The Man Who Discovered Antarctica: Edward Bransfield Explained – The First Man to Find and Chart the Antarctic Mainland
Sheila Bransfield researched the life of Edward Bransfield, who commanded the first ship to sight the Antarctic continent in 1819, in the mistaken belief that he was one of her ancestors. Her mistake is our gain. It also earned her an MA in Maritime History.
Edward Bransfield spent only one summer in Antarctic waters. The Man Who Discovered Antarctica is the story of his whole life, with one short chapter devoted to Antarctica. The rest of the book charts his career from the day in 1803, when he was caught by the Press Gang as a teenager on a small boat in Cork Harbour, to his comfortable retirement in Brighton on a senior naval officer’s pension. In all his time in the Navy he saw action only once, at the bombardment of Algiers in 1816.
Twelve years of blockade duty makes tedious reading, but Bransfield’s meticulous research gives us a detailed account of the daily routines of the Navy and the immense amount of maintenance required of a large wooden warship in the Age of Sail. Edward Bransfield was an incidental explorer, but his achievement deserves to remembered, and his namesake has given him a worthy memorial.
