pounds at the time, which would amount to about $15.3 million today. With a duration of 1,131 days from its start in 1901 to the Discovery returning home in 1904, it's also the longest expedition to the Antarctic in this period, beating Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition by almost 200 days. The Discovery expedition also is seen as a kickstarter for the careers of several other explorers – among them Shackleton, who served as Third Officer on the ship.