Expedition Diary: The Voyage to Antarctica

Abstract

The journey of the Swedish-Argentine Antarctic Expedition to Antarctica, December 21, 1901, through February 12, 1902 is documented in José María Sobral’s diary entries on board the ship the Antarctic during the voyage from Buenos Aires to Antarctica. He writes of the following: Making preparations for departure, December 17 through 21; sailing, observations on whale hunting, oceanographic testing, and acclimation to Swedish language and customs, from Buenos Aires to the Malvinas (Falklands), December 21–December 31; Visiting Port Stanley, bringing aboard Malvinas dogs to supplement the Greenland dogs, and meeting with officials, December 31, 1901 through January 1, 1902; Traveling from Malvinas to Isla de los Estados for magnetic meteorological observations, and to Observatorio Island, location of Argentina’s Observatory and new Lighthouse, January 1–January 6; magnetic work performed and translation of information between Observatorio Island’s Argentine personnel and the Swedish expedition, January 6; Bird specimen collecting, hydrographic research, first sighting of icebergs, King George Island and South Shetland Islands (Pleistocene and Mesozoic comparison studies), seeing the first penguins, Louis Phillippe Land, Joinville Island, Hope Bay (Esperanza), Paulet Island, Seymour Island (Marambio), and fossil collecting, January 6–16; the provisions deposited at Seymour Island, the lack of surface snow, an attempt to sail further south of 66° that is thwarted by pack ice, and the retreat made northerly, January 17–20; oceanographic studies in the Weddell Sea, the voyage through pack ice back to Seymour Island and then to Snow Hill, Cockburn Island, Erebus and Terror Gulf (Sidney Herbert Bay), Sobral’s concerns regarding Argentina’s geopolitical standing, and the first ski journey on snow, January 20 to February 12.