The close of the nineteenth century was a time of renewed interest in the Antarctic. In 1898, Fridtjof Nansen's 1893-6 expedition on the Fram had not long returned, and the Belgian National Antarctic Expedition led by Adrien de Gerlache (1897-99) was underway. Aware that there had not been a British Antarctic Expedition since James Clark Ross's in 1840, Markham applied to both the Admiralty and the government for funding of a new Antarctic expedition. He was surprised and disappointed to be refused by both. Undeterred, here he sets out his plan for a privately funded expedition.
Following Markham's introduction is a summary of the Royal Society's Antarctic Meeting on February 24, 1898 including the paper ready by John Murray on the results of Antarctic discovery. The text concludes by reproducing correspondence from both the Admiralty and government declining to fund an expedition along with a response to the government by Admiral Sir R. Vesey Hamilton. Finally, there is the folding map by J.G. Bartholomew: "Antarctic Regions. Maps Showing Present State of Research." The map and its subsets demonstrate the extent and observed limits of pack ice, ocean currents, ocean deposits, mean temperatures, and isobars and winds. Although published by the R.G.S., this is not an offprint from the Journal but a separate publication in its own right.
Markham is the key figure of this era and the driving force of the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-04), led by Capt. Robert Scott, "the naval officer of [Markham's] choice rather than the scientist others would have preferred" (ODNB). His efforts heralded a twenty-year period of almost uninterrupted Antarctic exploration. The Heroic Age includes the near mythic expeditions led by Scott in 1910-14 and Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17), and culminates in the attainment of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in December 1911. Alongside these were expeditions under the Scottish, French and Australian flags.
The map, "Antarctic Regions: maps showing present state of research, by J.G. Bartholomew, F.R.S.E. 1898", is a slightly revised version of the "South Polar chart: By J.G. Bartholomew. Showing Sir John Murray's proposed scheme for Antarctic exploration 1898" which appeared in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. XIV, issue X, October 1898. It accompanied two articles by Sir John Murray: "The Antarctic. A plea for a British Antarctic Expedition" and "The scientific advantages of an Antarctic expedition."
Rosove, 211.A1; Conrad, p115.
