Contents 



Acknowledgment ............. 4 



Foreword .............. 5 



The South Shetland Islands ........... 7 



The First Sealers Arrive ........... 10 



Second Sealing Season 1820-1821 14 



The Hero and Express Sail to the South Shetlands ....... 19 



The Schooner Huntress Meets the Ship Huron at the Falklands .... 21 



Landfalls at the South Shetlands .......... 25 



Captain Palmer's Exploratory Cruise in the Hero ....... 28 



Yankee Harbor Becomes the Sealers' Rendezvous ....... 33 



The Search for New Rookeries and the Fate of the Clothier ..... 35 



Captain Burdick's First Cruise — The New York Fleet ...... 37 



Exploring the South Shetlands .......... 39 



Captain Burdick Is Caught in a Gale ......... 42 



The American and British Sealers Clash ........ 44 



Captain Davis Makes an Historic Decision ........ 47 



"And South We Steered" 49 



First Landing on the Antarctic Continent ........ 51 



"I Think This Southern Land to Be a Continent" ....... 53 



Further Observations and the Return of the Ship ....... 55 



Captain Burdick Attends an Auction and Meets a Discoverer ..... 58 



The Russian Admiral Meets the Yankee Captain ....... 60 



Captain Burdick Recognizes Land Which He Also "Supposes to Be a Continent" . 63 



Sealing at Low Island, Then Return to Yankee Harbor ...... 66 



Stonington Sealers Leave for Home and Others Prepare to Leave .... 68 



Appendix A — Notes on Sources .......... 72 



Appendix B — 1. The Beginnings of American Sealing — Trade with China . 75 



2. Discovery of the South Shetlands ...... 76 



Appendix C — Registers and Crew Lists of the Sealing Vessels .... 78 



Appendix D — ^The Falkland Islands 81 



Appendix E — Captain Palmer's Sealing Voyages of 1820-21 and 1821-22 . . 82 



Appendix F ............. 85 



