Voyage to the South Pole and Oceania

Jules Dumont d’Urville · 1837 CE – 1840 CE · Earth

Voyage to the South Pole and Oceania — Jules Dumont d’Urville · 1837 CE – 1840 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Push as far south as the ice allows, and survey the islands of Oceania on the way.

Historical context

Louis-Philippe, told that an American whaler had come close to the South Pole, turned a planned voyage to Oceania into a push for the ice: the United States had voted large sums for an expedition, and British learned societies were pressing for one. Dumont d’Urville, forty-seven and troubled by gout, spent a year and a half in the tropics between two attempts on the ice before finding a coast where the maps showed nothing.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Orders from the king

    September 1837

    On 7 September 1837 the Astrolabe and the Zélée leave Toulon with orders to push as far south as the ice allows, on the track of James Weddell.

  2. Stopped by the pack

    February 1838

    In February 1838 the two corvettes are held for five days in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea and barely warp themselves out.

  3. Louis Philippe Land

    March 1838

    At the end of February 1838 the ships sight a high, snow-covered coast at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, name it for the king and chart it into March.

  4. Refitting at Hobart

    December 1839

    On 12 December 1839 the ships reach Hobart after a year and a half among the islands of Oceania and the East Indies, with dysentery still killing their men.

  5. Land under the ice cap

    19 January 1840

    On 19 January 1840, by the ships’ reckoning, the hydrographer Vincendon-Dumoulin makes out land dead ahead at 66° south.

  6. A flag on an islet

    21 January 1840

    On 21 January boats land on a rocky islet, chip off granite specimens and claim the coast for France.

  7. Ships that did not speak

    30 January 1840

    On 30 January 1840 by the American log, the 29th by the French one, the Astrolabe and the American brig Porpoise pass within hailing distance and part without a word.

  8. Return to Toulon

    November 1840

    On 6 November 1840 the two corvettes anchor again at Toulon after thirty-eight months, with a new Antarctic coast on the charts.

Outcome

Beaten back by the Weddell pack in 1838, he found and claimed Adélie Land from Hobart in January 1840.

Jules Dumont d’Urville

French officer, botanist and linguist who found the wreck of La Pérouse and claimed Adélie Land for France.

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Sources

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