 Antarctic inTromsø harbor, 1898 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Antarctic |
| Port of registry |  Sweden |
| Launched | 1871, inDrammen,Norway |
| Fate | Sank 12 February 1903 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Steamship |
| Tonnage | 226 netto |
| Length | 41.5 m (136 ft) |
| Height | 33.5 m (110 ft) |
| Propulsion | Sails, 45 hp (34 kW) auxiliary steam engine |
| Sail plan | Barque |
| Speed | 6 knots (11 km/h) |
| Capacity | 346 brutto |
Antarctic was aSwedishsteamship built inDrammen,Norway, in 1871. She was used on several research expeditions to theArctic region and toAntarctica from 1893 to 1903. In 1895 the first confirmed landing on the mainland of Antarctica was made from this ship.
Antarctic was abarque with three masts and equipped with asteam engine, built in 1871 at Holmen inDrammen in Norway under the nameCap Nor.[1][2][3]
InitiallyAntarctic was used forseal hunting aroundSvalbard,Jan Mayen andGreenland.[4] During that period the ship was captained by Gullik Jensen.
In the early 1890s Norwegian ship-ownerSvend Foyn wanted to expand his business to the Antarctic Ocean thereby needing capable ships. Foyn then purchasedCap Nor, made extensive repairs and after completion renamed the shipAntarctic.[1][3][4] From 1893 the ship was deployed to theAntarctic Ocean forwhale hunting.
In 1897 the ship was purchased byAlfred Gabriel Nathorst for his planned expedition to Svalbard. Again extensive repairs were made prior to the expedition in 1898.[1][3][4]
In 1899 Nathorst sold the ship toGeorg Carl Amdrup for his expedition toEast Greenland.[4]
In 1900 Amdrup soldAntarctic toOtto Nordenskjöld who needed the ship for hisAntarctic expedition.
In 1893Antarctic captained byLeonard Kristensen set off on a whaling expedition to Antarctica led byHenrik Johan Bull and financed by Foyn. The ship was equipped with 11 harpoon guns, an arsenal of explosives, 8 whaleboats and 31 men and leftTønsberg on September 20, 1893. The first summer was spent around theKerguelen Islands with winter camp inMelbourne. On September 28, 1894, the ship went off to sea heading for theRoss Sea.
On January 24, 1895, a boat was put ashore atCape Adare at the northern extremity ofVictoria Land with six men including Bull,Borchgrevink, Kristensen andTunzelmann. The party performed the first confirmed landing on the continent of Antarctica, exactly who went ashore first was never cleared as all members claimed the honor (possibly British-American sealerJohn Davis had already made a landing on theAntarctic Peninsula on February 7, 1821, this claim can, however, not be confirmed).[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
In 1898Antarctic captained by Emil Nilsson carried Nathorst's polar expedition toBear Island,Svalbard andKong Karls Land.[1] Among the participating scientists wereAxel Hamberg,Otto Kjellström,Gustaf Kolthoff andHenrik Hesselman.[3]
In 1899 the ship left on an expedition also under the command of Nathorst toNorth Greenland with the dual purpose of searching for survivors of the 1897Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition and geographical mapping the area.[12]
Later the same yearAntarctic carried Amdrup's expedition toEast Greenland.[4]
In 1901 the ship, then on loan from Nordenskjöld, carried the second season of theSwedish-Russian Arc-of-Meridian Expedition under the command ofGerard De Geer toSvalbard.[4][13]
On October 16, 1901Antarctic now captained byCarl Anton Larsen leftGothenburg harbor on Nordenskjold'sAntarctic expedition.[14][15][16] This would become the ship's last voyage.
After exploring parts of theSouth Shetland Islands the expedition continued through theAntarctic Sound towards theAntarctic Peninsula. On January 15, 1902Hope Bay was discovered. In February Nordenskjöld choseSnow Hill Island as winter camp for part of the expedition. After all preparations were completedAntarctic left for theFalkland Islands.
After the winter the ship left the Falklands on November 5 heading back to the Antarctic Peninsula by way ofUshuaia for supplies. On December 29Antarctic was trapped in pack ice near Hope Bay, and some of the crew was put ashore.[14]
Antarctic later broke free and continued towardsPaulet Island; on the way the ship once again was trapped in pack ice on January 3, 1903. On February 3 the ship again broke free but was now damaged and leaking. Captain Larsen now intended to beachAntarctic on Paulet Island, but the ship was too damaged and sank about 40 km (25 mi) off the coast on February 12, 1903.[13][14][16][17]
In November all crewmembers (includingCarl Skottsberg,Johan Gunnar Andersson,José María Sobral andFrank Wilbert Stokes) were rescued by the ArgentinecorvetteUruguay captained byJulián Irízar.
When Nathorst heard about the ship wrecking he commented "seems to me more glorious than if she had gone to meet the usual fate of vessels to slowly rot in some port, or to be used for something far off from her designation and purposes as an icy seas and research vessel".[3]
In 1944 Johan Gunnar Andersson published a commemorative bookAntarctic :Stolt har hon levat Stolt skall hon dö – Antarctic: proud she lived proud she shall die.
TheAntarctic Sound,Antarctic Bay (Greenland) andAntarctic Haven inGreenland, Antarcticberget inJan Mayen as well asAntarctic Bay inSouth Georgia and theAntarctic Sound in Antarctica, were named after the ship.[18][19][20]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Chalmers Magazine, Chalmers University of Technology (in Swedish), accessdate=2010-12-10
This article incorporatespublic domain material from"Antarctic (ship)".Geographic Names Information System.United States Geological Survey.
