Discovery Expedition
![RRS ''Discovery''](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Discovery_alongside_Barrier.jpg)
The ''
Discovery''
Expedition of 1901–1904, known officially as the
British National Antarctic Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the
Antarctic regions since
the voyage of
James Clark Ross sixty years earlier (1839–1843). Organized on a large scale under a joint committee of the
Royal Society and the
Royal Geographical Society (RGS), the new expedition carried out scientific research and geographical exploration in what was then largely an untouched continent. It launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the
Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including
Robert Falcon Scott who led the expedition,
Ernest Shackleton,
Edward Wilson,
Frank Wild,
Tom Crean and
William Lashly.
Its scientific results covered extensive ground in
biology,
zoology,
geology,
meteorology and
magnetism. The expedition discovered the existence of the only
snow-free Antarctic valleys, which contains the longest river of Antarctica. Further achievements included the discoveries of the
Cape Crozier emperor penguin colony,
King Edward VII Land, and the
Polar Plateau (via the
western mountains route) on which the
South Pole is located. The expedition tried to reach the
South Pole travelling as far as the
Farthest South mark at a reported 82°17′S.
As a trailbreaker for later ventures, the ''Discovery'' Expedition was a landmark in British Antarctic exploration history.
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