South park

Antarctica: A Biography. By David Day. Oxford University Press USA; 614 pages; $34.95 and £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

ANTARCTICA is the only continent where there has never been war. No military activity is allowed there and scientific research is a priority. Defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of latitude 60 degrees south, the 5.5m square miles (14.2m square km) of the world’s coldest, driest, windiest and most remote land mass are protected by the Antarctic Treaty, which came into force in June 1961 and designated the land “a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”.

It was not always so, writes David Day, an author, historian and research associate at La Trobe University in Melbourne. Solid as a block of Antarctic ice itself, but no less readable for it, his latest book draws on five years of meticulous research to tell the story of human endeavour in Antarctica, the last continent to be discovered. It paints a poignant biographical picture of the characters involved, the gruelling expeditions undertaken, and the rivalries between nations as they raced to chart the continent and claim possession of it.

Mr Day begins with Captain James Cook who, aboard the Resolution in 1773, became the first man to cross the Antarctic Circle. Although the ice-covered sea stopped him from getting close enough to see the Antarctic land mass, boulders in icebergs proved its existence. Yet Cook did not think the area was worth exploring. “I will be bold to say that the world will not be benefited by it,” he stated.

Another 47 years passed before Antarctica was finally seen. In 1820 Captain Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, a Russian naval officer, navigated his corvette, the Vostok, within 20 miles of the Antarctic mainland. Sailing in Cook’s and Bellingshausen’s wake is a raft of Antarctic adventurers, their characters and endeavours brought to life by Mr Day’s energetic writing. Among them are John Davis, the American sealer whose crew first set foot on the continent; Sir James Clark Ross, who discovered the ice shelf named after him today; Carsten Borchgrevink, who led the first expedition to stay for the winter on Antarctica; and of course the three men that will forever be associated with the continent, Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen and Sir Ernest Shackleton.

As well as describing great human achievements in the age of Antarctic discovery, Mr Day explores the modern political rivalry over the continent. He is particularly good on the secret decision taken by Britain in 1919 surreptitiously to claim all of Antarctica for its empire, and also on the little-known decision by President Roosevelt to colonise Antarctica in 1939 to pre-empt the Australians, Japanese and Germans—a move that led to the establishment of Antarctica’s 70 permanently inhabited research stations.

Antarctica’s future as a natural reserve is by no means assured. Whereas the treaty designed to protect it has certainly preserved peace and served as an example of co-operation between nations, the prospect of mineral and oil deposits under Antarctica’s ice cap is attracting the attention of resource-starved countries and big business alike. In addition, environmental groups, scientists and tourists are all making their own demands. As Mr Day writes at the end of this excellent account, “For centuries, the Antarctic defied man’s approach. Now its dangers and its terrors have been largely conquered. Only its future remains unknown.”