The U.S. Navy has a long history of polar exploration. Within 40 years of the establishment of the Department of the Navy, American ships traveled to Antarctica. By the late 1800s, explorers raced to the Poles seeking to claim the land, or at least raise a flag, in the coldest, harshest areas on the planet. But in the height of the Cold War, the continent of Antarctica became an international peace zone in 1961.
The
first official American expedition to Antarctica was led by U.S. Navy Lieutenant
Charles Wilkes who completed a trip around the world surveying and collecting
scientific data from 1838-1842. His greatest contribution to exploration was
determining that Antarctica was a continent, not a collection of several ice
islands. This discovery increased the world's interest in exploring the coldest
place on Earth.
Not only did Wilkes sail to Antarctica, but he circumnavigated the globe collecting botanical samples which became the roots of the collection at the U.S. Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC.
Read Wilkes's observations from his trip by traveling to the Smithsonian Libraries to view their exhibit on Wilkes's U.S. Exploring Expedition.
Wilkes's expedition in the 1840s influenced the United States and other nations
to continue exploring the poles; however not all of the expeditions were successes.
The ship Jeannette left San Francisco to explore the northern polar
regions and got stuck in ice which ultimately cracked its hull. Its crew carried
their boats through the snow and ice looking for help, and ultimately half survived.
Four years later the ship's captain and part of the crew returned to the U.S.
to be buried.
Read more about the Jeannette expedition at the Naval Historical Center
Two successful naval polar explorers who achieved national prominence were
Admirals Robert E. Peary and Richard E. Byrd. Robert
Peary made five expeditions to the Arctic between 1891 and 1909 covering
more than 10,000 miles. On 6 April 1909, Peary claimed to have reached the
ultimate destination of 90 degrees north with the help of African American
explorer Matthew
Henson and four polar natives. This achievement was challenged in a public
dispute by foe explorer Dr. Frederick Cook who claimed he reached the
Pole before Peary. Recent research determined that neither man ever reached
the Pole.
Admiral Richard Byrd spent 29 years exploring Antarctica, but before heading south he flew north. In 1926 Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett claimed to have flown across the North Pole. This experience led him to be the first to fly over Antarctica in 1929. Like Peary, Byrd's became a national figure popularized in the national press.
Read more about Byrd in Antarctica in the next section.
The
U.S. Navy continued to show its presence in the Polar regions into the Cold
War and nuclear age. Commander William R. Anderson led the nuclear submarine
Nautilus under the polar ice cap in 1958. Later that year, Commander
James F. Calvert in USS Skate successfully broke through the ice
and surfaced at the North Pole. The presence of U.S. Navy nuclear submarines
in the Arctic regions near the Soviet Union's northern borders added another
element to Cold Ward strategy.
In contrast, in 1959 twelve nations signed an international treaty agreeing to keep Antarctica free of all military operations by 1961. Scientists from each nation, including the United States, agreed to participate in scientific studies of the continent. Today, the Antarctic Treaty remains strong and Antarctica remains a neutral continent.
Take a virtual tour through Antarctica though University of Chicago's Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica.
