Ben Markham

[German Embassy London @GermanEmbassy]

Researchers from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute discovered a new island during an expedition on icebreaker Polarstern in Antarctica.
The team was surprised to spot the island that had only been marked as a danger zone on nautical charts.
The task now is to find a name for it.

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

@HistoryIslands This Waterstones is one of my favourites

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

@AntarcticHT @watsonthesummit Wanderer above the Sea of Fog - Antarctic Version

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

@HistoryIslands @AlexSnowdon5 @BailiwickGsy And Herm, perhaps??

[Antarctic Heritage @InspireExplore]

#OnThisDay in 1820 the first sighting of the Antarctic continent was made! It is now widely accepted that this first sighting was made by Captain Fabien Gottleib von Bellingshausen during a two year exploratory expedition to discover new lands for the Russian Empire.

Bellingshausen was in command of two Russian ships, the 'Vostok' and 'Mirnyiunder', which were the first to have crossed the Antarctic Circle since Cook nearly 50 years earlier! Upon his return to Russia, Bellingshausen's claim was ignored and his accomplishment was hidden for decades by an incorrect translation of his journal that led historians to assume he hadn’t actually seen land. More recently, a closer analysis and better understanding of Bellingshausen's records revealed that he observed the continent earlier than anyone else. In fact, he did so three days before the British naval officer Edward Bransfield sighted the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula

📸 Captain Fabien Gottleib von Bellingshausen, Public Domain.

#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

@Endurance_22 @JCNArchives @FMHTrust Where/when will details of the next big project be released?

[Antarctic Heritage @InspireExplore]

#OnThisDay in 1915, Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition ship 'Endurance' became frozen in the Weddell Sea pack ice, she was "like an almond in a piece of toffee" wrote the ships storekeeper.

The 'Endurance' was a day's sail away from her destination when the ice closed in. She had already battled through a thousand miles of pack ice over six weeks. This significantly set back Shackleton's expedition plans and ultimately lead to one of the greatest survival stories of all time. By the end of February 1915, temperatures had fallen dramatically securing the ship in the ice for the winter.

📸 Endurance trapped in the pack ice, Canterbury Museum

#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica #shackleton

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

@MattieCWebb Given current events… (a study of US-UK relations in the Arctic immediately after WW1)

https://t.co/D6kXgBtTCO

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

@kejamieson_ This is why I love researching the post-typewriter world!!

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

@Shabnamagram I dress exactly the same as term time, but just no tie 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

[AntarcticTreaty @AntarcticTreaty]

Wishing the Antarctic community a peaceful holiday and a bright new year! ❄️🇦🇶

As we celebrate the season and reflect on 2025, we are reminded that #Antarctica continues to serve as an extraordinary example of peace and international cooperation.

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

King Charles gives post box to Antarctic research staff - BBC News https://t.co/rNcND2yKvG

[Antarctic Logistics @Antarctic_ALE]

December 1915 marks the historic season Shackleton and his crew endured living on an ice flow while watching their ship, the famed Endurance, squeezed and broken apart by ice. After failed attempts to march across the ice to a known cache of supplies, Shackleton ordered the men to set up camp on another ice floe, which he named "Patience Camp". The name reflected the need for the crew to wait and trust the drift of the ice. They were to live on the floe for nearly three and a half months.

[UK Antarctic Heritage Trust @AntarcticHT]

Betrayal, intrigue, surprise attacks, zero remorse... it's the Port Lockroy pebble wars 🪨🐧

#PebbleHeist #PenguinProblems #PebbleWars

[Antarctic Logistics @Antarctic_ALE]

The Antarctic Treaty was signed on 1st December 1959 and is widely regarded as one of the most successful achievements of international cooperation. Thus we celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, which successfully set aside nearly 10% of the Earth to be "Used exclusively for peaceful purposes ... in the interests of all mankind." Happy Antarctica Day!

📸: John Beatty

[Tony Press @AnthonyPress]

Antarctic Policy: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland publish their #Antarctic Strategy:
https://t.co/DEQGYlQoLZ

[Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition @AntarcticaSouth]

🌍❄️ Happy Antarctica Day! ❄️🌍 66 years ago, nations chose cooperation over competition and signed the Antarctic Treaty. Today we celebrate a continent dedicated to peace and science, while remembering its future isn’t guaranteed.
Here’s to protecting Antarctica, together. 💙❄️

[FIG Representative to the UK and Europe @FalklandsRepUK]

Wonderful to see the Falkland Islands flag flying in Parliament Square, this morning, along with the flags of the other UK Overseas Territories. #Falklands #UKFamily #JMC2025 🇫🇰

[Antarctic Heritage @InspireExplore]

#OnThisDay in 1915, the inevitable happened... Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition ship 'Endurance' was crushed by surrounding sea ice and sunk below the Weddell Sea after ten months of entrapment.

Shackleton and his crew, having already spent a month camped on the sea ice at 'Ocean Camp', watched as the ice floes opened, and the wreckage of 'Endurance' was swallowed up. Expedition photographer, Frank Hurley, wrote in his diary "We are not sorry to see the last of the wreck....an object of depression for all who turned their eyes in that direction".

Before 'Endurance' sank, the men had prepared for life on the ice and used materials salvaged from the ship to establish ‘Ocean Camp’. This included a makeshift blubber stove for cooking penguin and seal meat, a protective gallery, and a platform to use as a lookout for seals and penguins, complete with a mast to fly the King’s flag.

📸The 'Endurance', Canterbury Museum.

#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #Antarctica

[Ben Markham @drben_historian]

@AntarcticHT This is an excellent and fascinating article