The ancient Greeks were convinced that there was a continent on the southern end of the planet, theorising that something had to balance the continent in the North. But they were also convinced there was a Golden Fence, hot-looking homicidal girls hanging out on the rocks and a creature that was half man, half bull.
The earliest record of there already being anything at the southern end of the planet is from Polynesian explorer Ut-te-Rangiora en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ui-te-Rangiora who described an ice-strewn ocean circa AD 650. His mates back at the luau put it down to an overindulgence of kava and ignored him.
Fast Forward one thousand years.
In 1772, French explorer Yes-Joseph de Kerguelen-Tremaree en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves-Joseph_de_Kerguelen-Tr%C3%A9marec bumped into a large island at latitude 50 degree south. Assuming it was the rumoured souther continent, he named it after himself and went home or brandy and prostitutes. He was wrong, it was only a pile of guano-covered rocks situated halfway between Australia and South Africa and not the southern continent, which was just as well, as “de Kerguelen-Tremarecica” just doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as “Antarctica” and besides, not one could have spelled it anyway.
The Spanish taking a break from burning heretics, were the next to turn up, sailing around Isle de San Pedro, 1,500 miles from the Antarctic land mass, and claiming it for Spain. Unfortunately, no sooner had they left for home then Captain James Cook en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook also discovered it, renamed it South Georgia Island and claimed it for England
British cartographers wee convinced there was a large land mass in the Southern Hemisphere and James Cook had been dispatched by the Admiralty to locate it and annex it to Britain. ~ Page 3
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Dinesh said:
The earliest record of there already being anything at the southern end of the planet is from Polynesian explorer Ut-te-Rangiora en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ui-te-Rangiora who described an ice-strewn ocean circa AD 650. His mates back at the luau put it down to an overindulgence of kava and ignored him.
Fast Forward one thousand years.
In 1772, French explorer Yes-Joseph de Kerguelen-Tremaree en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves-Joseph_de_Kerguelen-Tr%C3%A9marec bumped into a large island at latitude 50 degree south. Assuming it was the rumoured souther continent, he named it after himself and went home or brandy and prostitutes. He was wrong, it was only a pile of guano-covered rocks situated halfway between Australia and South Africa and not the southern continent, which was just as well, as “de Kerguelen-Tremarecica” just doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as “Antarctica” and besides, not one could have spelled it anyway.
The Spanish taking a break from burning heretics, were the next to turn up, sailing around Isle de San Pedro, 1,500 miles from the Antarctic land mass, and claiming it for Spain. Unfortunately, no sooner had they left for home then Captain James Cook en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook also discovered it, renamed it South Georgia Island and claimed it for England
British cartographers wee convinced there was a large land mass in the Southern Hemisphere and James Cook had been dispatched by the Admiralty to locate it and annex it to Britain. ~ Page 3
Dinesh said: