John Biscoe's voyage of discovery in the ships Tula and Lively, undertaken at the directive of the owners of the firm Messrs Enderby between 1830 and 1833, was the third expedition to circumnavigate Antarctica at a high latitude. This paper presents a digest and assessment of meteorological and oceanographic data recorded by Biscoe on that voyage. These observations, which are not normally easily accessible, substantiate the reputation of Biscoe as an assiduous and careful observer, and, when compared, they expand on the observations made during earlier circumnavigations by James Cook (1772–1775) and Thaddeus Bellingshausen (1819–1821).

In 1853 William Parker Snow (who had earlier participated in an expedition to search for the missing Franklin expedition in what is now the Canadian Arctic) decided to sink the money he had made in Melbourne during the Australian gold rush into a private expedition to search for Franklin, starting from Melbourne. In the southern autumn of 1853, he bought a 16-ton cutter, The Thomas, and, despite the handicaps of exorbitant prices and shortage of labour, fitted the vessel out for an Arctic expedition during the continuing frenzy of the gold rush. After calling at Sydney, The Thomas started north but encountered a series of violent winter gales that damaged her severely and forced Snow to seek shelter in the mouth of the Clarence River in northeastern New South Wales. By the time the storm damage had been repaired, all but two of Snow's men had deserted. Still in hopes of trying again, Snow sailed his cutter back south to Sydney and there finally abandoned this, one of the more bizarre episodes of the Franklin search.

During 1996, Russia's Northern Sea Route (NSR) continued to attract international attention. While overall tonnage carried along the NSR declined to approximately two million tonnes, more operations in the Russian maritime Arctic involved foreign flag ships. Ships of Arctic Shipping Services, a Russian-Finnish joint venture company, delivered fuel supplies to ports along the length of the Russian Arctic coast. Twenty-four polar and sub-Arctic icebreakers remained in the Russian fleet as of 1 January 1996. Notable research results of the International NSR Programme, published in 1996during year three of this international effort, provided additional insights into the potential commercial aspects of the NSR as an international waterway. Demonstration projects were also conducted in the Russian Arctic during winter 1996, using satellite radar technology for sea-ice monitoring.

This paper examines how different technologies of exploration and mapping transformed human understanding of the Antarctic in the period 1918–1960. In the aftermath of the ‘heroic’ expeditions, European and American governments began to invest considerable monies in support of national expeditions for the purpose of claiming and mapping the polar continent. The collection of practical geographical information during the inter-war period was overtaken by the advent of polar aviation and aerial mapping in the 1930s. The aeroplane and the aerial camera played key parts in expanding stores of knowledge about the continent and altering perceptions of place. Finally, the paper considers the 1955–1958 Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE). This venture was significant because it was widely understood to be the final chapter in the geographical and scientific assualt on the Antarctic. The TAE was the high point of polar achievement, as a range of technologies were brought to bear on the surface of the Antarctic icesheet. Thereafter, the cultural and political significance of the polar continent changed in the face of new challenges for human exploration in the realms of outer space and the Moon.