Scotland and the Antarctic

Section 2: Antarctic Exploration

The Antarctic continent remained as an almost mythical land mass until the beginning of the twentieth century. The early Greeks thought there must be some huge land area in the south to balance the land in the northern hemisphere, and they called it Antiarkitos. World maps for hundreds of years showed 'Terra Australis Nondum Cognita' - the unknown Southern Land.

After the first circumnavigation of the world more and more ships sailed around the south of South America. Not all ships chose the Magellan Straits between Tierra del Fuego and the South American continent and in the sixteenth century Francis Drake was the first to penetrate the area now known as the Drake Passage.

Eighteenth Century

Nineteenth Century

Early Twentieth Century

Antarctic expeditions 1907-1918

Antarctic exploration 1926-1952

International Geophysical Year 1957-58

Robert Swan Expedition 1984-85

International co-operation from 1990