Below the Convergence: Voyages Toward Antarctica, 1699-1839

Front Cover
W. W. Norton & Company, 2007 M02 27 - 328 pages
This wonderfully written book tells of the first Herculean expeditions to Antarctica, from astronomer Edmond Halley's 1699 voyage in the Paramore to the sealer John Balleny's 1839 excursion in the Eliza Scott, all in search of land, glory, fur, science, and profit. Life was harsh: crews had poor provisions and inadequate clothing, and scurvy was a constant threat. With unreliable--often homemade--charts, these intrepid explorers 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 men were the first to discover and exploit a new continent, which was not the verdant southern island they had imagined but an inhospitable expanse of rock and ice, ringed by pack ice and icebergs: Antarctica.

From inside the book

Contents

The HavenFinding Art
22
The Plague of the Sea
35
The Southern Ocean
53
The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure
109
The Continent Discovered
146
The Last Discoveries by Sealers
259
Epilogue
276
Maps follow page 282
299
Index
305
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2007)

Alan Gurney was a former yacht designer and photographer. His books include Compass, The Race to the White Continent, and Below the Convergence: Voyages Toward Antarctica: 1699-1839.

Bibliographic information