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Loading... Below the Convergence: Voyages Toward Antarctica 1699-1839 (1997)| 136 | 3 | 203,412 | 
(4.26) | 6 | This wonderfully written book tells of the first Herculean expeditions to Antarctica, from astronomer Edmond Halley's 1699 voyage in the Paramore to the sealer John Balleny's 1839 excursion in the Eliza Scott, all in search of land, glory, fur, science, and profit. Life was harsh: crews had poor provisions and inadequate clothing, and scurvy was a constant threat. With unreliable--often homemade--charts, these intrepid explorers sailed in the stormy waters of the Southern Ocean below the Convergence, that sea frontier marking the boundary between the freezing Antarctic waters and the warmer sub-Antarctic seas. These men were the first to discover and exploit a new continent, which was not the verdant southern island they had imagined but an inhospitable expanse of rock and ice, ringed by pack ice and icebergs: Antarctica.… (more) |
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An old tradition hs it that those who have rounded Cape Horn under sail can take their after-dinner drink with one foot upon the table. And those who have sailed across the polar circles can drink with both feet upon the table. This book is dedicated to the latter - past, present, and future.  | |
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(Prologue) The source of the Nile, the possibility of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Indies, the existence of a huge southern continent - all, over the centuries, have exercised the speculations, imaginations, and energies of countless geographers, cartographers, and explorers. It is the fourth century B.C., and, in the shaded walkways of the Lyceum in Athens, Aristotle is strolling with his students and discussing what is so obvious to the intellectually curious - the spherical nature of the Earch, as opposed to the flat-disc Earth of the ancient Homeric Greeks. | |
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It was one to be followed, sixty years later, by the ships of the almost mythic figures of Antarctic exploration: Borchgrvink's Southern Cross; Scott's Discovery and Terra Nova; Shackleton's Nimrod and Aurora; and, the most extraordinary vessel of them all, Amundsen's Fram. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English (1)
▾Book descriptions This wonderfully written book tells of the first Herculean expeditions to Antarctica, from astronomer Edmond Halley's 1699 voyage in the Paramore to the sealer John Balleny's 1839 excursion in the Eliza Scott, all in search of land, glory, fur, science, and profit. Life was harsh: crews had poor provisions and inadequate clothing, and scurvy was a constant threat. With unreliable--often homemade--charts, these intrepid explorers sailed in the stormy waters of the Southern Ocean below the Convergence, that sea frontier marking the boundary between the freezing Antarctic waters and the warmer sub-Antarctic seas. These men were the first to discover and exploit a new continent, which was not the verdant southern island they had imagined but an inhospitable expanse of rock and ice, ringed by pack ice and icebergs: Antarctica. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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Anyone interested in the Antarctic should enjoy this. It fills a gap usually overlooked in favor of the famous explorers of the early-20th century and provides an intriguing look at what greatness there was in those who sailed into the void and made those later explorations possible. Personally, this book has led me to want to read about Halley and Cook, especially. What courage and vision (and maybe a bit of insanity) these men had. (