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Explorers & Discovery
Voyages & First Ascents
The expeditions that redrew the map, credited accurately.
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Which expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe?
Polar Journeys and What They Cost
The polar regions produced the most expensive expeditions of their age, and some of the least reliable record-keeping.
About this topic
Polar exploration in its classic period was a contest of logistics disguised as a contest of character. Whoever solved food, transport and clothing best usually came back, and the accounts written afterwards tended to convert those practical decisions into questions of national temperament. That framing has taken a long time to unpick, and some of it is still being unpicked now. The most conspicuous correction has been to the record itself. Inuit testimony about the fate of the Franklin expedition was dismissed for over a century and turned out to be accurate. The Inuit men and the African American traveller who reached the far north with Robert Peary were largely written out of the reports. These questions cover the journeys, the ships and the conditions, and credit the people the original accounts skipped.
Questions & answers
Polar Journeys and What They Cost: all 10 questions and answers
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
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1Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance was lost in 1915 in what way?
- A Wrecked on rocks off South Georgia
- B Burned at her moorings
- C Sunk by a mine during the war
- D Crushed by pack ice in the Weddell Sea Correct
Answer: D. Crushed by pack ice in the Weddell Sea
Why: The entire party survived more than a year on the ice and in open boats. The wreck was located on the seabed in 2022, upright and remarkably well preserved.
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2Fridtjof Nansen's ship Fram was designed to do what?
- A Carry a detachable submarine beneath the hull
- B Sail entirely under steam without masts
- C Ride upward when squeezed by ice instead of being crushed Correct
- D Break through ice with a reinforced bow at speed
Answer: C. Ride upward when squeezed by ice instead of being crushed
Why: Her rounded hull let the pressure push her up onto the surface. Nansen deliberately froze her into the pack in 1893 to drift across the Arctic Ocean.
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3The Franklin expedition, lost in the 1840s, had set out in search of what?
- A A route across the Greenland ice cap
- B A navigable Northwest Passage Correct
- C The North Pole itself
- D The source of the Mackenzie River
Answer: B. A navigable Northwest Passage
Why: Both ships, Erebus and Terror, were found on the seabed in 2014 and 2016. Inuit oral testimony had described their fate accurately for more than a century before the searches followed it.
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4Matthew Henson is remembered for what?
- A Travelling with Robert Peary's 1909 North Pole party Correct
- B Commanding the first ship to winter in Antarctica
- C Captaining the Fram on her Arctic drift
- D Surveying the Ross Ice Shelf
Answer: A. Travelling with Robert Peary's 1909 North Pole party
Why: He had made seven Arctic voyages with Peary, spoke Inuktitut and handled the dog teams the attempt depended on. The four Inuit men on that final party, Ootah, Egingwah, Seegloo and Ooqueah, were also left out of most accounts.
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5Why do the 1908 and 1909 claims to have reached the North Pole remain disputed?
- A Both parties admitted turning back short of it
- B The pole had demonstrably been reached decades earlier
- C Photographs were the only evidence either side offered
- D Neither party left navigational records that could be verified Correct
Answer: D. Neither party left navigational records that could be verified
Why: Frederick Cook and Robert Peary each claimed it and each rejected the other's claim. Verified surface arrivals came only in the late 1960s.
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6The first confirmed sightings of Antarctica, in 1820, are credited to expeditions from which two countries?
- A Spain and Portugal
- B The United States and Sweden
- C Russia and Britain Correct
- D Norway and France
Answer: C. Russia and Britain
Why: Bellingshausen's Russian expedition and Edward Bransfield's British party reported land within days of each other. An American sealer, Nathaniel Palmer, made his sighting later the same year.
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7The first crossing of the Antarctic continent by land was completed in which decade?
- A The 1970s
- B The 1950s Correct
- C The 1910s
- D The 1930s
Answer: B. The 1950s
Why: Vivian Fuchs led it in 1957 and 1958, with Edmund Hillary laying supply depots from the opposite side. Shackleton had set out to attempt the same crossing forty years earlier and never got ashore.
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8Why did dog teams generally outperform ponies on polar ice?
- A Dogs cope far better with cold and with broken, crevassed surfaces Correct
- B Ponies cannot digest any form of stored fodder
- C Dogs require no rest days at all
- D Ponies were unavailable in northern Europe
Answer: A. Dogs cope far better with cold and with broken, crevassed surfaces
Why: Ponies sank into soft snow, needed shelter and had to be fed bulky feed hauled along with them. The contrast between Amundsen's dogs and Scott's ponies and motor sledges is the standard example.
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9Scurvy, which killed many polar and naval travellers, is caused by a shortage of what?
- A Iron
- B Protein
- C Iodine
- D Vitamin C Correct
Answer: D. Vitamin C
Why: Fresh meat, including seal, contains enough to prevent it, which is why some expeditions escaped it almost by accident. The cause was only identified in the 1930s, long after citrus juice was known to work.
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10Why is the South Pole considerably colder than the North Pole?
- A It lies further from the equator
- B Its atmosphere thins out during winter only
- C It sits high on an ice-covered continent rather than on floating sea ice Correct
- D It receives fewer hours of sunlight over the year
Answer: C. It sits high on an ice-covered continent rather than on floating sea ice
Why: The South Pole stands about 2,800 metres above sea level; the North Pole is at sea level on ice above a relatively warm ocean. That altitude alone accounts for much of the gap.
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