26 Feb 2017

'The World’s' Record of Furthest South is Broken!

A few weeks ago the passenger ship 'The World' claimed a new furtherest south record for a ship of 78° 43”. 997S in the Bay of Whales. Today, Sunday the  26th February, the New Zealand operated Expedition Vessel Spirit of Enderby pushed through more than 30 miles of ice to better that record by reaching 78° 44”.008S.   

The Bay of Whales is a rarely visited historic site in the Ross Sea. It was in the Bay Whales that the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen built his base 'Framheim' and raced the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott to the South Geographic Pole in the summer of 1911/12. His base 'Framheim' and subsequent bases built by the Americans in the Bay of Whales have all disappeared as the Ross Ice Shelf has retreated. The Spirit of Enderby was under the command of Captain Dmitry Zinchenko, one of the most experienced Ross Sea Captains ever, having made over 40 expeditions to the region since the 1980s. The 'Spirit of Enderby' is operated by Christchurch based Heritage Expeditions.