5 LITTLEKNOWN FACTS

1

The two British ships, Erebus and Terror, that were lost under John Franklin’s command and only recently discovered in the Arctic after nearly a century of searching, were the same ships used by James Clark Ross, who discovered Victoria Land and the sea that is named for him. He also named two mountains after the ships — Erebus and Terror.

2

The sled dogs used by explorer Ernest Shackleton on his ill-fated Trans-Antarctic expedition in 1915 on the SS Endurance were bred and trained in Gimli, Man., by John Isfeld. Seventy of the dogs perished, but of the 30 that survived, some ended up in New Zealand and the last three ended up in the London Zoo.

3

Edmund Hillary reached the South Pole in 1958 driving a Canadian-built MasseyFerguson tractor.

4

According to Maori oral tradition, its explorers (including women) reached the Antarctic waters as early as 650 AD. But Danish-Norwegian explorer Caroline Mikkelsen was the first woman in the modern era to set foot on an Antarctic island in 1935. A mountain is named after her.

5

Up until 1969, the U.S. Navy refused to transport female scientists to the continent, and the U.S. National Science Foundation refused to allow women to work there.