Bellingshausen’s “Mountains”: The 1820 Russian sighting of Antarctica and Bellingshausen’s theory of the South Polar ice cap

Abstract There has been some uncertainty as to which of the two southerly probes, during which Bellingshausen passed latitude 69°S in early 1820, achieved the first sighting of an ice coast of Dronning Maud Land in Eastern Antarctica. The author criticizes Frank Debenham’s English translation of Bel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Record
Main Author: Bulkeley, Rip
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247419000755
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247419000755
Description
Summary:Abstract There has been some uncertainty as to which of the two southerly probes, during which Bellingshausen passed latitude 69°S in early 1820, achieved the first sighting of an ice coast of Dronning Maud Land in Eastern Antarctica. The author criticizes Frank Debenham’s English translation of Bellingshausen’s narrative before presenting and discussing new translations of Bellingshausen’s descriptions of those events, with relevant sections of his track chart, plus a third passage from the book which interpreted what was seen. He concludes that the Russians first sighted an ice coast in mid-February, rather than late January as has been widely claimed.