Carsten Borchgrevink: Explorer and Discoverer

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Carsten Borchgrevink's Antarctic expedition, highlighting his discoveries, challenges, and leadership style. The essay reviews his timeline, noting that he spent seven months on the expedition, including onboard sailing and sledging. It also discusses the conflicts among team members due to Borchgrevink's demanding nature, which led to recognition for only him and not his entire team.

Antarctica geology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
EVIDENCE......................................................................................................................................1
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Geology of Antarctica covers the development of whole continent including Proterozoic
Eon, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Carsten Borchgrevink(1864-1934) was a polar explorer
who is known for his Antarctica expedition. He was an Anglo-Norwegian explorer who
pioneered modern Antarctic travel. The main aim of this essay is to assess the achievements of
Carsten Borchgrevink in order to better understand the geology of Antarctica. Various evidence
and their justifications are discussed in order to identify achievements of this explorer. This topic
is chosen amongst all to understand the achievements of a explorer in order to ascertain all
aspects which are considered while awarding any piece of work (Beck, 2012).
EVIDENCE
According to Hugh Robert Mill, Carsten Borchgrevink started his journey of exploring
Antarctica in 1898 by purchasing a POLLUX which was a 521 ton ship and renamed it as
“Southern Cross”. He started his work by collecting specimens of birds, fish and penguins at the
coast of Robertson Bay. He is known as the first person who put his foot on this continent in
1894 when he got onshore at Antarctic mainland. Borchgrevink started his career by joining a
expedition which helped him in obtaining Southern Cross. By successfully achieving this
exhibition, Borchgrevink accompanied with two other scientist and sent to Caribbean in 1902 by
the National Geographic Society. Achievements of Borchgrevink's expedition includes locating
the position of South Magnetic Pole and Insulating the double glazed window. This expedition
established an authority related to Antarctic research and survival. This explorer also won a Gold
Medal for his remarkable work which includes sledging trek “the highest southern latitude” and
for collection of Antarctic insects (Branagan, 2014).
According to Sir George Newnes, some of the colleagues of Borchgrevink were critical
by the leadership style of this explorer and regarded his achievements and findings as journalistic
and unreliable. The response of his colleagues was expected as when Borchgrevink returned
from Antarctic expedition he claimed that most of the achievements of that voyage were his and
his alone and there was no support of his accompanied scientist such as Henryk Bull. The aim of
this explorer was to spend a winter at Cape Adare and to undertake land exploration. In order to
complete achieve these goals, more than 70 dogs were used to sledge the two hauls. According to
this published work, it was observed that they sailed from 17 December 1898 to 1 march 1899.
1

In this duration Borchgrevink and Hobart sailed for a month when they were spotted with first
ice break. Unfortunately, the ship named Southern Cross was destroyed by ice strengthened and
they has to continue their journey with sledging. The first step on Antarctica landed on 15
February 1899 when Borchgrevink landed on the triangle of flat gravel. Work and achievements
of this explorer is considered as commendable due to the issues faced by these explorer related to
ferocious storms and no survival supplies. The timeline of the journey of Antarctica expedition is
mentioned below:
17/12/88 Southern Cross departed for Antarctic
Continent
30/12/88 Spotted their first ice
15/02/89 Landed on Cape Adare
01/03/89 Departed from New Zealand
15/05/89 Journey to Antarctica
27/07/89 Journey to Antarctica
01/09/89 Three of the party were almost asphyxiated
when a wind shift filled the cabin with coal
fumes.
14/10/89 Hanson died from beri beri
20/10/89 Hanson was buried at the summit of Cape
Adare
01/01/00 Ross Sea,
28/01/00 landing at Possession
02/02/00 Antarctic circle
22/02/00 Turned North
28/02/00 Crossed Antarctic Circle
31/03/00 Reached New Zealand Stewart island
2

After Carsten Borchgrevink and his team reached New Zealand there was news all
around the world that it is possible to survive in a winter ashore in Antarctica. This expedition
then received a wide recognition but the efforts of Borchgrevink were underestimated. Antarctic
expedition was provided to the Natural History Museum in London and they recorded
meteorological and magnetic data throughout the year. Contribution of this explorer was
recognised in various countries including Norway, Denmark, Austria and Scotland but it was
only come into focus after 1930 and then he was awarded the Patron's Medal by England's Royal
Geographical Society. Not only on the medal and awards but this expedition was also published
in 1901. After receiving the gold medal, the contribution of this explorer reaches moon and
whole world was recognising his efforts. Th challenges faced by Borchgrevink is considered as a
inspiration by every explorer. One of the challenge which was faced by him was, at Cape Adare
Carsten and his team of 10 people has no means of communication and they has no knowledge
about of the continent creatures but they faced all the issues and encountered predators such as
polar bears (Clancy,Manning and Brolsma, 2014).
According to the Department of Environment and Energy, Australian Antarctic Division
“Being responsible for the lives of 10 men in an unknown land, while having to prove his skills
to the scientific community must have been a daunting challenge and one that he carried to its
successful completion” this citation summarises the achievements of Carsten Borchgrevink as
the challenges and contributions faced and served by this explorer is the real reward for which it
was obvious that he will receive a national gold medal for his efforts.
DISCUSSION
The topic of achievements of Carsten Borchgrevink’s Antarctic expedition is selected in
order to better analyse the development of Antarctic expedition so that an understanding can be
developed related to explorer and their achievements. This explorer was born in Oslo on 1
December 1864 was migrated to Australia at the age of 24. He began his explorer career five
years later he migrated, and always seen to be keen about exploring South Pole. He was
considered as dedicated, passionate and enthusiastic but also at some point of this career, his
colleagues referred him as moody and unforgiving. According to the above timeline of Antarctic
exhibition Borchgrevink spend a whole winter in Antarctica. By considering journals and articles
of global recognised authors above, it has been seen that Borchgrevink expedition had created
controversy but there is not doubt that he contributed greatly to the very limited knowledge of
3

Antarctica that was available at that time. Even after contributing a lot, his contributions were
recognised after so many years (Larson, 2011).
The reason behind not recognising the efforts of Carsten Borchgrevink was that his
colleagues or accompanied partners was not happy with his comments in which he said that the
information and efforts that were invested was all because of him. Another reason of not
recognising his efforts was that all the interest was focused very much on Robert Falcon Scott's
expedition. This explorer died in 1934 after receiving suitable recognitions and awards (Larson,
2011).
The reason behind reconsidering his contributions was that it was ascertained by the
research associations that the information which was made available by this explorer it was
enough for analysing living conditions in Antarctica. From the above information discussed in
evidence, it can be said that the information provided by Carsten Borchgrevink includes, living
in Antarctica is possible for humans even in winters and there is livelihood of polar bears and
other insects. He is considered as the first human to step on the ground of Antarctica and due to
which his name is recorded in history. This geological discovery is considered as the primary
information for all the geologist in order to identify that what is like to live a life in an isolated
place like Antarctica. Discoveries of the above mentioned explorer is considered reliable as he
also pinned regular logs about the activities and adventures. As mentioned in the timeline above,
it can be clearly stated that the challenges faced by whole team was life taking and even one of
the team member lost his life while crossing the Antarctic circle. Above evidences clearly
describe that the conflicts and complications raised between the team members was the result of
over demanding nature of the explorer due to which his work was unrecognised for so many
years (Philpott, 2016).
Carsten Borchgrevink was the first human to found vegetation in Antarctica, his team
discovered lichens under Antarctica Circle. Various other discoveries such insects has no
evidence of existence. He was the first human to build a building and use stove in Antarctica.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it has been observed that Carsten Borchgrevink is a explorer
which discovered livelihood in Antarctica and he is considered as the first human to step on
Antarctica. By reviewing the timeline of this explorer it has been seen that a whole of 7 months
have spend by them which includes onboard sailing and sledging. By studying this topic, it can
4

be said that the challenges and issues which were faced by this has been strongly supported by
this explorer that is why he was awarded and not his entire team. Conflicts among the survival
team members and colleagues of the explorer raised due to inappropriate behaviour and traits of
Carsten Borchgrevink.
5