What is Captain Cook's Antarctic expedition?

1768, the Royal Academy of Sciences decided to go to Tahiti in the South Pacific to observe the movement of Venus, and asked the Admiralty to send a ship to carry out this task. In fact, observing the movement of Venus is just an excuse. Its real purpose and specific goal is to discover the southern continent and then merge this new continent into the British Empire. The Royal Academy of Sciences has no funds to send an expedition, and the well-funded Admiralty has never limited the mission of the expedition to the narrow scope of simple astronomical observation.

At this time, Britain has controlled the main channel of the Atlantic Ocean and occupied a solid position in the Indian Ocean. However, the French, Britain's rivals, don't think they finally failed in the ocean. The Pacific Ocean is still blank, and there may be a vast land in its southern waters-the "unknown continent" in the south. 1766, the Frenchman Bougainville led an expedition into the Pacific Ocean, which greatly shocked the British government. Therefore, the first task of the British Admiralty is to prevent other maritime powers from occupying the new land, the bronze statue of Cook, and to establish British strongholds or bases on the main navigation channels in the Pacific Ocean in order to establish the control of the British Empire in the Pacific Ocean.

The British Admiralty knows very well that if we want to discover the land of the Southern Ocean and formally occupy it, the newly dispatched expedition leader must be an experienced naval navigator. As a result, Cook, who was born in poverty and promoted to the rank of lieutenant at the age of 40, stood out and became the commander of this voyage.

1768 On July 30th, Cook personally selected a three-masted sailboat named "Enduring", weighing 370 tons, with 84 crew members, 22 cannons and several scholars. After eight months' voyage, they arrived in Tahiti. From/kloc-0 to June 3, 769, they observed Venus for one month, and observed all the metallography when Venus passed through the sun's horizon. After the astronomical exploration, Cook began to explore the southern continent on the sea between 35 and 40 south latitude south of Tahiti.

Tasman Glacier named after French explorer Tasman At this time, the South Pacific has entered autumn and the climate has become very bad. "Enduring" is often a big storm. After reaching 40 south latitude, the sea is still in front of me, and I can't see the shadow of land. On October 7th, 65438/KLOC-0, Cook decided to turn the rudder and sail west. The next day, near 39 31'south latitude and 0/77 east longitude, they drove into a land not marked on the map. In fact, as early as 1642, the French explorer Tasman discovered this land (New Zealand), but he didn't know the real situation of the island at that time and mistakenly thought it was the northern cape of the "unknown continent" in the south. Cook and his officers and fellow scholars, after a long and fierce debate, managed to reach an agreement that the land they discovered was the "unknown continent" in the south.

1769165438+1October 15. Cook solemnly declared that this land belongs to British territory. From165438+1October 18 to 65438+March 27, 770, Cook's ships reached the north and south ends of the "unknown continent" successively, and finally completed the circumnavigation of the two islands, thus confirming that New Zealand is not a prominent corner of the "unknown continent" in the south.

After finding out the true face of New Zealand and with a strong desire to explore, Cook decided to visit New Holland (now Australia) before repairing the ship.

On April 2 1, 1, 770, Endurance reached the southeast corner of Tasmania and then turned north. In order to take shelter from the wind, Cook anchored the ship in Albategnius Bay, ready to dock for replenishment. However, because the local natives were wary of whites and greeted them with sticks and arrows, Cook had to sail along the northeast coast of New Holland.

On June 22nd, Cook crossed a dangerous navigation area covered with numerous coral reefs (the Great Barrier Reef near the east coast of Australia) and unfortunately hit the rocks. Although a shipwreck was avoided, he had to dock for several weeks to repair the damaged ship.

On August 4, the "Enduring" sailed again. When passing through Cape York, Cook raised the British flag on the island, officially announcing that the discovered area was British territory from south latitude 10 ~ 38, and called it New South Wales.

1771July 12, Cook returned to England and finally completed his first round-the-world voyage for nearly three years.

A failed trip to antarctica

Cook's first voyage around the world confirmed that New Zealand is not part of the "unknown continent" in the south. In order to find the "unknown continent" and accomplish some other tasks, the greedy British government sent a second expedition, with Cook as the chief commander. The Admiralty equipped and provided Cook with two dhows, one named "Determination", which was commanded by Cook himself, and the other named "Adventure", which was commanded by tobias Vernor.

1772 July 13, the "determination" and "exploration" officially set sail for the southern ocean. In 65438+February 10, Cook first saw ice floes on the sea near 50 40' south latitude. After that, he met a large ice floe. At this time, in order to go deep into the polar regions as soon as possible, Cook had to make a detour. Unfortunately, however, there was a sudden snowstorm in the sky and a thick fog at the same time, so the ship had to detour between icebergs.

12 13, the "determination" arrived at the latitude line of an island discovered by French Buwitt in 1739 (Buwitt thought the island was the northern end of the "unknown continent"). In order to find out whether this is the boundary of an island or an "unknown continent", Cook sailed west to Buwitt on June 1773, 65438+1 October1day. He didn't see the island, nor did he find any signs of the existence of the mainland. At this time, Cook wanted to know whether Buwitt really saw land and whether it was a huge Iceland surrounded by unstable ice. So he turned around and walked south.

1773+ 17 At noon on June 7, Cook's ship crossed the Antarctic Circle (66 33' south latitude) on the sea near 39 35' east longitude, which was the first voyage across the Antarctic Circle in human history. When the ship encountered hard ice, Cook boarded the mast and looked into the distance. He couldn't find any passage to the south, so he decided to retreat temporarily.

On February 8th, there was no cloud in Wan Li, but the two ships separated because of the dense fog. Cook drifted in this sea area for two days, but before the adventure came, he turned around and sailed southeast. Until February 26th, when he reached the sea area of 6 1 2 1' 97 east longitude, he was blocked by hard ice, and Cook decided to retreat to the north. He wandered in the waters between 58 and 70 south latitude until March 17, when Cook decided to March radially into New Zealand.

On March 26, Cook's "Determination" sailed for Daski-Savand Bay on the south coast of New Zealand (in order to commemorate Cook's ship docked here, the bay was named Determination Bay; Resuoliushen Bay) broke down and rested. During the voyage of 1 17 days after leaving the Cape of Good Hope, the "Determination" did not find any signs of land. On may 1 1, the "determination" sailed out of Daski-savonde bay. Five weeks later, in Queen Chalota Strait (now Cook Strait), she joined the "expedition" led by Vernor who had been waiting here for five weeks.

From June to July, the expedition team visited the sea area between east-west longitude133 30' and south latitude 39 ~ 47, and found no land. 654381October 7, the ship arrived in Tonga and set out for New Zealand soon. 10 year 10 30, due to the strong sea breeze, the two ships separated again at the east entrance of Cook Strait. After that, the two ships never met again until they returned to England.

165438+1On October 26th, Cook left the coast of New Zealand and sailed south and east. 65438+February 18, in heavy snow and fog, Cook crossed the Antarctic circle again. On February 23, 65438, Cook encountered an insurmountable ice barrier in the waters of 67 20' and137 20' west longitude, and with the opaque fog, he stopped temporarily. At this time, Cook ordered the "Determination" to temporarily retreat to 47 51'south latitude. Soon, Cook went south again, 1774+654381On October 26th, Cook entered the Antarctic Circle for the third time in the west longitude 109 3 1'. At 65438+1October 30th, Cook sailed to the waters around 7 1 10' S and 106 54' W, which was later named amundsen sea. This was the record of the southernmost voyage at that time, and it has not been broken for the next 60 years. It is only 200 kilometers away from the nearest prominent corner of the Antarctic continent (Tilston Peninsula near the Amun Sea), but he fell short and stopped his journey south here.

Cook turned the rudder and sailed north, passing through Easter Island, Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu Islands and Tahiti Island. On the way to tonga islands, I found an inhabited island called Savitz Island (meaning Savage Island), which is called Niue by the locals. On August 3 1 day, Cook sailed around St. Espiritu Island, a big island in northern New hebrides. In this way, Cook completed all the "discovery" work on the islands of this archipelago.

165438+1October 10, the "determination" left the port of kolabel, New Zealand, set sail to the southeast again, all the way to the sea at 55 south latitude, and then went straight south. Crossing the Pacific Ocean between 53 and 56 south latitude, Tierra del Fuego was investigated, and some new discoveries were marked on the chart.

1775 65438+1October 16, Cook discovered a piece of land near 38 30' west longitude, which was visited by the Spaniard 1756 and the British Alexander and Darce Poole. The next day, Cook landed and erected the British flag, declaring it a British territory. This is an undeveloped land with extremely bad natural conditions. After a week's investigation, it was confirmed to be an island. When he looked southeast, he saw a piece of land, but it quickly disappeared into the fog.

654381October 23rd, Cook sailed for this "land". However, he only found some small rock islands, so he called them Clark Rock Island.

65438128, the ship arrived at 60 degrees 4 minutes and 29 degrees 23 minutes west longitude ... Cook encountered a large number of drifting "Iceland", and the ship could not move forward, so he had to turn around and sail north. Three days later, he saw a coast, and the majestic peaks on the shore went straight into the sky, covered with snow. After investigation, Cook thinks that the coastline he discovered may be an island group or the boundary of the "unknown continent" in the south, so he calls this land a sandwich land, with its northernmost point at 57 south latitude and its southernmost point at 59 13' south latitude. Cook called the southernmost tip Nantur, because it was the southernmost piece of land discovered by people. Before he finished exploring the sandwich land on February 6, he assumed that this land might be a prominent corner of the "unknown continent" in the south.

At this time, considering that the short Antarctic summer was coming to an end, Cook adjusted his course and sailed northeast, and returned to England via Cape Town on July 29th 1775, ending his second round-the-world voyage which lasted for 3 years 17 days.