The
Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904, known officially as the
British National Antarctic Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the
Antarctic regions since
the voyage of
James Clark Ross sixty years earlier (1839-1843). Organized on a large scale under a joint committee of the
Royal Society and the
Royal Geographical Society (RGS), the new expedition carried 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.