Discovering the unknown continent - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 2

Figure 1.1 World map by Abraham Ortelius published in 1570.

As shipping expanded and explorers sailed into the unknown it became
essential to improve navigation and position fixing. Magnetic compasses had

been in use since the twelfth century and by the sixteenth century it had been
realised that there was a difference between the North Magnetic Pole and the
geographic North Pole. Britain, as the global power, decided it was essential to
improve knowledge of the magnetic fields so that compasses could be used more

accurately by allowing for changes in magnetic variation. Edmond Halley, a leading
astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society, was commissioned to sail to the South
Atlantic in 1698 aboard the Paramour and measure the strength of the magnetic

fields. Reporting on icebergs at 52 S, only 200miles west of South Georgia, his
voyages could be said to mark the beginning of the exploration of the Southern
Ocean and the Antarctic.
It was not only the British Government who felt responsibilities for world
leadership. The Royal Society in London, established as the world ' s rst permanent

scienti c society in 1660, was keen to build on Halley ' s experience and improve