The Antarctic Landfalls of John Biscoe, 1831

ON 14 july 1830, the brig Tula, belonging to Messrs. Enderby and commanded by Mr. John Biscoe, R.N., left the Port of London on a South Sea sealing voyage, accompanied by the cutter Lively, Mr. Avery. Both vessels were well and liberally equipped for the voyage and Biscoe had special instructions to endeavour to make dis? coveries in a high southern latitude. After visiting the Falkland Islands and the South Sandwich Islands Biscoe sailed southwards and eastwards. After struggling through drift ice and pack ice the parallel of 6o? S was crossed on 17 January 1831 in 70 W. Here there was a clear sea to the south with only a few icebergs in sight. On January 22 the Antarctic Circle was crossed in i? E, and for the next five weeks Biscoe was able to sail within or on the circle, often far south of the track that the ice had permitted Bellingshausen's ships to follow eleven years earlier. The farthest south reached was 690 S in io? 43' E on January 28. On February 24 Biscoe saw an appearance of land to the southward. During the next three weeks Biscoe sighted the Antarctic Continent from various positions until, on March 17, bad weather forced him away from the Continent. On April 4 he abandoned any further attempts to reach the Continent and set his course for Hobart. The object of this paper is to endeavour to identify the land seen by Biscoe. In a paper communicated by Messrs. Enderby and read to the Royal Geographical Society on 11 February 1833 a brief account of these discoveries is given (Enderby, 1833). Biscoe's Journal, which has been preserved by the Society, has been reprinted in full in the Antarctic Manual (Biscoe, 1901). In his Journal Biscoe gives various positions during the period from 24 February to 17 March 1831. The same positions appear in the paper read to the Society. Further details appear on a portion of a four sheet Chart of the World by John Purdy, published by R. H. Laurie in 1833, which has been preserved in the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty (Purdy, 1935). This has manuscript additions recording the voyages of Biscoe and Kemp (1833), and showing the track of Biscoe's vessel off Enderby's Land. On this chart, the vessel's track has been placed so that the corresponding positions are approximately i? 20' eastward of the positions given in the Journal. A map issued with the Antarctic Manual (Biscoe, 1901), and specially prepared for it, gives a different version, but as it does not appear to be authoritative, it is ignored in this paper. The descriptions given by Biscoe of the various portions of the Continent are, fortunately, sufficiently detailed to enable a comparison to be made with more recent descriptions made from known points. This comparison suggests that Biscoe (Fig. 1) was aware of and agreed with the adjustment of the position of his ship's track to that shown on the Chart. It suggests, further, that corrections of up to z? of longitude, rather than i? 20', eastwards should be made to all of the positions in this area as recorded in Biscoe's Journal. For example, Biscoe's recorded position on March 4, 65 ? 42' S, 490 29' E, which was obtained by observation, was two degrees to the west of his true position which was, by his Journal, further to the east than Cape Ann, the position of which he gave as 490 17' 45 E. Cape Ann, if correctly identified, and there is little reason to doubt this, is situated at 510 20' E. Also, turning to the entry in Biscoe *s Journal for February 18 we find the following: 'Latitude by observation 67? 5?'> by dead reckoning 670 29'; longitude by observation 360 38' 45 E, by dead reckoning 380 38' E, making a current SW, 28 miles in four days, although I think the error is more likely to arise from the reckoning during the last gale.' It seems that Biscoe's chronometers were inaccurate

Geography · Environmental Science · Marine animal studies overview · Polar Research and Ecology

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