The British Polar Year Expedition, 1932–33

Abstract

ON the ground that the relatively meagre scientific results from previous polar expeditions were due to their sporadic occurrence, Lieut. Weyprecht, of Austria, proposed in 1875 that an effort should be made to organise a number of simultaneous expeditions which would cooperate on a uniform plan over a full year. The result was the organisation of what has come to be called the First International Polar Year, 1882–83, when fourteen expeditions were sent out by twelve different countries, twelve to high northern latitudes and two to the Antarctic. Great Britain collaborated with Canada in establishing a station at Fort Rae, on the north arm of the Great Slave Lake. All the stations were fully equipped with such instruments as were then available for comprehensive meteorological and magnetic observations; they worked on a common pre-arranged plan. Judged from the practical results and the large number of researches that have been based on the data collected during that First Polar Year, the venture was entirely successful.