Case file · Declassified record
Cook crosses the Antarctic Circle
Just before noon on 17 January 1773 James Cook's Resolution became the first known ship to cross the Antarctic Circle; a year later, on 30 January 1774, Cook reached 71°10′S without ever seeing land.
1773 CE · -66.60, 39.58 · status: official
The account
Cook circled the far south on his second voyage to settle whether Terra Australis existed. He concluded that any southern land lay under ice where no one could use it, and his reports of seals soon drew sealers south. He never saw the continent, which was first sighted in 1820.
Connections in the atlas
- Cook's ships see the southern lights
- First sight of the continent, 1820
- Terra Australis, the southern continent drawn before it was seen