<P> Edmond Halley's voyage in HMS Paramour for magnetic investigations in the South Atlantic met the pack ice in 52 ° S in January 1700, but that latitude (he reached 140 mi off the north coast of South Georgia) was his farthest south . A determined effort on the part of the French naval officer Jean - Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier to discover the "South Land"--described by a half legendary "sieur de Gonneyville"--resulted in the discovery of Bouvet Island in 54 ° 10 ′ S, and in the navigation of 48 ° of longitude of ice - cumbered sea nearly in 55 ° S in 1730 . </P> <P> In 1771, Yves Joseph Kerguelen sailed from France with instructions to proceed south from Mauritius in search of "a very large continent ." He lighted upon a land in 50 ° S which he called South France, and believed to be the central mass of the southern continent . He was sent out again to complete the exploration of the new land, and found it to be only an inhospitable island which he renamed the Isle of Desolation, but which was ultimately named after him . </P> <P> The obsession of the undiscovered continent culminated in the brain of Alexander Dalrymple, the brilliant and erratic hydrographer who was nominated by the Royal Society to command the Transit of Venus expedition to Tahiti in 1769 . The command of the expedition was given by the admiralty to Captain James Cook . Sailing in 1772 with the Resolution, a vessel of 462 tons under his own command and the Adventure of 336 tons under Captain Tobias Furneaux, Cook first searched in vain for Bouvet Island, then sailed for 20 degrees of longitude to the westward in latitude 58 ° S, and then 30 ° eastward for the most part south of 60 ° S, a higher southern latitude than had ever been voluntarily entered before by any vessel . On 17 January 1773 the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in history and the two ships reached 67 ° 15' S by 39 ° 35' E, where their course was stopped by ice . </P> <P> Cook then turned northward to look for French Southern and Antarctic Lands, of the discovery of which he had received news at Cape Town, but from the rough determination of his longitude by Kerguelen, Cook reached the assigned latitude 10 ° too far east and did not see it . He turned south again and was stopped by ice in 61 ° 52 ′ S by 95 ° E and continued eastward nearly on the parallel of 60 ° S to 147 ° E. On 16 March, the approaching winter drove him northward for rest to New Zealand and the tropical islands of the Pacific . In November 1773, Cook left New Zealand, having parted company with the Adventure, and reached 60 ° S by 177 ° W, whence he sailed eastward keeping as far south as the floating ice allowed . The Antarctic Circle was crossed on 20 December and Cook remained south of it for three days, being compelled after reaching 67 ° 31 ′ S to stand north again in 135 ° W . </P>

Who discovered antarctica and when was it discovered