Talk:Edward Bransfield

Russian claims
Perhaps this belongs in the article of Antarctica and could be replaced with a brief mention that Russians claim that Brnasfield did not discover Antarctica? There is quite a bit of detail here that has nothing to do with the life of Bransfield. --Etimbo | Talk 23:53, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * Nobody claims that he didn't reach Antarctica, it is disputed between Russia, England and USA, who was first to discover Antarctica (see History of Antarctica article). I think that if you replace "discovered" by "reached" or "landed on" and mention, that "whether he was first to discover Antarctica is disputed by Russia and USA", it will be OK. By the way, I added only one sentence, I didn't know, that somebody will expand it and make a separate section. Cmapm 08:15, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks Cmapm. I have removed the section and added your proposed sentence. I haven't replaced "discovered" because the first paragraph already reads "arguably the discoverer of" (my italics) which I think is neater. Cheers --Etimbo | Talk 14:28, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, I personally approve, although the word discovery still may look odd for other people and if they change it, I'll not protest. For me it does not look odd considering that this is a biographical article. But if this word will once again appear in the common anniversary pages (like 1820 or January 30), I'll remove it myself, because this year on January 30 it caused the situation, when on the Main Page appeared inappropriate controversial and disputed statement: Edward Bransfield discovers Antarctica. Cmapm 21:30, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Again an Englishman “discovering” something after a Spaniard had discovered it a century before? The south Shetland Islands were discovered by Gabriel de Castilla in March, 1603. It is pretty funny, and a very usual “incident”. It is the same with the Drake canal, which was “discovered” by Drake, after Francisco de Hoces discovered the Mar de Hoces (which is its real name) in 1525. It is the same than the order received (probably by the very same Edward Bransfield) to hide the sighting of the rests of the Spanish warship “San Telmo” in the Livingston Island? At least the first man circumnavigating the World was Juan Sebastian Elcano, despite Drake did it 70 years later. But in a couple of decades we will see in the Wikipedia “Francis Drake, first man circumnavigating the World”. No doubt. - unsigned comment from 82.213.208.55


 * Actually Edward Bransfield was Irish and not English. While Gabriel de Castilla did sight the islands, the claim here is that Edward Bransfield sighted mountains on the mainland of Antarctica ClemMcGann (talk) 03:14, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Have retouched the Bellingshausen para (1) to take into account that his book was not his journal but a narrative based on his journal. (After Bellingshausen himself it was then amended by three further people before publication.) (2) to separate the priority question - first two sentences - from the "ice hills" event which has little or nothing to do with priority. And (3) to add the Russian book as a source with the page reference for "ice hills".

I agree with much of the discussion of "discovery" above. People need to stop and think about the discovery of continents. They are not like elements, planets or even gold-fields. Much more like the three wise men and the elephant IMO. After all who "discovered" Europe or Asia and does it matter? In this context words like "sighted" or "encountered" are probably more useful than "discovered" or "reached".

Perhaps what we need is an article about the dispute, which was itself a political event within the Cold War. Nargoon (talk) 17:57, 7 July 2010 (UTC) 17:53, 7 July 2010 (UTC)


 * The British 'claims' are provable because in most cases it was they who produced the first charts of the areas, the famous range of Admiralty charts being for a long time the only accurate guides to voyaging avilable for most of the world's oceans and widely copied by other nations. These charts are also the reason for the world adopting the Greenwich Meridian, as, for example, up until the late 20th century the available charts of the areas around New Zealand were still based on the original ones drawn by Captain Cook. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.112.79.74 (talk) 17:00, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

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