Cape Denison: Earlier times
Mawson’s AAE were far from the first people in the vicinity of Cape Denison. The early 19th century had seen a rapidly-growing interest in Antarctic regions. Most of this was fuelled by the promise of wealth from the furs and oil from Southern Ocean seals and whales. Some arose out of national pride. And some was a mixture of both.
The sealers and whalers went where the animals were. This part of Antarctica was not known for its wildlife, so they stayed away. Except for one company, Enderby Brothers of London, for whom exploring was as important as hunting – a priority which would later be their undoing as they sank into bankruptcy.
In 1838, Enderby sent two ships, Eliza Scott and Sabrina, to explore the Antarctic coast to the south of Australia and New Zealand. Early in 1838, ship’s master John Balleny discovered the islands which carry his name, south of New Zealand, before the two ships headed off west along an unknown coast. Well to the west of Cape Denison he sighted what he took to be land, which he called Sabrina Land after his second ship. That same vessel was lost in a storm soon afterwards.
Two further visits followed in quick succession. Charles Wilkes’s United States Exploring Expedition reached the coast not far to the west of Cape Denison in January 1840. Within hours his ship Porpoise made contact with the French ship Astrolabe, under the command of Dumont d’Urville. Both expeditions claimed priority in discovering this coast, unaware of Balleny’s prior visit. Wilkes went on to map the coast for 2000 kilometres to the west – an achievement not recognised until Mawson’s time.
From the early 1840s, when James Clark Ross mapped the coast eastward from Cape North (1000km east of Cape Denison), around Cape Adare and into the Ross Sea, that part of Antarctica became the focus of attention. British expeditions around the turn of the century, led by Bull, Borchgrevink, Scott and Shackleton, all focused on the Ross Sea region.
Only Eric von Drygalski (Germany) explored further to the west, around 90°E, near where Wild’s Western Party set up camp. But there was to be no further interest in this ‘Australian Quadrant’ – Mawson’s term for the section of Antarctica between 90°E and Cape Adare – until the AAE’s arrival.
