British Antarctic Expedition [II] (1898 - 1900)

Summary

The British Antarctic Expedition of 1898 to 1900 was under the command of Carl Borchgrevink in the Norwegian barque Southern Cross. Borchgrevink purchased the vessel with a view to making the first intentional overwintering in Antarctica. Substantial financial backing from English publisher George Newnes enabled the voyage to sail under the British flag. The Expedition left London in August 1898 and reached Cape Adare in February 1899. Having landed the shore party of nine (including Borchgrevink) the ship left to spend the winter in the Southern Ocean, and conducted a program, with limited results, of sub-surface temperature readings and deep soundings. The shore party made extensive meteorological and magnetic observations, and collected geological specimens. Biological collections, including some dredged from shallow water, were poorly preserved and documented. Southern Cross returned to collect the shore party early in 1900 and travelled over 400 miles along the Great Ice Barrier (Ross Ice Shelf), landing a number of sledging parties and in February 1900 reaching further south than any expedition to date. This was the first time dogs and sledges were used in Antarctica. The Expedition reached Hobart in April. Results of the Expedition were published by the British Museum (Natural History) in 1902.

Details

Members of the Expedition included:
Carl Borchgrevink, leader;
Louis Bernacchi, astronomer and physicist;
Hugh Blackwall Evans, assistant zoologist;
William Colbeck, magnetic observer and cartographer;
Nicolai Hanson, zoologist.

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Bernacchi, L., To the South Polar regions: expedition of 1898 - 1900 (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1901), 348 pp. Details
• Borchgrevink, C. E., First on the Antarctic Continent, being an account of the British Anratctic Expedition, 1898 - 1900 (London: Georges Newnes Ltd, 1901), 333 pp. Details
• Crawford, Janet, That First Antarctic Winter: the Story of the Southern Cross Expedition of 1898-1900 as Told in the Diaries of Louis Charles Bernacchi (Christchurch, NZ: Southern Latitude Research in association with Peter J. Skellerup, 1998), 270 pp. Details
• Mawer, Granville Allen, South by Northwest: the Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica (Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2006), 319 pp. Details
• McConville, Andrew, In search of the last continent: Australia and early Antarctic exploration (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2022), 227 pp. Details

Edited Books

• Sharpe, R. Bowdler; and Bell, F. Jeffrey eds, Report on the collections of natural history made in the Antarctic regions during the voyage of the Southern Cross (London: British Museum (Natural History), 1902), 344 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Borchgrevink, C. E., 'The Southern Cross Expedition to the Antarctic 1899 - 1900', Geographical journal, 16 (4) (1900), 381-414. Details
• Evans, H. B., 'The Southern Cross Expedition, 1898 - 1900: a personal account', Polar record, 17 (106) (1974), 23-9. Details
• Evans, H. B.; and Jones, A. G. E., 'A forgotten explorer: Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink', Polar record, 17 (108) (1974), 221-35. Details

See also

• Harrowfield, D. L. and Mabin, M. C. G., 'The Possession Islands Ross Sea Antarctica: a history of exploration and scientific endeavour at a Ross Sea archipelago since the first landing in 1841', Polar Record, 59 (e3) (2023), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247422000390. Details
• Jones, A, G. E., 'Obituary of Hugh Blackwell Evans', Polar record, 17 (110) (1975), 573-4. Details
• Rice, A. L., British oceanographic vessels 1800 - 1950 (London: Ray Society, 1986), 193 pp. Details
• Swan, R. A., 'The First Australian Scientist to Work and Winter on the Antarctic Continent', Victorian Historical Magazine, 33 (1963), 379-398. Details
• Swan, R. A., 'Bernacchi, Louis Charles (1876-1942), scientist and Antarctic explorer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), pp. 275-276. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070278b.htm. Details
• Swan, R. A., 'Borchgrevink, Carsten Egeberg (1864-1934), Antarctic explorer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), p. 348. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070353b.htm. Details
• Walker, Alfred O., 'Amphipoda of the "Southern Cross" Antarctic Expedition', Zoological journal of the Linnean Society, 29 (187) (1903), 38-64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1903.tb00425.x. Details