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

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 Bellingshaus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar record 2019-11, Vol.55 (6), p.392-401
Main Author: Bulkeley, Rip
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological surveys
Ice
Ice caps
Mountains
Polar caps
Track charts
Translations
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0032-2474
1475-3057
DOI:10.1017/S0032247419000755