Carstens Borchgrevink
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Carstens Egeberg Borchgrevink (December 1 1864 in Kristiania, Norway — 1934 in Slemdal, Oslo, Norway), was a teacher and explorer. He led the first expedition to winter on the Antarctic continent. Although of Norwegian birth, Borchgrevink emigrated to Australia, where he was a lecturer in geography and natural history at the University of Sydney. Subsequently he returned to Norway.
Borchgrevink was a member of a whaling expedition to the Ross Sea in 1894-1895. The expedition landed at Cape Adare, at the northern end of Victoria Land, Antarctica. The expedition's leader, Captain Leonard Kristensen, was the first person together with Borchgrevink to set foot on the Antarctic continent in January 1895.
Borchgrevink wished to return to the Antarctic leading a scientific expedition. The result was the Southern Cross Expedition using the ship Southern Cross financed by Sir George Newnes, a newspaper owner in London. Members of the expedition were 7 Norwegians, among them 2 Lapps, who had the responsibility of the dogs, and 3 British. In February 1899, Borchgrevink's party landed at Cape Adare, where they built a prefabricated hut (the first human structure ever built on the Antarctic continent) and wintered. The ship returned to New Zealand.
In January 1900, the Southern Cross returned to pick up the survivors. One person had died during the winter because he got stomach trouble. Borchgrevink then surveyed the extent of the northern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, then termed "The Barrier". They were able to ascend the Barrier at The Bay of Whales, a feat that Roald Amundsen acknowledged as of the greatest importance in the early exploration of the continent. They used dogs for penetrating south. The expedition returned to Australia in March, 1900. He was heavily criticised by the British members of the expedition for bad leadership, and got only one more expedition to lead – to Martinique.
In 1930 he got the Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographic Society.
Borchgrevink's Cape Adare hut still existed as of 2003, but was being destroyed by the effects of penguin guano.
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