Early Antarctic explorer

Terra Australis
"Terra Australis Nondum Cognita" is the large continent on the bottom of this 1570 map by Abraham Ortelius

Antarctic Region, 1848
The known Antarctic region after the 1819–1843 period of intensive exploration.
http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/challenger.html location

The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–22 is often cited by historians as the dividing line between the "Heroic" and "Mechanical" ages. During the Heroic Age period the Antarctic continent became the focus of international efforts that resulted in intensive scientific and geographical exploration, in which 17 major Antarctic expeditions were launched from ten countries. The common factor in these expeditions was the limited nature of the resources available to them before advances in transport and communication technologies revolutionized the work of exploration. This meant that each expedition became a feat of endurance that tested, and sometimes exceeded its personnel's physical and mental limits. The "heroic" label, bestowed later, recognized the adversities which had to be overcome by these pioneers, some of whom did not survive the experience; during this period 19 expedition members died.

During the course of these expeditions the geographical and magnetic poles were both reached. The achievement of being first to the geographical South Pole was a primary object in some expeditions, and was the sole rationale for Roald Amundsen's venture. However, this was not the only aspect of polar exploration during this time; other expeditions worked with defined objectives in different areas of the continent. As a result of all this activity, much of the continent's coastline was discovered and mapped, and significant areas of its interior were explored. The expeditions also generated large quantities of scientific data and specimens across a wide range of scientific disciplines, the examination and analysis of which would keep the world's scientific communities busy for decades.

The exploration of the South Pole has been an off and on area of focus; this particular period, the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, is not the first intensive period of Antarctic exploration. Curtailing what is commonly known as the Age of Exploration, British explorer James Cook would be one of the few explorers who would travel to that Southern region of the world. The discoveries of his second voyage (1772–1775) would change the global map forever. Prior to his expedition it was believed that a large continent known as Terra Australis occupied majority of the Southern hemisphere. However, Cook discovered that no such land mass existed though massive ice floes prevented his reaching Antarctica proper. He did hypothesize that, based upon the amount of ice, there must be an originating land mass. Subsequently, exploration of the Southern regions of the world came to a great halt. However, a period of interest arose again between 1819 and 1843. As Europe settled after a period of revolution, war, and unrest, explorers Bellingshausen, Biscoe, Balleny, Charles Wilkes, Dumont D'Urville, and James Clark Ross sought greater knowledge of the Antarctic regions. The primary goal of these explorers was to penetrate the ice walls that hid Antarctica proper, beginning with Bellingshausen's circumnavigation of the region, D'Urville's discovery of the first rocky land formation, and culminating in Wilkes's discovery of Victoria Land, featuring the volcanoes now known as Mt. Terror and Mt. Erebus. These explorers, despite their impressive contributions to South Polar exploration, were unable to penetrate the interior of the continent and, rather, formed a broken line of discovered lands along the coastline of Antarctica.