The Antarctic, Gothenburg harbor, 1901
Career
Name:	"Antarctic"
Port of registry:	Sweden
Launched:	1871, in Drammen, Norway
Fate:	sank 12 February 1903
General characteristics
Class and type:	Steamship
Tonnage:	226 netto
Length:	41,5 meter
Height:	33,5 meter
Propulsion:	Sails, 45 hp (34 kW) auxiliary steam engine
Sail plan:	Barque
Speed:	6 knots (11 km/h)
Capacity:	346 brutto

The Antarctic was a Swedish steamship built in Drammen, Norway in 1871. She was used on several research expeditions to the Arctic region and to Antarctica through 1898-1903. In 1895 the first confirmed landing on the mainland of Antarctica was made from this ship.

The ship[link]

Antarctic was a barque with three masts and equipped with a steam engine. Build in 1871 at Holmen in Drammen under the name "Cap Nor".^[1][2][3]

Initially the Antarctic was used for seal hunting around Svalbard, Jan Mayen and Greenland,^[4] under that period the ship was captained by Gullik Jensen and among others Carsten Borchgrevink served on the ship.

In the early 1890s Norwegian ship-owner Svend Foyn wanted to expand his business to the Antarctic Ocean thereby needing capable ships. Foyn then purchased the Cap Nor, made extensive repairs and after completion renamed the ship Antarctic.^[1][3][4] From 1893 the ship was deployed to the Antarctic ocean for whale hunting.

In 1897 the ship was purchased by Alfred Gabriel Nathorst for his planned expedition to Svalbard. Again extensive repairs were made prior to the expedition in 1898.^[1][3][4]

In 1899 Nathorst sold the ship to Georg Carl Amdrup for his expedition to East Greenland.^[4]

In 1900 Amdrup sold the Antarctic to Otto Nordenskjöld who needed the ship for his Antarctic expedition.

The expeditions[link]

The Antarctic leaving Gothenburg harbor, 1901.

In 1893 the Antarctic captained by Leonard Kristensen set off on a whaling expedition to Antarctica led by Henrik Johan Bull and financed by Foyn. The ship was equipped with 11 harpoon guns, an arsenal of explosives, 8 whaleboats and 31 men and left Tønsberg on September 20, 1893. The first summer was spent around the Kerguelen Islands with winter camp in Melbourne. On September 28, 1894 the ship went of to sea heading for the Ross Sea.

On January 24, 1895 a boat was put ashore at Cape Adare at the northern extremity of Victoria Land with six men including Bull, Borchgrevink, Kristensen and Tunzelmann. The party performed the first confirmed landing on the continent of Antarctica, exactly who went ashore first was never cleared as all members claimed the honor (possibly British-American sealer John Davis had already made a landing on the Antarctic Peninsula on February 7, 1821, this claim can, however, not be confirmed).^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

In 1898 the Antarctic captained by Emil Nilsson carried Nathorst’s polar expedition to Bear Island, Svalbard and Kong Karls Land.^[1] Among the participating scientists were Axel Hamberg, Otto Kjellström, Gustaf Kolthoff and Henrik Hesselman.^[3]

In 1899 the ship left on an expedition also under the command of Nathorst to North Greenland with the dual purpose of searching for survivors of the 1897 Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition and geographical mapping the area.^[12]

Later the same year the "Antarctic" carried Amdrup’s expedition to East Greenland.^[4]

In 1901 the ship, then on loan from Nordenskjöld, carried the second season of the Swedish-Russian Arc-of-Meridian Expedition under the command of Gerard De Geer to Svalbard.^[4][13]

On October 16, 1901 the Antarctic now captained by Carl Anton Larsen left Gothenburg harbor on Nordenskjold’s Antarctic expedition.^[14][15][16] This would become the ships last voyage.

The ship wrecking[link]

The Antarctic trapped in pack ice.

After exploring parts of the South Shetland Islands the expedition continued through the Antarctic Sound towards the Antarctic Peninsula. On January 15, 1902 Hope Bay was discovered. In February Nordenskjöld chose Snow Hill Island as winter camp for part of the expedition. After all preparations were completed the Antarctic left for the Falkland Islands.

After the winter the ship left the Falklands on November 5 heading back to the Antarctic Peninsula by way of Ushuaia for supplies. On December 29 the Antarctic was trapped in pack ice near Hope Bay, and some of the crew was put ashore.^[14]

The Antarctic later broke free and continued towards Paulet Island; on the way the ship once again was trapped in pack ice on January 3, 1903. On February 3 the ship again broke free but was now damaged and leaking. Captain Larsen now intended to beach the Antarctic on Paulet Island, but the ship was too damaged and sank about 40 km (25 mi) off the coast on February 12, 1903.^{[13][14][16][17]}

In November all crewmembers (including Carl Skottsberg, Johan Gunnar Andersson, José María Sobral and Frank Wilbert Stokes) were rescued by the Argentine corvette Uruguay captained by Julián Irízar.

Epitaph[link]

When Nathorst heard about the ship wrecking he commented "seems to me more glorious than if she had gone to meet the usual fate of vessels to slowly rot in some port, or to be used for something far off from her designation and purposes as an icy seas and research vessel".^[3]

In 1944 Johan Gunnar Andersson published a commemorative book Antarctic :Stolt har hon levat Stolt skall hon dö – Antarctic: proud she lived proud she shall die.

References[link]

External links[link]

• About the Antarctic, by A G Nathorst (in Swedish)
• Photo of the Antarctic in Tromsö harbor
• Photo of the Antarctic in Ushuaia harbor
• About the shipwrecking of the Antarctic
• Map of the wrecking area

Coordinates: 63°50′S 57°00′W / 63.833°S 57°W / -63.833; -57

Antarctic

Amundsen-Scott Station, the geographic South Pole is signposted in the background.

Moubray Bay and Mount Herschel, Eastern Antarctica.

Grytviken Museum in South Georgia.

The Antarctic ( /ænˈtɑrktɪk/ or  /ænˈtɑrtɪk/^[1]) is a polar region, specifically the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters, and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence.^[2] The region covers some 20% of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5% (14 million km²) is the surface area of the continent itself.

Geography[link]

The maritime part of the region constitutes the area of application of the international Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), where for technical reasons the Convention uses an approximation of the Convergence line by means of a line joining specified points along parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude.^[3] The implementation of the Convention is managed through an international Commission headquartered in Hobart, Australia by an efficient system of annual fishing quotas, licenses and international inspectors on the fishing vessels, as well as satellite surveillance.

Most of the Antarctic region is situated south of 60°S latitude parallel, and is governed in accordance with the international legal regime of the Antarctic Treaty System.^[4] The Treaty area covers the continent itself and its immediately adjacent islands, as well as the archipelagos of the South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, Peter I Island, Scott Island and Balleny Islands.

The islands situated between 60°S latitude parallel to the south and the Antarctic Convergence to the north, and their respective 200-nautical-mile (370 km) Exclusive Economic Zones fall under the national jurisdiction of the countries that possess them: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (United Kingdom; also an EU Overseas territory), Bouvet Island (Norway), and Heard and McDonald Islands (Australia).

Kerguelen Islands (France; also an EU Overseas territory) are situated in the Antarctic Convergence area, while the Falkland Islands, Isla de los Estados, Hornos Island with Cape Horn, Diego Ramírez Islands, Campbell Island, Macquarie Island, Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands, Crozet Islands, Prince Edward Islands, and Gough Island and Tristan da Cunha group remain north of the Convergence and thus outside the Antarctic region.

Society[link]

The first Antarctic land discovered was the island of South Georgia, visited by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675. Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis ("Southern Land") date back to antiquity, the first confirmed sighting of the continent of Antarctica is commonly accepted to have occurred in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny. The first human born in the Antarctic was Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen born on 8 October 1913 in Grytviken, South Georgia.

The Antarctic region had no indigenous population when first discovered, and its present inhabitants comprise a few thousand transient scientific and other personnel working on tours of duty at the several dozen research stations maintained by various countries. However, the region is visited by more than 40,000^[5] tourists annually, the most popular destinations being the Antarctic Peninsula area (especially the South Shetland Islands) and South Georgia Island.

In December 2009, the growth of tourism, with consequences for both the ecology and the safety of the travellers in its great and remote wilderness, was noted at a conference in New Zealand by experts from signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. The definitive results of the conference would be presented at the Antarctic Treaty states' meeting in Uruguay in May 2010.^[6]

Conservation[link]

The Antarctic hosts the world largest protected area comprising 1.07 million km², the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protection Area created in 2012.^[7] · ^[8]

See also[link]

• Antarctic Circle
• Antarctic Convergence

Islands:

• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• Bouvet Island
• Kerguelen Islands
• Heard Island and McDonald Islands
• South Orkney Islands
• South Shetland Islands
• Peter I Island
• Scott Island
• Balleny Islands

Further reading[link]

• Krupnik, Igor, Michael A. Lang, and Scott E. Miller, eds. Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar Year Science. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2009.

This proceedings volume features the research presented at the Smithsonian at the Poles symposium, convened as part of the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Copies of this book are available for free pdf download by clicking on the included link.

References[link]

External links[link]

• British Services Antarctic Expedition 2012
• Committee for Environmental Protection of Antarctica
• Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty
• CCAMLR Commission
• Antarctic Heritage Trusts
• International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators
• Map of the Antarctic Convergence
• The South Atlantic and Subantarctic Islands

Cruise ship at Petermann Island, with the Kiev Peninsula of Graham Land in the background.

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