Below the Convergence: Voyages Towards Antarctica, 1699-1839

Gurney's book summarizes efforts to explore the cold Southern Ocean to about 1840, by both government-sponsored expeditions (such as James Cook) and sealers and whalers. The prose is terrific, the amount of detail just right (no long repetitive accounts of battles with ice), there are many fascinating details, and there is great background. He starts with the ancients and the development of the belief that there must be a southern continent. Then on to scurvy. [The English navy, true to national character, refused to adopt the known prevention measures until 200 years after they were discovered by the Dutch. The French had gourmet meals on their ships -- including the warship with 2 cannon, only 1 cannon ball, and it couldn't be fired because it was used to crush mustard seed for meals.] There is extensive coverage of Cook's voyages, and on to later explorers. There is excellent coverage of the later explorers, maps to show the routes, and substantial descriptions of the sealing massacres of the early 1800s. The story flows and the writing is never dull. Read this if you're interested in the early Antarctic voyages!

It is amazing that these voyages EVER made it back to tell the tale. Unknown dangers, ICE ICE ICE, and boats that today you wouldn't cross a pond in. The quest for the mysterious continent at the bottom of the world is hundreds of years old. Well worth the read if you enjoy the history of Antarctic exploration.

For whatever reason, recent book reviewers try to relate any nautical book to Patrick O'Brien's fiction. This is akin to relating the taste of any strange mystery meat to the taste of chicken. There is absolutely no relationship between the present book and O'Brien's fiction. One can wonder if some reviewers actually read the books they review. Having said that -The book provides an interesting overview of early Antarctic exploration, both planned and accidental. There is a chapter on scurvy, the bane of historic long sea voyages, with indications of the various means used for prevention - as usual, politics got in the way of common sense (the British government used lime juice controlled by British interests instead of the more effective lemon juice controlled by Spanish interests) and the government was slow to adopt what was being routinely used in the private sector. There is also a chapter on the problems in finding longitude, and an overview chapter on the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic Convergence.Accounts of the voyages begin with Edmund Halley's expedition aboard the Paramore in the closing years of the 17th century, then skip forward to the second voyage of James Cook (1772-1775). Sealers began their activities immediately after the American Revolution. One problem with scientific exploration, then as now, was that commercial interests immediately rushed in to exploit any resources discovered, initially decimating the fur seal population. John Nicol in his autobiography (see John Nicol, Mariner) mentions being aboard the Amelia (1791-1792) when they killed and skinned 30,000 seals at the Island of Lopex (Lobos Island in northern Peru). The sealers added some knowledge, but mainly to identify sealing grounds. There are some comments about diet - people commonly ate penguins among other things.People carrying out research are familiar with dealing with bureaucracies that want proposals two or three years in advance with an indication of what discoveries will be made before the research is conducted. Consequently, real discoveries are often unfunded, i.e., it is work carried out on the side while carrying out other funded work. William Smith commanded the merchant ship Williams on a voyage from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso when he discovered the South Shetland Islands, somewhat by accident, early in 1819 while sailing westward around Cape Horn. On a subsequent voyage around the Horn that same year, he made an unauthorized deviation in his route to go south for further exploration (insurance companies tended to forbid such deviations). After he reported his discoveries, the Royal Navy chartered the Williams later that same year and, under the command of Edward Bransfield, made the first observations of the mountain ranges on the Antarctic Peninsula and sailed a short distance into the Weddell Sea (the British lost Bransfield's journal). The immediate rush of sealers into the area resulted in the slaughtering of an estimated h

I mean early, early exploration. Gurney is great at mixing the technical with the storytelling. I found myself inextricably drawn in; the book is much too short. Given the idea that any information at all exists from these old sea voyages makes it more incredible for its detail. I've read far more than my share on Antarctic exploration; if you like the minutiae of acquiring a navigational fix on the open sea, why it's called the convergence, why almost everything about not only Anarctica but the southern latitudes is so weird, and why Scott and Amundsen stood on the shoulders of giants, check this one out.

Gurney's Below the Convergence is a very well written book that provides a wonderful historical back drop for the later feats of Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen. Gurney follows the 18th and early 19th century expeditions into the Southern Ocean by the British, Americans, and Russians and imparts in the reader a true feeling of the adventure and misery of those hearty men. Not content to merely cite facts, Gurney uses these facts to spin an exciting tale of imperial discovery and commercial exploitation of the Southern Ocean. After reading Huntford's Shakleton, pick up this book and you will discover that perhaps Shakleton, for all his incredible feats, was not so far above the norm in courage and valor when compared to his Antarctic predecessors.