VOYAGES OF THE _EREBUS_ AND _TERROR_
A Fortunate Choice--Characteristic Southern Bergs--First Sight of
the Continent--More British Territory--A Mighty Volcanic
Display--Nearing the Magnetic Pole--The Antarctic Barrier--A Myth
Dispelled--A Second Attempt--Held by the Ice--Third and Last
Voyage--A Double Discovery.
The American and French expeditions having already selected areas for
their operations, Sir James Ross, not wishing to clash with them in any
way, directed his attention to that part of the Antarctic lying to the
south of Australia and New Zealand as his sphere of operations. Fortune
favoured him in this selection, for it is at this part of the Antarctic
region--situated between the meridians of 160 deg. E. and 160 deg. W.
longitude--that open water extends farthest into the high latitudes. He
chose the meridian of 170 deg. E. as the line on which to sail to the south.
It was on this meridian that Balleny, in 1839, had found open water as
high as 69 deg. S. The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were equally fortunate, and
they were well to the south before they encountered sufficient ice to
prove difficult to navigation. Mostly they encountered icebergs, and
they were thus afforded excellent opportunities to note the
peculiarities of the southern bergs, and to compare them with those of
the Arctic. There was a manifest difference in both form and structure.
Those of the Antarctic showed little variety in shape, and in this they
were in marked contrast to the Arctic bergs. The bergs of the South were
very solid in appearance, with perpendicular grooves on the sides, and
level table-top summits. In size they ranged from 120 to 180 feet in
height, with a length varying from a few hundred yards to a couple of
miles.
Land was first sighted on January 11, 1841, when the ships were in lat.
70 deg. 23' S. and long. 174 deg. 50' E. The appearance of the land suggested
the tops of mountain peaks fully a hundred miles away. As the ships
sailed on, other peaks showed above the horizon, both to the east and
the west, and the majesty of their size left no room for doubt that they
were part of an area of land attaining to continental proportions. In
his account of the expedition, Sir James Ross wrote: "It was a
beautifully clear evening, and we had a most enchanting view of the two
magnificent ranges of mountains, whose lofty peaks, perfectly covered
with eternal snow, rose to elevations varying from 7000 to 10,000 feet
above the level of the ocean. The glaciers that filled their intervening
valleys, and which descended from near the mountain summits, projected,
in many places, several miles into the sea, and terminated in lofty,
perpendicular cliffs. In a few places the rock broke through the icy
covering, by which alone we could be assured that land formed the
nucleus of this, to appearance, enormous iceberg."
The range was named Admiralty Mountains, and the various peaks after the
different Lords of the Admiralty. With patriotic pride the leader
recorded that "the discovery of this land restored to Great Britain the
honour of having discovered the southernmost known land, which had been
so nobly won by the intrepid Bellinghausen, and for more than twenty
years retained by Russia."
The amount of ice along, and off, the shore prevented a landing being
made, but it was found to be possible to get ashore on an island not far
away from the mainland. The island was named Possession Island, in
commemoration of the fact that on its shores the ceremony of taking
possession of the newly discovered lands in the name of Great Britain
was duly celebrated. Situated in lat. 71 deg. 56' S. and long. 171 deg. 7' E.,
the island was found to be of igneous formation and accessible only on
its western shore. There were no signs of vegetation on the bare
volcanic rocks, "but myriads of penguins completely and densely covered
the whole surface of the island, along the ledges of the precipices, and
even to the summits of the hills, attacking us vigorously as we waded
through their ranks, and pecking at us with their sharp beaks, disputing
possession; which, with their loud, coarse notes and the insuperable
stench from the deep bed of guano, which had been forming for ages, and
which may, at some time, be valuable to the agriculturists of our
Australian colonies, made us glad to get away again, after having loaded
our boats with geological specimens and penguins."
As the voyage continued, the height of the mountains lying further to
the south of Admiralty Mountains was observed to be from 12,000 to
14,000 feet, the majority being obviously of volcanic origin. While
noting these characteristics, a phenomenon was witnessed which, for the
moment, suggested that they were in the presence of a mighty volcanic
upheaval. An angle was being measured, when, in the line of sight, an
island, about one hundred feet high, suddenly seemed to rise from the
ocean. All eyes were turned upon it, the dark colour of the new arrival
standing out in such pronounced contrast with the whiteness of the ice
around it. Then one, more observant than the rest, drew attention to the
fact that a large berg previously observed at the place where the island
had risen, had completely disappeared. At once the riddle was solved.
The berg had turned over, and, as the lower portion was composed of
earth-stained ice, it stood out in such strong relief against the other
ice that the mistake was easily accounted for.
One of the mountains slowly coming into view on the horizon as the ships
continued their way was so remarkably like Mount Etna in appearance that
it was so named by the members of the expedition, but official
requirements of the case necessitated another name being given to it.
It was entered in the record as Mount Melbourne, while another, lying
beyond it, was named Mount Monteagle. These were the highest mountains
seen up to that time, and presented an imposing appearance. Yet others
were sighted in the course of a few days which quite eclipsed them.
These were the two volcanoes which were named after the two vessels,
Mount Erebus and Mount Terror.
Mount Erebus, 12,400 feet high, was in active eruption when first seen,
and has been so on every occasion that man has looked upon it since. At
the time of its discovery it was giving a display that was
extraordinarily grand, the more so by reason of its surroundings. It was
snow-clad to within a few hundred feet of its conical summit, while its
huge base rested on a wide stretch of ice, gleaming and shimmering in
the sunlight. Between the ice wall, hundreds of feet high, which marked
the coast line, and the vessels, the water was blue and clear,
reflecting the hue of the sky above. From the crater alternate bursts of
smoke and flame were flung up, the rumbling sound of the explosions
floating down through the frozen stillness in a faint echo like that of
heavy distant artillery fire. In the official account it is described as
follows:--
"A volume of dense smoke was projected at each successive jet with great
force, in a vertical column to a height of between 1500 and 2000 feet
above the mouth of the crater, when, condensing at its upper part, it
descended in mist or snow, to be succeeded by another splendid
exhibition of the same kind in about half-an-hour afterwards, although
the intervals between the eruptions were by no means regular. The
diameter of the column of smoke was between 200 and 300 feet, as near as
we could measure it. Whenever the smoke cleared away, the bright red
flames that filled the mouth of the crater were clearly perceptible, and
some of the officers believed they could see streams of lava pouring
down its side until lost beneath the snow, which descended from a few
hundred feet below the crater and projected its perpendicular icy cliffs
several miles into the ocean."
So far as the leader of the expedition was concerned, there was another
circumstance in connection with the position in which the ships were
that appealed to him very particularly. He had, a few years earlier,
succeeded in locating the North Magnetic Pole. Bearings, taken in the
neighbourhood of the two volcanoes, revealed the fact that the South
Magnetic Pole was only about 170 miles distant. An effort was made to
penetrate to the South so as to sail over, or otherwise locate, the
exact position of the magnetic pole; but the weather conditions, which
had been so favourable to them up to that point, now told severely
against them. The thermometer fell rapidly, and the temperature went so
low that the spray, flung up by the ships, froze, as it fell, into solid
ice on the bows. Men were kept constantly breaking it away, but still
it accumulated, considerably interfering with the speed of the ships.
Then they found in front of them a great wall of ice rising out of the
sea, without a break or opening, to a height of some hundreds of feet.
They sailed along it for miles, but the only change was that it
increased in height until it towered a thousand feet above the level of
the ocean.
Although it was then midsummer, and the warmest part of the year, the
highest temperature during the day was never above twenty degrees below
freezing. At the corresponding period of the season in the Arctic, every
iceberg gives evidence of the warmer weather by commencing to melt, so
that from all of them streams of water are to be seen pouring down the
sides. But the bergs in the Antarctic showed no such streams of water.
All were solid, and the heat of the sun at midday was not able to cause
even the surface to thaw. During a gale, encountered in this locality,
the waves, as they broke over the sides, covered the rigging and sails
with hard, clear ice until it was almost impossible to handle the ropes
or furl the sails.
As February went by and they were still unable to work nearer the site
of the magnetic pole, the leader sought for a haven where the ships
could pass the winter, so as to be ready to recommence the work directly
the weather moderated with the approach of spring. But no such place was
to be found, the mighty barrier of ice stretching away to the horizon
with never a break in its massive towering front. Nothing was to be done
except turn the vessels to the North and make the best of their way into
milder latitudes until the winter had passed.
On the voyage towards the North, one of those accidents occurred to the
_Terror_ which, fortunately for the welfare of sailors, are not possible
nowadays. The bobstay of the bowsprit was smashed by coming in contact
with a mass of floating ice. At the time the temperature was such that
the bows of the vessel, as well as the bowsprit and its rigging, were
all covered with ice, which the men had to be continually trying to keep
clear. With the ship pitching to a heavy head sea, this was by no means
easy, yet it was simple compared to the work of repairing the damaged
bobstay. The men carrying out this work had to be slung over the bows,
and every time the ship pitched, they were plunged into the freezing
water, often being entirely immersed. The temperature of the sea at the
time was twelve degrees below freezing, and two hours were occupied in
effecting the repairs, man after man going over the bows to take the
places of those who were literally frozen out. The commander, with
pardonable pride, commented upon the pluck and hardy determination of
his men in carrying out this arduous task.
As they sailed to their winter quarters in an easterly course, they
passed the locality where the ships of the American expedition had
reported a discovery of land forming part of the great Antarctic
continent. A sharp lookout was kept for it, but no indications were
seen, and, when the two ships sailed over the spot where the continent
was supposed to exist, the conclusion was forced upon the leaders that
the Americans had been misled, as they had themselves on more than one
occasion, into regarding the combination of ice and cloud as land. So
suggestive of land did this combination often appear, that it was only
by the most careful and critical observation that similar mistakes were
not to be recorded against the _Erebus_ and _Terror_.
Early in April they arrived at Tasmania, leaving that colony in the
following July for New Zealand, where they stayed until December, when
they sailed once more to the Antarctic.
It was the intention of Ross to sail to the South along the 146th
meridian of west longitude, but the existence of heavy pack ice proved
an effectual obstacle to their progress. The ships became involved in
the pack, and only managed to force their way clear by the beginning of
February. This meant a great loss of valuable time, for they were only
able to reach 76 deg. 42' S. latitude before they had to return. They
sighted the great barrier of ice lying to the south, with what appeared
to be high mountains, snow covered, rising behind. As no definite
observations could be made to demonstrate whether the heights were
mountains or only the summit of the Antarctic ice-cap, the discovery was
not claimed as being new land.
The vessels made their way to the Falkland Islands, where they passed
the winter, and on December 17, 1842, they sailed, for the third time,
to the South. The object of this voyage was to further explore Louis
Philippe Land and reach as high as Weddell had done. Excellent progress
was made, and, on the last day of the year, they sighted an island to
which the name Etna Island was given, as it was a volcano greatly
resembling, in miniature, the great volcano of Sicily. Further to the
south high peaks appeared, and, with the new year, a number of islands,
as well as what appeared to be portions of the mainland, were
discovered. Amongst others, the expedition found and named Paulet
Island, Cockburn Island, Snow Hill Island, and Mount Haddington, places
which were to be made still more familiar over half a century later by
the dramatic events which occurred to the Swedish expedition in 1901-3.
In addition to the discovery of land, it was also found that the waters
off this coast abounded with whales, and, by the time that the two ships
returned to the Cape of Good Hope, in March, they were able to claim,
for the record of the third trip, the double discovery of land and of
all the essentials for a profitable whaling industry. The ships had
circumnavigated the Antarctic region, and for many years thereafter
whalers were the main visitors. Until 1898 no official British
expedition sailed for the Antarctic, though there was a brief stay, just
within the Antarctic Circle, of H.M.S. _Challenger_ in 1874.