Antarctica History - The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration 1897 -1922

Great things are done when men and mountains meet;
They are not done by jostling in the street  - William Blake

Adventurous men were drawn to this arena like a magnet and over the period of just a few short years Antarctica was where some of the bravest and most worthy of explorers ever to have lived, met some of the harshest conditions ever endured.

Some of the expeditions succeeded in their aims, some didn't but succeeded in something that they hadn't set out to do. It was also of course the era that popularised the concept of the "heroic failure".

Fortunately Antarctic exploration has been blessed with a whole host of men who were able to write about their experiences with eloquence and sensitivity. Uniquely in any field of exploration there was a coming together in a short period of a concentration of character, bravery and literary ability.

This is one of the reasons that the history of Antarctic exploration remains so popular and well known. The wealth of good quality records and original writings also makes the subject a rich one for researchers and historians.

Photography too is well represented in the early expeditions by Herbert Ponting with Scott's 1910-1913 Terra Nova expedition and Frank Hurley with Shackleton's 1914-1917 Trans-Antarctic expedition aboard the Endurance. Their photographs not only provide us with an excellent and comprehensive historical record, but are superb examples of the photographers art, particularly when it is considered that they were accomplished with relatively primitive equipment in what were still very much the early days of photography.

Thus the subject becomes accessible and understandable. While distant, the early 20th century is still comfortably recent so that it doesn't seem like so "foreign" a time that is being described.

Contrast this for instance with space exploration and the moon landings that haven't resulted in a single quality piece of writing. Apart from seeing the video footage, we the public really know nothing of it, we don't understand the hardships, comradeship, rivalries or even the mundane day to day routines.

A final tragic chapter to many of these stories of the "Heroic Age" was that they took place in the years just before the First World War. Many of the adventurers and members of the exploratory parties joined their countrymen on the battlefields of Europe on their return from Antarctica. The Great War then took a terrible toll on their numbers. Despite their heroism and fortitude in the frozen south, many were due to die in the appalling industrialized waste of life that characterized this war.

The close of the Heroic age is generally taken coming with the death of Ernest Shackleton in 1922 from a heart attack while aboard the ship Quest at anchor at South Georgia. After this time Antarctic expeditions were fundamentally different, usually being much larger in scale and with back up if necessary able to summoned by radio. No longer would men set out completely alone and self contained on their adventure, the tale to be told either on their return or by the finding of their remains by later parties.

The Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration, though it happened a century ago now is still very real and very accessible thanks to the efforts and talents of the men who chronicled and photographed the events as they happened.

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