CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ANTARCTIC VOYAGES FROM 1701 TO 1900.
(The following timeline is largely taken from The Antarctic Manual for the Use of the Expedition of 1901) with some supplementary material for early voyages.
1522. Ferdinand Magellan discovers Strait of Magellan during his circumnavigation.
1578. Francis Drake is blown south when navigating the Strait of Magellan and discovers Drake Passage
1592. John Davis in Desire probably discovers the Falkland Islands
1675. Antonio de la Roche, having been blown off course, discovers South Georgia.
1689-91. First recorded landing (1690) on Falkland Islands by John Strong in HMS Welfare
1716. Le Gentil de la Barbinais reached 61° 30′ S.
1719. George Shelvoke reached 61° 30′ S.
1722 Jakob Roggeween reached 62° 30′ S., and one of his ships, the Thienhoven, is reported to have reached 64° 58′.
1738-39. Lozier Bouvet in the Aigle and Hay in the Marie discovered Cape Circumcision in 54° S., 4° E. ; and went on to 57° S.
1756, The Spanish merchant ship Leon rediscovered South Georgia.
1771-72. Marion du Frezne and Crozet sailed from Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand, discovering Marion and Crozet islands.
1772. Yves Joseph de Kerguelen-Tremarec discovered Kerguelen Land.
1772-75. James Cook and Tobias Furneaux in HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure, circumnavigated the world in as high a southern latitude as possible. They were the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. They discovered the South Sandwich Islands. The staff of the ships included, as scientific observers, Johann Reinhold Forster, his son George Forster, for part of the time the Swede Andrew Sparrmann and the English astronomers William Wales and William Bayley. The extreme points reached by the expedition were 07° 31′ S. in 142° 54′ W. and 71° 10′ S, in 100° 54′ W.
1773-74. Second voyage of Kerguelen to Kerguelen Land, accompanied by D’Agelet Le Paute.
1808. James Lindsay in the Snow Swan and Thomas Hopper in the Otter, sent out by Messrs. Enderby, rediscovered Bouvet’s islands.
1810. Captain Fredrick Hassleborough discovers Macquarie Island.
1819. William Smith, while on a voyage from La Plata to Valparaiso, discovered the South Shetlands, and, on his return voyage, Lieut. Bransfield, R.N., accompanied him, and made a survey of the group.
1819. James Sheffield, on the American brig Hersilia, visited the South Shetlands on a sealing-trip ; and for some years the neighbouring lands were regularly visited by British and American sealers, including Walker, Palmer, Pendleton, and Powell.
1819-21. Fabian Gottlieb Bellingshausen, in command of the Russian man-of-war Vostok, and Lazabeff, in command of the Mirny, visited South Georgia, and circumnavigated the Earth in a high latitude, reached 69° 21′ S. in 2° 15′ W., and 69° 53′ S. in 92° 19′ W., discovered Peter I. Island and Alexander I. Land, and sailed over 46° of longitude within the Antarctic circle.
1821. George Powell and Nathaniel B. Palmer, respectively British and American sealers, discover the South Orkney Islands.
1822-24. James Weddell in the brig Jane, accompanied by M. Brisbane in the cutter Beaufoy, reached 74° 15′ S. in 34° 17′ W., and found open sea with almost no ice in sight.
1828-29, Henry Foster in HMS Chanticleer visited Deception Island in South Shetlands. The island was described by E. N. Kendall.
1830. Edmund Fanning, with the American brigs Seraph and Annawan, visited the west coast of Graham Land.
1830-32. John Biscoe, in the brig Tula, accompanied by the cutter Lively, sighted land (Enderby Land) in 66° 2′ S., 43° 54′ E., and also in 67° 15′ S., 68° 20′ W. ; making a circumnavigation in high latitudes.
1832-33. Lieut. Rea, RN, with two of the Enderby’s ships, set out to continue Biscoe’s researches, but the expedition did not get beyond the South Shetlands.
1833. Lieut. Brinstead, RN, with the schooner Hopewell and the cutter Rose, fitted out by the Enderbys with the co-operation of the British Admiralty, sighted land between 65° and 70° S., in 10°-20° W. (?).
1833. Kemp, a sealer, found land in 66° S., 59° 30′ E.
1838-39. John Balleny, in the schooner Eliza Scott, with H. Freeman in the cutter Sabrina, were sent out by the Enderbys, reached 69° S- in 172° 11′ E., and discovered the Balleny islands and other land.
1837-40. J. Dumont d’Urville, in the French corvette Astrolabe, and Jacquinot in the Zelee, explored the Weddell sea region, and also discovered Adelie Land and the Clarie coast.
1838-40. Charles Wilkes, in command of a U.S. squadron, consisting of the Vincennes, Porpoise, Seagull, Peacock, and Flying Fish, explored to the south and west of Palmer Land, and reported Wilkes’ Termination Land south of the Indian ocean.
1839-41. James Clark Ross and Francis Crozier, in HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, discovered Victoria Land, circumnavigated in high latitudes, and reached a farthest south of 78° 10′ S. in 161° 27′ W., and in Weddell sea reached 71° 30′ S. in 15° W. Robert McCormick and Joseph Dalton Hooker were on board as surgeons and naturalists.
1842. William G. Smiley, American sealer, visited Deception island, and sailed round Palmer Land.
1845. J. L. Moore in the Pagoda reached 67° 51′ S. in 39° 40′ on a special magnetic survey.
1873-74. Dallmann in the whaler Gronland, sent out by a German company, visited Palmer Land and discovered the entrance to Bismarck strait.
1874. Sir George Nares, in HMS Challenger, first crossed the Antarctic circle by steam, and reached 66° 40′ in 78° 30′ E.
1892-93. The Dundee Whaling Fleet, consisting of the Balaena (Fairweather), Active (Robertson), Diana (Davidson), and the Polar Star, visited ouis Philippe Land. Scientific observations were made by William S. Bruce and Charles W. Donald, and paintings by W. G. Burn Murdoch.
1893-93. Leonard Larsen, in the Norwegian whaler Jason, sent out by a German company, visited Louis Philippe Land and the Weddell sea.
1893-94. Leonard Larsen in the Jason reached 68° 10′ S. in 59° 59′ W. on the east coast of Graham Land.
1893-94. Evensen in the Hertha, and Pedeesen in the Castor, sailed along the west side of Graham Land, Evensen reaching 69° 10′ S. in 76° 12′ W.
1894-95. Leonard Kristensen, in the Norwegian whaler Antarctic, with C. E. Borchgrevenink on board, revisited Victoria Land and landed at Cape Adare and on Possession Island. Henrik Johan Bull was also on the expedition and wrote The Cruise of the Antarctic to the South Polar Regions.
1897-99. Adrien de Gerlache, in the Belgica, discovered and surveyed Belgica strait, and drifted for a year in the ice to the west of Graham Land, reaching 71° 36′ S. in 87° 39′ W., and spending the first winter in the Antarctic Regions. Lecointe, Arctowski, Racovitsa and F. A. Cook took part in the expedition.
1898-99. Carl Chun, on the Valdivia, rediscovered Bouvet island, and reached 64° 15′ S. in 54° 20′ E., although in an unprotected steel vessel. Gerhard Schott was the oceanographer of the expedition.
1898-1900. Carstens Egeberg Borchgrevink, in the Southern Cross, fitted out by Sir George Newnes, landed and wintered at Cape Adare. He landed on the southern ice-barrier, and reached 78° 50′ in 165° W. Louis Bernacchi and William Colbeck took part in the expedition, with Captain Jensen as sailing master.