Alan
Gurney - Below the Convergence
Voyages toward Antarctica 1699-1839
De achterflap:
The tantalizing theory of a huge southern continent, Terra
Australis Incognita, had haunted the imaginations of countless
geographers throughout history. Not until the second of
his great voyages in 1773 did Captain Cook finally lay the
theory to rest.
This wonderfully written book tells the story of British,
American and Russian expeditions, from the astronomer Edmond
Halley's voyage in the Paramore in 1699 to the
sealer John Balleny's 1839 voyage in the Eliza Scott,
all in search of land, fur, or elephant seals. These were
voyages for science, national prestige, and profit. Life
was incredibly harsh: Crews had poor provisions and inadequate
clothing and were constantly threatened by scurvy. Often
they had to make their own charts as they sailed in the
stormy waters of the Southern Ocean below the Convergence,
that sea frontier marking the boundary between the freezing
Antarctic waters and the warmer sub-Antarctic seas. These
seamen were the first to discover and exploit a new continent,
which was not the verdant southern land they imagined but
an inhospitable expanse of rock and ice, ringed by pack
ice and icebergs - Antarctica.
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