Antarctica - Diving the most southern part of the world

The Antarctic continent is the last continent many people would think of when planning a dive trip. Its cold harsh conditions don’t sound too appealing for the average holiday diver. For other divers going to Antarctica is a dream come true. The dive sites are almost unexplored. There is a lot that you could possibly see during a trip to this coldest continent. Penguins, ice bergs, fur seals, leopard seals, ice fishes are just waiting for you. We had the opportunity to visit this incredible part of the world. What we experienced this trip was more than we ever could have imagined.

In the past man could only dream about a Southern continent. Explorers had already discovered all other continents. For years scientists were discussing about the possibility of a southern continent. They believed that the world should have such a continent. With the earth consisting of so much land volume in the Northern hemisphere it really should have a counter weight in te south to equalize.

But for many years this was only speculation. Nobody could find such a continent. History speaks about people fearing to go this far south. They feared the middle part of the earth (equatar) for its heat. Rumors went around about big fires halfway the earth. This was probably coased by stories of adventures sailing through the tropics in very warm weather.

Despite these stories the south still attracted the entrepreneurs. It was a dream for many to be the first one to enter history having discovered the last continent. So many enterprises were taken to discover the presumed southern continent. The portugeuse made the first important discoveries in the southern hemisphere. They proved you could sail around Afrika. And about 1520 Ferdinand Magellan discovered Tierra del Fuego (land of fire). All these discoveries made the presumed Southern continent more misterious.

Originally it was presumed that Antarctica was an enormous continent, covering the whole Southern Ocean connecting Afrika, South America and Australia. With every trip taken seemed not to be true. Nevertheless scientist were still convinced that there must be a Southern Continent. But because of horrible storms; thick ice and fog it would take centuries before man discovered Antarctica.

The early discoverers who went down south came home with great stories about Whales; Seals; Penguins etc. This created a different kind of interest than this region. Hunters descided to come down south to hunt these animals. This almost ment the extinction of many species.

At the end of the 19th and begin 20th century the interest in the Antarctic continent was increasing. All other continents had been explored. If you wanted to become famous; you really should find this last continent. In this contest two prices were to be gained: the discovery of the Magnetic South Pole and to be the first at the geographical South Pole.

In the year 1831 the Scotsman James Clark Ross discovered the magnetic North Pole. Having done this trick ones it must be easy to do this again at the South Pole. So he left in 1839 and sailed with two ships south. During two months they stayed at Kerguelen to do magnetic and astronomic studies. On the first of januari 1841 Ross passed the Antarctic Circle. Ross was unfortunate as his ship got stuck in thick pack ice. With greath effort the crue managed to come through after which Ross reached the currently named Ross Sea. Two days later Ross noticed that the compas went crazy. The expedition was now very near the magnetic pole. He continued on south and reached Possesion Island. Further south the ships were stopped by a wall of ice. This was later called the Ross Ice Shelf. Ross could sail any further making it impossible to reach the actual magnetic South Pole. Although Ross did not reach the magnetic south pole he was the first to come this far.

The Magnetic south pole is not fixed on the earth’s surface. It is constantly moving, just as the magnetic north pole is. The Magnetic South Pole is the exact point on earth where the geomagnetic field lines are 90 decrees upwards to the earths surface.

In reaching the geographic South Pole the biggest rivals were Scott; Shackleton and Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen.

In 1911 Scott started an expedition to be the first to reach the geographical South Pole. At the same time Amundsen was preparing a trip to the North Pole. So Scott beleived he had no competition at that moment. During the trip to Ross Island he received a message of Amundsen; he had changed his plans and was going to the South. The contest had started.

Scott was starting preparing his expedition by installing fourage camps. The trip was proven to be very hard. The horses they took with them died; they measured temperatures up to –60 degrees C. They had problems with ice and wind; a horrible trip it was.
In november it was time for the expedition of twelf men and ten horses to head to the South Pole. By the beginning of december they were kept in their tents for four days by a blizzard. Twelf man started at 20 december 1911 with the climb of the Beardmore Glacier. Four of them reached at 6th of januari a point Shackleton had been.

On the 16th of januari they waited a big deception. They saw a little flag at an abbandoned tent. They also saw a lot of dog and human food prints in the snow. In one off the tents they found a message from Amundsen.
They had lostt!. The way back was going to be a big desception. They would never arive home.

Amundsen had reached the geographical south pole at 14 december 1911. He started almost one hundred kilometers further to the pole than Scott. His way to the pole was surprisingly without major problems. At 14th december they arived at 90degrees South.