The hapless, heroic ‘Columbus of the south’ from Melbourne

Henrik Bull was a spectacular failure as a whaler, but to his surprise was feted as a hero for reaching the “last continent”.

Carsten Borchgrevink (left) and Henrik Bull (right). Picture: Warrnambool Library

Henrik Bull rarely makes the list of the great heroes of Antarctic exploration such as Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Douglas Mawson.

But in the late 1800s, when the world’s great powers had long lost interest in exploring the inhospitable continent, it was Bull’s whaling expedition that made the historic first landing.

His journey, inspired by some of the great scientific minds of Melbourne, led to a resurgence of interest now known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Bull’s story is told in today’s new episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters:

Today’s guest is State Library Victoria reference librarian Andrew McConville, who tells the tale in his new book, In Search of the Last Continent: Australia and Early Antarctic Exploration.

Bull, a Norwegian who came to Melbourne to make his fortune after squandering his business and his wife’s inheritance, led a whaling expedition out of the city in 1894-95.

“They caught a single whale,” Mr McConville says.

“In fact, I think the whales of the Southern Ocean were never safer than when Henrik Bull was on the ocean.

“It was monumentally unsuccessful as a commercial expedition and the crew was becoming very disillusioned and it became a very difficult voyage.”

Cape Adare, Antarctica.

Although Bull’s expedition was a financial disaster, he and his crew made history by achieving the first confirmed landing on the Antarctic mainland when setting foot on Cape Adare in 1895.

Mr McConville says that on their return to Melbourne, much to their surprise, they found their landing in Antarctica had become a sensation in Australia and around the world.

The failed whalers were feted as heroic “Columbuses of the south” and honoured with grand receptions attended by luminaries including the governor.

Bull’s landing led to the first expedition on to the Antarctic continent, headed up by his crew member Carsten Borchgrevink, another Norwegian who had been living in Australia.

Despite surviving shipwrecks and other disasters, Bull never gave up on his dream of creating an Antarctic whaling empire, even after failing at almost every turn.

He lived to the ripe old age of 85.

To learn more, listen to the interview in the In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.

Buy the book: https://scholarly.info/book/australia-and-early-antarctic-exploration/