Evening star., 1938-03-19
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

The strange story of how a 2l-year-
old Connecticut sailor discovered con-
tinent now Is being reconstructed from
yellowing ships records in the Library
OF Congress by Col. Lawrence Martin,
chief of the division Of maps.
The sailor was Capt. Nathaniel B.
Palmer Of Stonington. Conn. Annually
a sealing fleet left Stonington for the
South Atlantic and literally the animals
were slaughtered by the thousands for
their pelts and OIL
The 1920 fleet consisted of seven YES
sells. One was small sloop. the Hero.
which was intended as tender for the
rest Of the fleet. On the Hero. Palmer
was making his first voyage as cap
tain But when the fleet got to the
customary sealing grounds in the South
Shetland Islands there were no seals
on the icy beaches. The Stonington
men faced disaster. 1t was small wonder
for on these same beaches $4,000 Of the
animals had been knocked on the heads
the year before.
In desperation the Hero, smallest and
fastest of the vessels, was sent south
ward to hunt for other sealing grounds.
After a four days sail the young cap
tain saw before him a mountainous
country which ne pronounced at the
time as either a continent or very
large island which he could not sail
around. There were no seals in sight,
so he did not land. Landing from the
Hero would have been a dangerous ex-
plot. Palmer noted the new land on
his log book, turned north again, found
new sealing grounds and reported back
to the fleet. The hunters went back
to Stonington with a catch OF 10000,
and the next year school geography
listed seven instead of six continents
and designated the seventh as Palmer
Land. 1t was listed the same way on
a map published by the British admiralty
18 years later.
Then a queer legend arose. In the
Antarctic waters at the same time with
the sealing fleet was the Russian ad-
miral Bellinghausen, in command OF an
exploring expedition. The story was
that few nights after his great dis
covery Palmer had been called from his
bunk by the man on watch, who was
badly frightened. Bells were ringing all
about the Hero in the darkness. Every
time her own bells rang they would be
echoed from all directions. The sailor,
and Palmer himself, thought the ship
was haunted. There were all sorts OF
supernatural legends about the southern
oceans.
All night the two stayed on deck,
unable to explain the phenomenon other
than as the work Of devils. With the
dawn they found that they had been
anchored between two Russian ships,
whose bells they had heard. Relieved,
the sealing captain went aboard the
flagship and told the Russian admiral
of his discovery. Bellinghausen got
directions to the new land, but gave
Palmer full credit for discovering it and
called it Palmer Land in his own
reports.
Now the young captains own log book
tells of meeting with the Russians, but
1t says nothing at this point about the
discovery Of Antarctica, or of any dis
cussion Of new land with the admiral.
This has been inexplicable to former
students Of the log. It was hard to
believe that q man could have been so
modest about so notable discovery as
to make no mention of it. So the idea
has grown up that perhaps the whole
story was 4 legend.
AAlsd. apparently. by the Bellins-