Belgica expedition

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The Belgica Expedition was a Belgian expedition to the coast of West Antarctica between 1897 and 1899, which was named after the ship Belgica used by it . The leader of the expedition was the Belgian Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery , the second officer was the then young and unknown Roald Amundsen . Another well-known participant was the ship's doctor Frederick Cook , who documented the expedition photographically. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition marks the beginning of the so-called heroic age of Antarctic exploration .

The Belgica in front of Mount William

prehistory

Adrien de Gerlache

Adrien de Gerlache had been planning and preparing for an expedition to Antarctica since 1892. He was particularly interested in graham land , the region later identified as the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula . In preparation for this expedition he went with Norwegian whalers and analyzed almost all travel reports from the polar regions. However, at the beginning of his planning there was little interest in it. Belgium had only recently acquired large areas of Africa ( Belgian Congo ), and the Belgian King Leopold II encouraged expeditions to the African jungle, but not to the coast of the then still relatively unexplored Antarctic continent.

At the International Geographical Congress in London in 1895 it was decided to explore the still little-known Antarctica by all available means by the end of the 19th century. Thereupon a multitude of nations founded, u. a. also Great Britain and the German Reich , institutes and organizations for polar and Antarctic research. In this spirit of optimism, King Leopold II decided to also support a comprehensive expedition to the Antarctic. Since de Gerlache's plans were already in place and the financing was secured, the expedition was able to set sail from Antwerp on August 16, 1897 with the converted Norwegian seal-catching ship Belgica (previously Patria ) .

The expedition

Problems with the outward journey

The course of the expedition

On the outward journey, the expedition was already under a bad star. The Belgica was excessively loaded with provisions, ammunition and research equipment, so that several times there was a risk of capsizing when crossing the Atlantic. Parts of the crew turned out to be completely inexperienced, and the ship's doctor had canceled his participation shortly before departure. In Rio de Janeiro , de Gerlache succeeded in persuading Frederick Cook , the German-born American ship's doctor and expert in polar medicine , to take part in the expedition. When de Gerlache was increasingly criticized by his second officer Amundsen, Cook succeeded several times through his energetic intervention to motivate the two to work together again.

The damage to the ship increased due to several storms. Shortly before Cape Horn in the Chilean Tierra del Fuego, four sailors had to leave the ship. Depending on the presentation, they had exceeded their limit or were too incompetent. After reaching Cape Horn, the Norwegian sailor August Wiencke drowned on January 22, 1898 while trying to remove lumps of coal from the water drains. The desperate rescue attempts to pull him out of the icy water failed. Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago on the Antarctic Peninsula was later named after him.

Research and containment of the pack ice

Research activities began on the Belgica . The depth of the sea was plumbed practically every hour, temperature , precipitation and air pressure were measured, islands were geologically examined and mapped. At the beginning de Gerlache and the Polish geologist Henryk Arctowski came to the conclusion that Antarctica had to be an independent continent covered by an ice sheet.

The Belgica in pack ice

In March 1898, shortly before the start of the Antarctic winter, the ship crossed the 71st parallel south and was thus as far south as no one before. The plan envisaged in the further course to look for a wintering place for four men and to build a hut for research purposes; the Belgica should then sail to Melbourne , Australia . Since the course of the coast was completely unknown at the time, it was not known whether this should be done along the Antarctic coast or in some other way. But de Gerlache allowed his ship to sail further south, which meant that the Belgica was surrounded by pack ice on March 3 . For the team, the wait began with the hope of being able to free themselves from the pack ice in the Antarctic summer between November and January.

wintering

At the same time, there were opportunities for the scientists: It was possible to examine the ice without risk and to carry out further meteorological measurements more easily. For the first time, humans were able to study and explore the coastal areas of Antarctica . A large number of previously unknown creatures were fished from the gaps in the pack ice.

The Belgica . The photo was taken by the ship's doctor Cook during the beginning of the polar night.

But the situation in the pack ice, the long polar night and the unbalanced diet affected the minds of the participants, so that some of them suffered severe psychological damage. When one of the men stopped speaking, Cook decided to radically change the way of life on board. To dispel the winter depression, Cook let the men sit naked for hours in front of the hot ship's stove and did everything to make the men look bright and bright. He himself described this unusual therapy as a roasting cure . After just 14 days, the great success of this cure became apparent, the mood lifted and the state of health improved.

Another problem was the one-sided malnutrition, because of which the team gradually developed scurvy . De Gerlache had forbidden the consumption of penguin and seal meat because he himself couldn't stand the taste of it. Cook knew, however, that Eskimos did not suffer from the disease, which he attributed to their consumption of raw seal meat. Therefore, raw penguin and seal meat was needed. At first only Amundsen had experience with killing these animals. In this position, he and Cook practically led the expedition, especially when de Gerlache and Lecointe became too seriously ill from July 22, 1898 to continue leading the expedition themselves. Cook insisted that the men eat penguin and seal meat, and their health improved very quickly.

Creation of a fairway and return

Although the Antarctic summer had begun in October 1898, no liberation from the pack ice was in prospect. In December 1898, Cook de Gerlache feared that four of the men would not survive a second hibernation. Supplies were strictly rationed, Cook's frying cure continued, and research continued. At this point in time, the Belgica had already driven 3000 km of pack ice behind it.

During observations in mid-February it was found that one was near the open sea. When, after a few days, it was only 600 m to go, the men began to cut a fairway through the pack ice. However, progress was limited with ice floes up to four meters high. Even the battered Tonit - explosives (based on cellulose nitrate ) disappointed initially in blasting the pack ice. Arctowski and Amundsen tried to put the explosives in cookie jars, then chop them into the ice and only then carry out the demolition. According to de Gerlache's travel report, Arcotwski is said to have said: “ No anarchist artist has ever seen more zealous bomb makers than the Belgica ”.

At the beginning of March, a storm ruined the work and closed the fairway again. When trying to reopen the fairway, the explosives went out. Now the team was left with only their own muscle strength and the use of ice axes. In mid-March, a storm tore open the fairway, so that the Belgica was back in the open sea on March 14, 1899 after 377 days of pack ice drift.

Now that the crew was saved, the dispute between Amundsen and de Gerlache re-emerged. In Punta Arenas , the capital of the Chilean Tierra del Fuego, which was reached on March 28, 1899, de Gerlache left the ship in protest. The Belgica was repaired there and then sailed to Buenos Aires without de Gerlache . From there she left for home on August 14th. She reached Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 30 and Antwerp on November 5, 1899 , where she was enthusiastically received.

The Belgica

Visiting the Belgica , from left to right: De Gerlache, Nansen , Somers, Danco, Amundsen, Bryde , Rysselberghe, Andvord

From 1895, de Gerlache personally looked for a suitable ship for his expedition. He tried to find something particularly in Norway. There he found the already disused seal-catching ship Patria . It was a steamship with an output of 150 hp. However, it also had three sailing masts. The Belgica was 30 meters long and 7 meters wide. Although it would have been necessary to retrofit the ship for the ice sea, this was not done for financial reasons. When the pack ice drifted for more than a year, however, it became apparent that the ship was surprisingly stable and could defy the pack ice.

After the Antarctic expedition, the Belgica continued to be used for research purposes and polar travel. De Gerlache took the Belgica to the North Sea three times before the First World War .

In 1916, the ship was sold to Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompagni (Norske Kulsyndikat) on Spitzbergen and converted into a coal freighter with passenger cabins. Under the new name Isfjord , it brought coal from the Spitzberg capital Longyearbyen to ports in northern Norway. At the same time, it also carried passengers in both directions. In 1918 the ship was resold, renamed Belgica again and after removing the entire rigging it was converted into a floating fish processing and cod liver oil factory. From the late 1930s, the Belgica then served as a coal hulk .

In April 1940 she was requisitioned in Harstad by the British troops who fought against the German mountain troops at Narvik and used as an ammunition storage ship. During the evacuation of British troops from Northern Norway, the ship, which had already been damaged by an air raid on May 19, was sunk by them in Harstad. The wreck was found in the spring of 1990. The anchor of the Belgica is the Polar Museum in Tromso issued.

The team

Roald Amundsen
Frederick Cook
Surname nationality function Remarks
Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery (1866–1934) BelgiumBelgium Belgium Head of the expedition, captain After the Belgica expedition, de Gerlache made three more trips to the North Sea with the Belgica . During the First World War he became an advocate for Belgium in Scandinavia, which had been invaded by the German Empire.
Georges Lecointe (1869–1929) BelgiumBelgium Belgium Geophysical Observer, First Officer He later became professor of astronomy in Uccle (Belgium). During the First World War he became a German prisoner of war.
Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) NorwayNorway Norway Second officer The Norwegian was still completely unknown during the Belgica expedition. From 1903 to 1906 he was the first to cross the Northwest Passage , and on December 14, 1911, he was the first person to reach the South Pole.
Henryk Arctowski (1871-1958) PolandPoland Poland Geologist, oceanographer and meteorologist After the expedition he was one of the most sought-after and recognized experts in polar research. A Polish research station in Antarctica ( Arctowski station ) is named after him.
Émile Danco (1869–1898) BelgiumBelgium Belgium Geophysical observer He died during the pack ice drift. The Danco coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Danco Island are named after him.
Emil Racoviță (1868–1947) RomaniaRomania Romania Zoologist and botanist He became a professor of biology and the founder of biospeleology (speleology). He is the namesake for the Antarctic Law Racoviță station .
Frederick A. Cook (1865-1940) United StatesUnited States United States Doctor and photographer The doctor later claimed to have been the first to the North Pole in 1908. His knowledge of polar medicine is still relevant today.
Antoni Bolesław Dobrowolski (1872–1954) PolandPoland Poland Assistant meteorologist He first worked at Lecointe in Uccle . After the First World War he became professor of meteorology in Warsaw.
Jules Melaerts (1876 - unknown) BelgiumBelgium Belgium Third officer He later made a trip to the Arctic and became second officer of a training ship for the Belgian Navy in Zeebrugge .
Henri Somers (1863-1937) BelgiumBelgium Belgium Chief machinist
Max van Rysselberghe (1878–1952) BelgiumBelgium Belgium machinist After the expeditions he moved to Chile and worked there on the Chilean railroad.
Louis Michotte (1868-1926) BelgiumBelgium Belgium cook
Adam Tollefsen (1866 - unknown) NorwayNorway Norway sailor He hallucinated while driving but was cured.
Ludvig-Hjalmar Johansen (1872-1914) NorwayNorway Norway sailor He returned to Moss and worked in a glass factory.
Engelbret Knudsen (1876–1900) NorwayNorway Norway sailor
Gustave-Gaston Dufour (1876-1940) BelgiumBelgium Belgium sailor
Jean Van Mirlo (1877–1964) BelgiumBelgium Belgium sailor
Carl-August Wiencke (1877–1898) NorwayNorway Norway sailor He died on the trip to Antarctica. The Wiencke Island is named after him.
Johan Koren (1879-1919) NorwayNorway Norway Sailor and assistant zoologist In 1902/1903 he took part in Kristian Birkeland's Aurora-Polaris expedition to Novaya Zemlya .

Success of the expedition

The expedition participants realized for the first time that Antarctica is an independent continent covered by an ice sheet. The long pack ice drift of 377 days made it possible for the first time to carry out extensive meteorological studies over a period of more than a year. A large number of unknown plant and rock species have been brought back to Europe. For the first time, the current conditions on the Antarctic coast were examined. In addition, the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and a large number of islands had been extensively mapped, and the first photos were taken in Antarctica during this expedition.

This data made it possible to get a more precise picture of the Antarctic in Europe. The data was used for later expeditions, such as those of Ernest Shackleton or Robert Falcon Scott .

literature

  • Emil Racoviță: La vie des animaux et des plantes dans l'Antarctique ( The life of animals and plants in the Antarctic ). Brussels 1900.
  • Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery: Le Voyage de la Belgica . Brussels 1902.
  • Frederick A. Cook: The first south polar night 1898–1899 Kempten, Verlag d. Jos. Kösel'schen Buchhandlung 1903.
  • Georges Lecointe: In Penguin Country Société Belges de Librarie. Oscar Schepens & Cie, Editeurs, Brussels 1904.
  • Emil Racoviță: Towards the south . Bucharest 1960.
  • Christine Reinke-Kunze: Antarctica - portrait of a continent . Westermann, Braunschweig 1992.
  • Detlef Brennecke: Roald Amundsen . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1995.
  • Hugo Decleir (Ed.): Roald Amundsens Belgica-dagboek. The first Belgian zuidpoolexpeditie . Hadewijch, Antwerpen / Baarn 1998.
  • Hugo Decleir (Ed.): The Belgica expedition centennial. Perspectives on Antarctic science and history . Brussels 2001, ISBN 90-5487-313-2 .
  • GEOspecial March 2003: Arktis und Antarktis , pp. 92–96.
  • Christian Walther: Antarktis - A travel and information book . Conrad Stein, Welver 2004.
  • Alexandru Marinescu: Le voyage de la "Belgica". Premier hivernage dans les glaces antarctiques . Paris 2019, ISBN 978-2-343-17352-8 .

Web links

Commons : Belgica  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ J. Scott Keltie, Hugh Robert Mill (Ed.): Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress, held in London, 1895 . William Clowes and Sons, London 1896, p. 780 .
  2. ^ Blasting work in: Victor von Röll : Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens , Urban & Schwarzenberg Verlag, Berlin / Vienna 1912–1923, digitized