In July 1895, the International Geographical Congress met in London, and it was decided that Antarctica would be the primary focus of new exploration. Up until this time, nobody had explored the hinterland of the frozen continent, and even the vast majority of its coastline was still unknown. The meeting touched off a flurry of activity, and soon thereafter, national expeditions from Britain, Germany and Sweden, as well as private ventures, started organizing. This is the story of Thomas A.F. Feather, who was part of the 1902-04 British National Antarctic Expedition, and who played a role in Scott's last expedition. When 31-year-old Thomas Feather was appointed Boatswain of the Discovery in May 1901, the Norfolk native and First Class Petty Officer had no idea that ...

The yacht Tara has now sailed through Russian waters and into the Kara Sea. Grant is captain of this expedition which is part of the larger, IPY endorsed, DAMOCLES programme. We are following their journey into the ice, where they will drift across the arctic by posting some of the captain's logs: Passing through the Karskiye Vorota Strait between Novaya Zemlya and Ostrov Vaygach Islands this morning we have now entered the south Kara Sea. The weather conditions have changed little since the last log, cold and grey. With little wind to speak of we are ...

The world has changed dramatically in the 125 years since Karl Weyprecht's death in 1881, and I often wonder what he would make of the global change. Alternating current has electrified the world. Radio communication, which didn't exist at the time, lead to television, GPS and wireless technologies. Internal combustion engines, then in their infancy, have revolutionized transportation and industry and contributed to altering the climate system. The world's population has grown sixfold. And our understanding of the Earth as a system has made leaps and bounds through diligent, scientific study and collaboration. Throughout this period-- a few short generations but beyond the span of all but the most robust lifespans-- the International Polar Years have provided vision and leadership, ...

Navigating through the Norwegian fiords has been truly magnificent. With grand mountainous landscapes, winding channels with strong currents, a scattering of fishing villages and the midnight sun we have enjoyed every mile of it. We can see many similarities with the landscapes of Patagonia and South Georgia. At the start of the year we were sailing past the abandoned Norwegian whaling stations in South Georgia. Now the cultural links between the southern whaling grounds and this part of the world are even more evident to us as we sail past small isolated fishing villages that resemble in some ways the Norwegian settlements in the south. For those of us with biological clocks regulated to the mid latitudes we are finding it somewhat bizarre to experience 24 hour sunlight. Vi...