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Polar Exploration by Sea
An overview of the ships and crews that pushed into Arctic and Antarctic waters, from Elizabethan searches for a northern route to the heroic age of the ice.
Origins and Exploration
Polar and Scientific Voyages
Ships sent to the ice and to the unmapped deep.
Captain Cook and the Pacific Voyages
The ships, crews and survey methods of James Cook's three Pacific expeditions between 1768 and 1780, from Endeavour to Resolution and Discovery.
Icebreakers and How They Developed
How icebreakers evolved from steam tugs adapted for frozen harbours to the powerful diesel-electric and nuclear-powered polar ships of the twentieth century.
Research Ships and the Mapping of the Ocean Floor
How purpose-built survey and research ships measured ocean depth, currents and the seabed, from lead lines and wire to echo sounders, sonar and deep drilling.
Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition
How Shackleton's ship Endurance was trapped and crushed in Weddell Sea pack ice in 1915, and the boat journeys that brought all 28 men home alive.
The Challenger Expedition and Ocean Science
How HMS Challenger's 1872 to 1876 circumnavigation measured the deep sea, collected thousands of new species and laid the foundations of modern oceanography.
The Fram and the Drift Across the Arctic
How Fridtjof Nansen's round-hulled ship Fram was built to rise above pressure ice, and how her three-year drift from 1893 to 1896 tested the idea.
The Northeast Passage and the Voyage of the Vega
How Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld's steam whaler Vega completed the first full transit of the Northeast Passage north of Siberia in 1878 and 1879.
The Search for the Northwest Passage
Centuries of attempts to find a sea route through northern Canada, from Frobisher and Hudson to the lost Franklin expedition and Amundsen's Gjøa voyage.
Whaling Ships in Antarctic Waters
The factory ships and catcher boats of the southern whaling industry, from South Georgia shore stations to stern-slipway factory ships and the later bans.
Related topics
More in origins and exploration
Ancient Shipbuilding How early peoples built hulls and rigs. Ancient Trade and Voyages Cargoes and expeditions of the earliest maritime civilizations. Exploration and Empire Ships of discovery, piracy, survey and the industrial age. Trading Companies and Sea Routes Chartered companies and the routes that linked continents.