occupation john vincent 
The Polar Medal is a medal awarded by the ___MASK54___ of the United Kingdom . It was instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal and renamed the Polar Medal in 1904 . The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era beginning at the end of the 19th century and closing with Shackleton ' s Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition , the survivors stepping ashore in Wellington , New Zealand February 9 , 1917 . ___MASK68___ Aant Elzinga gives the much later date of 1945 , considering World War II to be the turning point in Antarctic research . During this period the Antarctic continent became the focus of an international effort that resulted in intensive scientific and geographical exploration and in which 17 major Antarctic expeditions were launched from ten countries . The common factor in these expeditions was the limited nature of the resources available to them before advances in transport and communication technologies revolutionized the work of exploration . This meant that each expedition became a feat of endurance that tested , and sometimes exceeded its personnel ' s physical and mental limits . The " heroic " label , bestowed later , recognized the adversities which had to be overcome by these pioneers , some of whom did not survive the experience ; during this period 19 expedition members died . Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in both South America and Latin America . As the world ' s fifth - largest country by both area and population , it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an ___MASK25___ language and the only one in the Americas . Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east , Brazil has a coastline of . It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47 . 3 % of the continent ' s land area . Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest , home to diverse wildlife , a variety of ecological systems , and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats . This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries , and is the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding deforestation and environmental protection . Elephant Island is an ice - covered mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands , in the Southern Ocean . Its name was given by early explorers sighting elephant seals on its shores . The island is situated north - northeast of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula , westsouthwest of South Georgia , south of the Falkland Islands , and southeast of Cape Horn . It is within the Antarctic claims of Argentina , Chile and the UK . Brazil has two shelters on the island , Goeldi and Wiltgen , supporting the work of up to six researchers each during the summer . John William Vincent ( 1879 -- 19 January 1941 ) was an English seaman and member of Ernest Shackleton ' s Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition . He was one of the five men who accompanied Shackleton on his epic crossing from Elephant Island to South Georgia and was one of only four of the crew of Endurance not to receive the Polar Medal . ___MASK83___ Robert Falcon Scott , ( 6 June 1868  29 March 1912 ) was a British Royal Navy ___MASK26___ and ___MASK30___ who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions : the Discovery Expedition , 1901  1904 , and the ill - fated Terra Nova Expedition , 1910  1913 . On the first expedition , he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82 ° S and discovered the Polar Plateau , on which the South Pole is located . During the second venture , Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912 , four weeks after Roald Amundsen ' s Norwegian expedition . On their return journey , Scott ' s party discovered plant fossils , proving Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents . A planned meeting with supporting dog teams from the base camp failed , despite Scott ' s written instructions , and at a distance of 150 miles from their base camp and 11 miles from the next depot , Scott and his companions perished . The Imperial Trans - Antarctic Expedition ( 1914  17 ), also known as the " Endurance " Expedition , is considered the last ___MASK16___ expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration . Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton , the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent . After the conquest of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in 1911 , this crossing remained , in Shackleton ' s words , the " one great main object of Antarctic journeyings ". The expedition failed to accomplish this objective , but became recognised instead as an epic feat of endurance . The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands , lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula , with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 , the islands ' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for non - ___MASK39___ purposes . Cape Horn ( Dutch : ), named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands , is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile , and is located on the small Hornos Island . Although not the most southerly point of South America ( which are the Diego Ramírez Islands ), Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans collide . For decades it was a ___MASK16___ milestone on the clipper route , by which sailing ships carried trade around the world . The waters around Cape Horn are particularly hazardous , owing to strong winds , large waves , strong currents and icebergs ; these dangers have made it notorious as a sailors ' graveyard . The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf . The principal islands are about east of South America ' s southern Patagonian coast , at a latitude of about 52 ° S . The archipelago , with an area of , comprises East Falkland , West Falkland and 776 smaller islands . As a British overseas territory , the Falklands have internal self - governance , and the ___MASK5___ takes responsibility for their defence and foreign affairs . The islands ' capital is Stanley on East Falkland . The British National Antarctic Expedition , 1901  04 , generally known as the " Discovery " Expedition , was the first ___MASK25___ British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross ' s voyage sixty years earlier . Organized on a large scale under a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society ( RGS ), the new expedition aimed to carry out scientific research and geographical exploration in what was then largely an untouched continent . It launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration , including Robert Falcon Scott who led the expedition , Ernest Shackleton , Edward Wilson , Frank Wild , Tom Crean and William Lashly . Edward Adrian Wilson FZS (" Uncle Bill ") ( 23 July 1872  29 March 1912 ) was an English ___MASK74___ , polar ___MASK30___ , natural historian , painter and ornithologist . Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen ( 16 July 1872  c . 18 June 1928 ) was a Norwegian ___MASK30___ of polar regions . He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910  12 which was the first to reach the South Pole , on 14 December 1911 . In 1926 , he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole . Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton ( 15 February 1874  5 January 1922 ) was a polar ___MASK30___ who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic , and one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration . Born in Kilkea , Athy , County Kildare , Ireland , Shackleton and his Anglo - Irish family moved to Sydenham in suburban south London when he was ten . His first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott ' s Discovery Expedition 1901  1904 , from which he was sent home early on health grounds , after he and his companions Scott and Edward Adrian Wilson set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82 ° S .