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The Antarctic continent remained as an almost mythical land mass until the beginning of the twentieth century. The early Greeks thought there must be some huge land area in the south to balance the land in the northern hemisphere, and they called it Antiarkitos. World maps for hundreds of years showed 'Terra Australis Nondum Cognita' - the unknown Southern Land.
After the first circumnavigation of the world more and more ships sailed around the south of South America. Not all ships chose the Magellan Straits between Tierra del Fuego and the South American continent and in the sixteenth century Francis Drake was the first to penetrate the area now known as the Drake Passage.
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