From the beginning of the 16th century, people theoretically knew about the existence of the sixth continent. Expedition Amerigo Vespucci 1501-1502 explored the polar latitudes of the southern hemisphere and landed on the shores of the island of South Georgia. Cold, solid ice and hummocks prevented the sailor from moving further to the pole. After this, the secrets of Antarctica attracted the discoverers to it. On the maps, the mainland appeared long before the human foot stepped there, and even before the first people saw the land covered with ice. It was previously believed that this continent is the southern tip of Latin America or even Australia, as, for example, on the map of Pirireis compiled in 1513.
But who discovered Antarctica first? And what does it mean “discovered”? Had seen? Stepped ashore? Raised a flag? There is no consensus on this. The Russians believe that the expeditions of Bellingshausen and Lazarev (January 1820) fell to honor the discovery of the continent, while the British are convinced that Eduard Bransfield discovered Antarctica (also in January 1820). Americans award laurels to the discoverer of the new mainland, Nathaniel Palmer (November 1820). All three of these expeditions only saw the banks rising to the sky, but they could not get close to them due to the vast expanse of ice. The first to guess the flag of his country was the Frenchman Dumont d'Urville, but he did it, as it turned out, on the island, and not on a vast stretch of land.
The Dutch have their own answer to the question of who discovered Antarctica. In their opinion, the captain of the ship, Dirk Geeritz, did this in 1559. After a storm raging in the Strait of Magellan, the ship lost contact with the squadron and mistakenly headed south. When it happened, the Dutch saw the "high land" and determined their coordinates - 64 ° S. w. However, Geeritz himself never claimed the title of the discoverer of the mainland, and we do not know what he meant by "high land" - perhaps this was one of the islands, which are many on the continental shelf.
In January 1773, James Cook approached 67 ° 'on the vessels "Resolution" and "Adventure". n. where it was stopped by ice. Not resting on his laurels, he returned the next year and reached 71 ° 15 'south latitude, however, since he was moving southwest of Tierra del Fuego, he never reached the land and did not even see it. But to approach the coast of the mainland was lucky the American ship "Cecilia" a year after the Russian expedition, in 1821. But people did not land ashore. If we judge who discovered Antarctica upon landing ashore, then here we find a discord.
The official date of the first landing of a person on the continental, rather than offshore, ice of this mysterious part of the land is January 23, 1895. This honor fell to two Norwegians: the captain of the Antarctic fishing vessel Christensen and the passenger Karlsten Borchgröwink, a teacher of natural sciences. The teacher, in fact, persuaded the captain of the industrial ship, far from the ambitious claims, to lower the boat into the water and moor to the shore. There Borchgröwink collected rock samples and described the Antarctic lichen he had seen. But Argentine scholars dispute the primacy of the Norwegians, assuring that it is impossible to find out who discovered Antarctica, because these people did not leave any written evidence. Archaeologists have discovered on the shores of the mainland the remains of houses and household items that date back to the beginning of the XVIII century. Unknown whalers of unknown citizenship took their secret to the grave.
Be that as it may, the merit of the Russian expedition to humanity is undeniable. Bellingshausen and Lazarev circled the mainland and proved that it was surrounded by seas on all sides. The weather in Antarctica is not conducive to moving inland: even in summer, ice cover does not melt there. Thanks to him, the continent is considered the highest - its average height is more than 2 thousand meters, and the highest point (Vinson Massif) is 5140 meters. The discovery of Antarctica entailed no less ambitious and risky plans for mankind to get to the South Pole. The discovery laurels of the southernmost point of our planet belong to Amundsen (1911-12).