A beautiful atlas documenting Dumont d’Urville’s second command of a grand voyage.
Dumont d’Urville was a veteran of several Pacific explorations. He served under Duperrey aboard the Coquille and later commanded the Astrolabe on its first mission in the South Seas. Mindful of Weddell’s success, the instructions for his second expedition required an investigation inside the Antarctic Circle and the Captain was asked to establish as far as possible the extent, if any, of land within. It was a busy time in the Antarctic, with Charles Wilkes’ United States Exploring Expedition and James Clark Ross also attempting to reach the south magnetic pole.
Departing Toulon on 7 September 1837, the Astrolabe and the Zelée made two attempts to reach the Antarctic: first in 1838, where they reach 64° South but could not break the ice pack, and then again in early 1840. Howgego narrates the adventure: By January 14, “in monstrous seas and heavy snowfall, the ships had reached 58 S. Four days later they crossed the 64th parallel, and in the evening were surrounded by fifty-nine great icebergs. Vincendon Dumoulin went aloft and reported what he thought was land straight ahead, but it was not until 21.1.40 that the ships entered a vast basin formed by snow-covered land on one side and floating ice on the other. To confirm that what they could see was land and not just an ice shelf, the French sailed west until bare rock became visible … The tricolor was raised over the islet and the coast christened terre Adélie after D’Urville’s wife Adéle. The cape they had first seen was named Cap de la Découverte, and the point where rock sample had been collected was Pointe Géologie.”
In between, Dumont d’Urville continued to explore the Pacific, visiting the Marquesas, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Guam, Fiji, New Guinea, Borneo, New Zealand, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. The ships returned to Toulon on 6 November 1840.
Preceded only by an exceedingly rare advance report on the voyage, Expedition au Pole Austral et dans l’Oceanie … (Paris, 1840), these are the earliest maps of the Antarctic mainland. The official account was published in twenty-three text volumes and five atlases. The hydrographical atlases to the grands voyages are scarcer than the Historical and Natural equivalent volumes.
Howgego II, D35; Rosove, 107-4-A1 “Rare”.
