I.

Introduction

Polar Exploration, history of European and American attempts to reach the North Pole and the South Pole, and the exploration of the surrounding Arctic and Antarctic regions.

In the 1400s Europeans set out to explore the world, launching the great Age of Exploration. Europeans eventually mapped most of the globe. However, the polar regions remained a mystery. For centuries Europeans imagined—and to some extent, feared—what would be found there. The Age of Exploration had long since begun by the time explorers set their sights on reaching the poles. It was not until the 18th century that explorers ventured with any real success into the Arctic polar region. Antarctica, the last continent to be discovered, remained hidden behind barriers of fog, storm, and sea ice until it was first sighted in the early 19th century. Even today it remains largely unexplored.

The dangerous and inhospitable conditions of the polar regions demanded a special breed of explorer—those willing to risk their lives in the pursuit of knowledge and glory. While most survived against all odds, some performing seemingly superhuman feats, many lost their lives as well. As Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen wrote, “Nowhere has knowledge been purchased at greater cost of privation and suffering.”

For some ambitious and courageous explorers, the adventure outweighed the danger. During the so-called Heroic Age of exploration, from about 1900 to 1916, scientific curiosity and nationalistic rivalries often intermingled as motives. British explorer Ernest Shackleton summarized his motives for leading his second expedition to Antarctica in a 1909 National Geographic article: “Men go out into the void spaces of the world for various reasons. Some are actuated simply by a love of adventure, some have the keen thirst for scientific knowledge, and others again are drawn away from the trodden paths by the ‘lure of little voices,’ the mysterious fascination of the unknown. I think that in my own case it was a combination of these factors that determined me to try my fortune once again in the frozen south.”