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250 Years of Discovery: Captain Cook's Antarctic Voyage

1772-2025

"A land doomed by nature"

In January 1775, Captain James Cook made a landmark discovery on the HMS Resolution: the isolated and icy island of South Georgia, located in the far reaches of the South Atlantic. This exhibition commemorates the 250th anniversary of a pivotal chapter in the age of exploration.

Cook and his crew were nearing the end of their second great voyage, which aimed to map the southern hemisphere and explore the mystery of a possible Terra Australis or southern continent. After weeks of navigating through ice-choked waters and severe winds, they encountered an island marked by towering glaciers, rugged mountains, and bustling wildlife—a landscape more foreboding than any they had yet seen.

During this voyage Captain James Cook ventured farther south than any European explorer before him. When he first set foot on South Georgia, he described it as “a land doomed by nature”. Its rugged terrain and inhospitable climate a stark contrast to the warmer, tropical waters Cook had previously charted. Yet, this rugged island became central to mapping uncharted lands and igniting a fascination with the polar regions that persists to this day.

Portrait of James Cook. Engraved from an original picture by Nathaniel Dance in the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital. This image was engraved by the finest portrait engraver of his time, Edward Scriven (1775-1841), for Portraits illustrative of The Pictorial History of England published in London c.1840. South Georgia Museum 2019.42

This famous engraving is after the painting In the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital by eminent portrait painter, Nathaniel Dance (1735-1811), who was a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768. Sir Joseph Banks commissioned Dance to paint Cook who apparently sat “for a few hours before dinner” on 25 May 1776, prior to departing on his third voyage.

A great admirer of Cook, David Samwell, surgeon’s mate on Resolution on Cook’s second voyage, and surgeon on Discovery on the third voyage, thought it “a most excellent likeness […] the only one I have seen that nears any resemblance to him”. Sir Joseph Banks who had sailed with Cook on his first voyage on Endeavour and had declared Cook to be the finest man he had ever known, hung Cook’s portrait over the fireplace in his London house. After Banks died his executor presented the portrait to the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital in London.

“the greatest part of this Southern Continent (supposing there is one) must lay within the Polar Circle where the Sea is so pestered with ice, that the land is thereby inaccessible. The risk one runs in exploring a coast in these unknown and Icy Seas, is so very great, that I can be bold to say, that no man will ever venture farther than I have done and that the lands which may lie to the South will never be explored. Thick fogs, Snow storms, Intense Cold and every other thing that can render Navigation dangerous one has to encounter and these difficulties are greatly heightened by the inexpressible horrid aspect of the Country, a Country doomed by Nature ne'er once to feel the warmth of the Suns rays, but to lie for ever buried under everlasting snow and ice..”

Captain James Cook, 6 February 1775

Chart showing the tracks of the ships under Captain Cook's command. In search of a large southern continent, Cook and his crew on the Resolution sailed to the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the Antarctic Circle. They then sailed through the southern Indian Ocean to New Zealand. From there they sailed around the Pacific Ocean and its islands. Finally, they sailed the southern Atlantic Ocean before returning to the UK. © National Library of Australia.

Watercolour of the Resolution and Adventure taking in ice for water by William Hodges, Resolution artist. © State Library of New South Wales.

SETTING OUT

In 1772, Captain James Cook set out from Plymouth with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure on his second great voyage. Cook’s original mission was originally to search for the legendary Terra Australis, a mythical southern continent believed by European explorers to exist in the uncharted expanses below their known world. The potential of a vast southern continent in these uncharted waters intrigued European empires and explorers.

In Cook’s time, exploring the open ocean was dangerous and challenging. Navigation without landmarks was time-consuming and inexact. To determine a ship’s longitudinal position sailors first had to calculate Greenwich meantime and then compare this to the ship’s time. They determined this by observing celestial bodies and using lunar tables. On the expedition Cook was appointed to further the understanding of geography and navigation by testing instruments to more easily determine longitude at sea.

John Harrison. © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum.

Cook’s expedition was equipped with two timekeepers using designs of John Harrison’s chronometer model H4 from 1759. This engraving depicts John Harrison seated with a H4 on the left. His earlier model, the H3, is pictured in the left background.

Harrison’s marine chronometer was an innovative time-keeping instrument that worked without pendulums. The device could keep time in changing temperatures and despite the rolling of the ship. This was a revolutionary development in navigation. Setting the chronometer to Greenwich meantime before departure cut out steps in determining the ship’s longitude, making the process much faster and more accurate.

Ice Islands gouache by George Forster, naturalist on Resolution. © State Library of New South Wales.

Navigating the vast Southern Oceans was difficult and uncomfortable. The ships spent most of their time with no view of land and in unpredictable weather. Fog made observations difficult and sea ice was often initially confused for land.

The ships frequently encountered massive icebergs, carrying a high risk of crushing and collision. The icebergs also obscured views and, like sea ice, were also confused for land. When the first islands around South Georgia were spotted the ship’s scientist Forster wrote, “The bets run high, whether it is Land or Ice. Some laid it was Ice ten to one. Others five to one that it is land”. Being confronted with icebergs over “…two miles in circuit, and sixty feet high…” the ships spent months at sea without resupply and supplemented their provisions with melted sea ice and seabirds shot from the boat.

By the end of 1773, the Resolution and Adventure had crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. Bad weather and fog caused the two ships to separate. The Resolution, with Cook on board, completed the expedition unaccompanied.

A View in Possession Bay in the Land of South Georgia, William Hodges

Artistic depiction and written descriptions were important tools in exploration before photography was possible. William Hodges, artist on the Resolution, captured points of interest on the journey for publication in Britain. His etching of Possession Bay accompanies Cook’s observations of how “the Wild rocks raised their lofty summits till they were lost in the Clouds and the Vallies laid buried in everlasting Snow. Not a tree or shrub was to be seen, no not even big enough to make a tooth-pick”.
This engraving was published by Alexander Hogg. Active in London from 1778 to 1824. He worked under the sign of the Kings Arms on Paternoster Row, known for publishing architectural and historical prints, as well as maps. South Georgia Museum 2019.3.2

“There are people, who are hardened to all feelings, & will give no ear to the dictates of humanity & reason; false ideas of virtue & good conduct are to them, to leave nothing to chance, & future discoverers, by their perseverance; which costs the lives of the poor Sailors or at least their healths. These people should be constantly employed by Government upon such Schemes: as for instance the N.W. or N.E. Passage; there they will find a career to give them their genius full scope; but wo! The poor crew under them.”

Johann Reinhold Forster, Resolution Scientist, writing about Cook’s personality type
Baye de al Possession Dans l’Isle Georgie Australe. This engraving Bay of Possession in the Island of South Georgia was Issued in the official report of Cook's Second Voyage towards the South Pole. Decouvertes Atlantique du Sud, from the volume Voyage dans l'hémisphère austral, et autour du monde, fait sur les vaisseaux de roi, l'Aventure et la Résolution, en 1772, 1773, 1774, et 1775. Published in Paris in 1778.

"Savage and horrible" – first sight of South Georgia

By the beginning of 1775 Cook and his crew were meant to start their journey home. They had sailed the South Pacific and Southern Indian Ocean and crossed the Antarctic Circle three times. Without knowing, they came close to sighting Antarctica but had turned north because of heavy sea ice.

Determined to settle the question of the existence of ‘Terra Australis’, Cook decided to continue to traverse the southern Atlantic, navigating uncharted icy waters.

The Resolution sighted South Georgia in January 1775. As they approached, Cook and his crew encountered breathtaking yet formidable sights: massive icebergs and glaciers extending from the island into the sea. Cook was not enthusiastic, describing the land as “savage and horrible”. Nonetheless, he claimed possession of the land for Great Britain and dubbed the place Possession Bay. They continued along the coast, reaching the southernmost cape. This confirmed that they had not found the great Southern Continent. Cook named the place Cape Disappointment and the Island South Georgia after King George III.

Pygoscelis antarcticus Chin-strap penguin. Johann Georg Adam Forster. © Public domain. From the Library and Archives, Natural History Museum, London.

German naturalist Georg Forster, who accompanied Cook during his landings in three separate places at Possession Bay on that day, wrote: “Here Captain Cook displayed the British flag, and performed the ceremony of taking possession of those barren rocks, in the name of his Britannic Majesty, and his heirs forever. A volley of two or three muskets was fired into the air.”

Most surprising to Cook and his crew was the abundant wildlife that thrived in such an inhospitable landscape. The island’s waters teemed with seals, whales, and vast colonies of penguins and seabirds. Cook and his crew were fascinated by these resilient creatures, which endured the extreme cold and unforgiving environment. The observations Cook recorded in his journals about the animal life in South Georgia laid the foundation for early studies in natural history.

Johann Georg Adam Forster was recruited as artist and assistant to his father Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798), who was the naturalist on the voyage. The drawing collection comprises 271 watercolour and pencil drawings of animals made by Forster during Cook’s second voyage between 1772 and 1775 on the HMS Resolution, as described by Johann Reinhold Forster in the latter’s Descriptiones Animalium quae in itinere ad Maris Australis Terras per annos 1772-74 suscepto collegit, observavit et delineavit J. R. Forster, etc. (Berlin, 1844).

The birth of early polar science

Cook’s detailed observations marked the first recorded European account of glaciers calving – where massive chunks of ice break off from a glacier, where it meets the sea, plunging into the ocean. These calving glaciers, combined with the vast floating icebergs, created a surreal, stark landscape that left a profound impression on Cook. He described the towering icebergs as both beautiful and treacherous, symbols of the mysterious and harsh conditions of the polar regions. He careful noted measurements and sketches of these ice formations.

Cook’s observations of glacial and iceberg behaviour offered an early glimpse into the dynamic nature of polar ice, laying a foundation for glaciology and polar studies.

His discoveries, including the process of icebergs forming through glacial calving, ignited European interest in polar exploration and advanced the broader understanding of Earth’s southern extremes.

After this journey, Cook was convinced that a southern continent existed. He came to the conclusion that there had to be a mass of land at or near the South Pole to birth great numbers of icebergs seen during the course of his second and third voyages. It would be nearly 50 years before the continent of Antarctica would be first sighted. Discovered during the two year voyage of Vostok and Mirnyi under Captain Fabian von Bellinghausen, a Russian explorer, in 1820.

Chart of the Discoveries made in the South Atlantic Ocean, in His Majesty’s Ship Resolution under the Command of Captain Cook in Jan. 1775. © South Georgia Museum.

This chart is featured in John Hawkesworth’s account of the voyages of Captain Cook, Joseph Banks and Captain John Byron. It tracks the discoveries of Resolution, around South Georgia (bottom right) and south towards the South Sandwich Islands (top left).

Many of the placenames Cook coined during his survey of South Georgia are still in use today. They include Bird Island and Cumberland Bay. Cook’s skill and dedication as a surveyor are clear from the detail in this chart.

Note: North is at the bottom of the chart.

Frontispiece to James Cook’s published account of his journey with Resolution and Adventure – A Voyage towards the South Pole and Round the World. The book was published with illustrations by William Hodges, Resolution artist. © Wellcome Collection.

Cook's legacy

Cook’s discovery of South Georgia represented a high point in the Age of Exploration’, a period marked by intense scientific curiosity and competition among European empires to chart unknown regions. Although the elusive southern continent he sought was never found, Cook’s expedition provided unprecedented geographic knowledge of the South Atlantic, marking a critical step forward in global cartography.

He meticulously charted South Georgia’s coastline, enabling future voyages to access and explore the area with newfound accuracy. This mapping also advanced the scientific understanding of the Earth’s southern regions, giving rise to studies in glaciology, oceanography, and eventually, polar science. Cook’s reports were circulated widely, inspiring naturalists, explorers, and maritime powers alike to consider the potential riches – and challenges – of these southern territories.

Despite Cook’s warnings and accounts of danger and misery, Antarctica remained a fixation for explorers and scientists. In the decades that followed, South Georgia’s rich marine resources attracted sealers and whalers, leading to a booming industry by the 19th century. The arrival of human habitation also led to the introduction of rats. While it provided a vital economic opportunity, the activity had devastating effects on the island’s ecosystem, nearly driving some species to extinction.

Today, South Georgia stands as a testament to the consequences of human industry and exploitation, and as a beacon of conservation. Since the late 20th century, it has transformed into one of the most well-protected wildlife sanctuaries in the world, with its populations of seals, whales, and seabirds slowly recovering.

Commemorative stamp issued on 17 January 2025 by the Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich islands.

Captain Cook’s discovery of South Georgia has left an indelible legacy. His early observations and mapping of the island laid the groundwork for centuries of scientific exploration and inspired generations of adventurers and naturalists. The island today continues to captivate scientists, explorers, and conservationists, who see in South Georgia a place of both historic intrigue and urgent ecological significance.

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