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Captain James Cook
James Cook was born in Yorkshire village of Marton on October 27, 1728. His first experience at sea came at the age of 18 when he signed on as a deckhand aboard a Whitby collier carrying coal to London. He became a mathematician in his spare time and was actually offered a command of his own ship but refused and joined the Royal Navy as a seaman. James Cook then became an explorer. In July 1772 Lieutanant Cook set sail from Britian and discovered Antarctica. -
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Exploration
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James Clark Ross
Sir James Clark Ross was a British naval officer and explorer. He explored the Arctic with Sir William Parry from 1819 to 1827. In 1831, Ross and his uncle, Sir John Ross, located the North Pole as part of a magnetic survey. James Ross led an Antarctic expedition and mapped most of the coastline of the continent. In 1841, he discovered the Ross Sea, Victoria Land and Ross Ice shelf. -
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Sir Douglas Mawson
Sir Douglas Mawson was a geologist and explorer. He was born on 5 May 1882 at Shipley, Yorkshire, England. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, Mawson was a key expedition leader. He led an expedition to Antarctica which was called "Austrlasian Antarctic Expedition". It is amazing that Mawson's interest in geology led into a fantastic adventure. His name is now a part of Antarctica forever. -
Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott and the crew sailed from London on 31 July 1901 and headed for Cape Adare. There they explored the coast south along the shore of Victoria Land, landing at Cape Crozier. They traveled along the edge of the ice barrier to its outer reaches where they found areas of rock rising 2000 feet above them. Scott named this area the King Edward VII Land after the king at the time. -
Sir Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton had been born in County Kildare in Ireland on February 15th 1874. Shackleton was chosen to be leader of an expedition to leave for Antarctica in 1907 aboard the ship Nimrod. The Nimrod sailed for New Zealand on August 7th 1907. It was an exciting journey for him! Shackleton and his men were stuck in the ice on the ship for a whole winter but everybody survived the dreadful conditions due to his leadership. -
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engebreth Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition that was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. He is an incredible explorer that many people will remember. Unfortunately Roald died on the 18th of June 1928 in Bear Island. Amundsen was on a rescue mission at the North Pole but his plane crashed.
