The sixth continent. On the anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica

27.01.2020 Rosrybolovstvo

The sixth continent. On the anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica

200 years ago, on January 28, 1820, Russian seafarers were the first to approach the shores of the ice continent. Later this land will be called Antarctica

Captain II rank Thaddeus Bellingshausen became the head of the Antarctic expedition. He was appointed to command the sloop Vostok. The command of the second sloop Mirnyy was entrusted to a young officer - Lieutenant Mikhail Lazarev, who had already circumnavigated the world. Later, both expedition leaders became famous admirals, commanders of Russian fleets.

A truly significant day for the expedition was January 16 (28), 1820. On this day, Bellingshausen made a note that was destined to become a historical one: "...we saw an area of solid ice extended from the East through the South to the West; our way led us directly to this field of ice."

The expedition discovered 29 islands and carried out a huge scientific work, specified positions of many existing Islands and other geographical objects, conducted oceanographic studies, made a large number of maps and descriptions of ice, amassed rich ethnographic, zoological and botanical collections which are still stored in various museums.

Russian seafarers mapped many of the South Shetland Islands and named them in honor of the battles and heroes of 1812 Patriotic war. Later, English geographers unceremoniously removed these names from the maps and replaced them with their own geographical names, having ignored the results of the Russian expedition. Bellingshausen's detailed report of the expedition was published in 10 years’ time (in 1830).

The edition was limited to 600 copies, which made it a rarity even in Russia. The main facts about the expedition:

On July 4, 1819 the sloops Vostok and Mirny left Kronstadt.

On December 15, 1819, Russian expedition reached the coast of South Georgia and discovered an island named after Lieutenant Mikhail Annenkov (he was the first to see it).

On January 16 (28), 1820, the expedition of Thaddeus Belinghausen and Mikhail Lazarev discovered the sixth continent.

Based on the data of the magazine "Historian"
Photo from the Internet