Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
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The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (1895–1917) is the period of time at the beginning of the 20th century when brave men set out to face the frozen Antarctic wilderness in search of fame and glory for their achievements and discoveries. Some died on their expeditions, while others returned triumphant to become well known lecturers and authors. Increasingly referred to as the Heroic Era, this phase was inaugurated by the Sixth International Geographical Congress in 1895 with a formal call to scientific societies around the world to urge Antarctic exploration before the close of the 19th century. At the time, it was seen that such was "the greatest piece of geographical exploration still to be undertaken."[1]
The Age itself is best characterized by the race to the South Pole, which has been compared to the Space Race and the Moon landing in the 1960s in its ability to capture the attention of the public. Shortly after Roald Amundsen reached the pole in 1911, World War I began, and as it was the most devastating war in history at that time, battlefield heroism then eclipsed that of Antarctic adventure in the eyes of the public.[2] Fewer expeditions were launched in the years immediately following the war, loosely marking the end of the Heroic Age. It is generally accepted to have concluded with the retrieval of the Ross Sea party of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in early 1917. Some sources place its end with Shackleton's death in 1922.[3]
The heroic era of Antarctic exploration was ‘heroic’ because it was anachronistic before it began, its goal was as abstract as a pole, its central figures were romantic, manly and flawed, its drama was moral (for it mattered not only what was done but how it was done), and its ideal was national honour. It was an early testing-ground for the racial virtues of new nations such as Norway and Australia, and it was the site of Europe’s last gasp before it tore itself apart in the Great War.
Tom Griffiths, Slicing the Silence: voyaging to Antarctica (Sydney: New South Books, 2007)
When Antarctic exploration finally did resume in force in later decades, its character was quite different. Prior to the war, radio communication was not possible between expeditions and the civilized world (with the exception of Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, which after many trials established the first Antarctic wireless radio link) and mechanized transport, although sometimes present, was not a significant boon. Later expeditions harnessed these technologies effectively, greatly reducing the dangers involved.
