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Although the continent of Antarctica was sighted as early as 1820, it was not until the 20th century that explorers were able to penetrate deep into the frozen interior. In 1911, a race to reach the South Pole between a Norwegian group led by Roald Amundsen and a British team under Robert Scott resulted in Amundsen's reaching the Pole on December 15, with Scott arriving a month later on January 18, 1912. Returning to their base, Scott and his crew encountered unusually severe weather and ran out of supplies. Scott and the last two of his men perished within 11 miles of their base camp sometime after March 29, 1912, the date of the last entry in Scott's diary.

A later expedition (1914-16) led by Sir Ernest Shackleton attempted to cross the South Pole; the group endured incredible hardships, and he survived miraculously, although the expedition failed. At various times in the course of the century, a number of nations claimed the continent as their territory; however, none of these claims has been recognized. Instead, in 1959, 12 nations joined in the Antarctic Treaty, which banned any military presence there and arranged for cooperative international research. This treaty was expanded in 1991, when 40 nations agreed to continue scientific research on the continent for another 50 years.

Elizabeth Arthur's (1953-) Antarctic Navigation (1994) is the story of Morgan Lamont, a woman with a lifelong dream of retracing Scott's ill-fated journey. The story traces Morgan's obsession from childhood, when she reads about Scott's 1910 expedition; her imaginative quest is realized some 300 pages later, when the adult Morgan arrives on the continent to confront the "white darkness" of a whiteout, an overwhelming totality of whiteness that renders a person, in effect, snow-blind. Once on the continent, Morgan sets about realizing her dream of recreating Scott's expedition. She succeeds in reaching the Pole, but, as with Scott, the difficulties intensify during the return. Morgan breaks her arm in a fall and gangrene sets in. The result is a race to reach the base camp before amputation becomes necessary. This suspenseful race against time is the most engaging section of the novel. . .

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