Foreword 



With the recent announcement that six expeditions are to be sent to the Ant- 

 arctic during the coming year, including another American expedition led by 

 Admiral Richard Byrd, a revival of interest in that great frozen land has natur- 

 ally revealed itself in numerous articles in magazines and newspapers. It has 

 also resulted in a reiteration of Antarctic claims by the several nations of the 

 world vitally interested — especially the great powers of the United States, 

 Russia and Great Britain. 



Serious academic squabbles have been going on for over two decades as to 

 the priority of discovery of that section of Antarctica called by the United 

 States the Palmer Peninsula and by the British the Trinity Peninsula. The 

 Argentinian Republic and Chile also have advanced claims to this area, as have 

 the Russians. 



The basis for the territorial claims of each nation are among the least-known 

 phases of the "cold war." The controversial issues here have nothing whatever 

 to do with the discovery of the Antarctic mainland, claimed by this country for 

 Lieutenant Charles Wilkes and by Great Britain for Sir James Ross. Both these 

 events occurred in 1840 and 1841 and at other portions of the continent. 



The claims in the area of the Antarctic Peninsula involve events which took 

 place twenty years before either Wilkes or Ross reached their icy landfalls off 

 the larger bulk of the main continent of Antarctica. They have to do with the 

 explorations and discoveries made by the unsung heroes of a forgotten era in 

 our American Maritime History — the sealers. 



It was early in the nineteenth century that the enterprising merchants of New 

 England learned of the discovery of the South Shetland Islands — some four 

 hundred miles south of Cape Horn — where great seal rookeries were located. 

 The pelt of the fur seal brought high prices in the markets of Canton. When 

 news of the discovery reached the seaports, there was a race to the newly-found 

 islands. The sealers came from both Britain and America. They met in a remote 

 part of the world to compete vigorously for their fur pelts. 



But the circumstances which created this breed of sailor — this mariner- 

 explorer — must be briefly outlined to delineate his remarkable characteristics. 

 It was during the last decade of the old eighteenth and the first years of the new 

 nineteenth century that this new type of seaman made his appearance in New 

 England. He soon developed into a seafaring combination, a whaleman-sealer 

 who embarked on voyages which literally took him to the ends of the earth, 

 boldly sailing into these uncharted seas in a never-ending pursuit of the whale, 

 sea elephant and seal. 



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