The Bellingshausen-Palmer meeting

The celebrated meeting between Captain Bellingshausen of the Imperial Russian Navy and the American sealing skipper Nathaniel Brown Palmer, off the South Shetland Islands in February 1821, has often been described by following just one or other of the two men's divergent and in some respects ir...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar record 2015-11, Vol.51 (6), p.644-654
Main Author: Bulkeley, Rip
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bellingshausen, Faddei Faddeyevich
Explorers
Geography
History
Meetings
Palmer, Nathaniel Brown
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Summary:The celebrated meeting between Captain Bellingshausen of the Imperial Russian Navy and the American sealing skipper Nathaniel Brown Palmer, off the South Shetland Islands in February 1821, has often been described by following just one or other of the two men's divergent and in some respects irreconcilable accounts. The most contentious issue is whether or not Palmer told Bellingshausen about the existence of a body of land to the south of the South Shetlands, known today as the Antarctic Peninsula. This note attempts to reach a balanced assessment of the matter by examining evidence from both sides, including several previously unconsidered items. It concludes that, although the truth will never be known with absolute certainty, the basic American account is more plausible, by the narrowest of narrow margins, than the Russian.
ISSN:0032-2474
1475-3057
DOI:10.1017/S0032247414000783