Jules Dumont d\' Urville

Military career

Born from a former family of Normandy, it made rather good studies with Caen under the direction of an uncle who was canon of this city. To twenty years, it presented to the examination Polytechnic school, but its too advanced age did not allow that it was accepted there. Then it decided to enter the navy and, after having undergone with much success a severe examination, it was named suction of first class in November 1807. It began with Brest on the vessel the North wind , successively passed on the Amazon , Suffren , Borated the and the Town of Marseilles and arrived in 1812 at the rank of Enseigne of vessel.

The first voyage of Dumont d' Urville took place on the Town of Marseilles , which led in 1814 the duke of Orleans to Palermo and which brought back it from there with its family.

Venus de Milo

It forms part, with the captain Gauthier, of an scientific exhibition sent in 1819 in the Archipel, the Black Sea and in the Greek islands, it is the first to be announced to the French ambassador with Constantinople, a recently exhumed statue and of which it perceives the priceless value immediately. It is famous the Venus de Milo, carved in 130 av. J. - C. and it is on the note which it had traced that Mr. de Marcellus organized the purchase by the France of this statue, today exposed to the Musée of the Louvre, which became one as of most famous in the world.

In 1820, the complete recognition of the tour of the Black Sea was carried out.

the Shell

Named Lieutenant in 1821, it is linked with Louis Isidore Duperrey to put at execution a voyage discoveries traced by these two officers and approval by the government.

It resulted from it the voyage from exploration scientific of the Shell , of 1822 with 1825, the captain Louis Isidore Duperrey in a voyage of Circumnavigation around the world. It brought back to the Natural history museum more than 3.000 species of plants, including 400 news and 1.200 species of insects, including 300 news. It published in its return various science reports and a Flore of the Falklands (in Latin).

the Astrolabe

The count Chabrol de Crousol, Minister for the navy, having entrusted to Dumont d' Urville a new exploration of the South Sea, the command of the Shell , become the Astrolabe , was entrusted to him with the rank of Commander; he gave to the veil in April 1826.

He accepted in 1826 the command of the two corvettes the Astrolabe and the Zélée , with mission of exploring the Oceania and was sent in the Pacific Ocean to survey the coasts of the New Guinea, the New Zealand and other islands. The April 22nd 1826, Jules Dumont d' Urville installs Toulon as commander of “the Astrolabe ” (old “the the Shell ”, renamed) for the second circumnavigation, with inter alia missions, the search for Perugia.

Its 35 months forwarding got for the geography and navigation the positive recognition of more than 4.000 miles of the least known coasts of the sphere on the New Ireland, the New Britain and the New Guinea; it ensured the position of almost 200 islands or small islands, of which an about sixty had still been reproduced on no chart. He will discover the islands Fiji, will chart the islands Loyauté, will take a reading of the coasts of the New Zealand, will undertake an exploration of the islands Tonga and Moluques. Its reports/ratios allowed the classification of the islands in Mélanésie, Polynésie and Micronesia.

He recognized after the English explorer Peter Dillon, in the island of Vanikoro the probable place of the shipwreck and of died of Jean-François of Perugia.

The immense harvests of natural history, piled up during all the course of the countryside, were deposited with the return to the Muséum of natural history and the maritime Museum grows rich by a crowd of objects of the visited people.

It gathered an invaluable material crowd for the geography and botany, made appear, under the title of Voyage of the Astrolabe (13 volumes, in-8, 1830 and following years), the result of its research. It contributes to the cartography of this area of the sphere, in particular by proposing with the Société Geography the subdivision become traditional of the Oceania in Polynésie, Micronesia and Mélanésie (of which it creates the name) - and in Malaysia. These subdivisions from now on are disputed by the geographers and the linguists but continue to be used.

1830 and disgrace

It was him which was in charge of the command of the vessel which transported Charles X on the foreign ground. He obtained English government consequently the recognition of the new French house and, on its return, he made the proposal claim with the England the remainders of Napoleon I {{er}}.

During several years, the Monarchie of July left Dumont d' Urville in a rest which seemed a disgrace. It finally obtained to carry out a new voyage as of projected a long time.

The Antarctic

He undertook in 1837 a new voyage, in a forwarding in the areas of the Antarctic Ocean.

the Astrolabe and Dedicated the started from Toulon the September 11th 1837 and the November 13rd wet in the roads of Rio de Janeiro. The January 11th 1838, they left the Ground of Fire and advanced towards the antarctic ices.

It explored the southern seas, pushed strong before worms the pole the Antarctic, by facing the greatest dangers, discovered some new grounds. The first met were it as of the 59e degree; with the 64e of Southern latitude, it was not any more of the floating mountains, but a barrier compacts which was prolonged as far as the eye can see. Through work, the ships went up towards north and discovered a coast of 120 miles of extent, which one named the Ground Louis-Philippe.

The March 7th, they left the ices and, the April 7th, they made slackening with Valparaiso.

Dumont d' Urville left these roads the May 29th, remained, of the August 26th to the September 3rd, with Nuku Hiva, Archipel of the Marchionesses and made the complete raising of the the Solomon Islands of the 18 with the November 26th. The November 6th, it had re-examined Vanikoro (islands Nitendi), place famous for the shipwreck of Perugia.

January 1st 1839, the Astrolabe and Dedicated the arrived at Gouaham, the February 5th with Amboine, on June 1st with the Southern point of Borneo, the June 8th with Jakarta, the October 6th with Lampongs (Sumatra). It is in these trimmings that the two crews tested a first, a cruel disaster: the disease removed 17 men, constraining Dumont d' Urville to leave 16 patients to Hobart-Town about the first days of December.

Having learned in this port that the captains James Clark Ross and Crozier were on the way for the Pôle the Antarctic, ordering it did not want to leave to the English only the honor of an attempt and decided to make a new point towards the South.

January 1st 1840, the Astrolabe and Dedicated the gave to the veil. The 15, they cut the road of Cook in 1773 and, since this moment, were in a space of sea that never ship had not furrowed; the 16, by 60 from latitude and 141 of longitude, one saw the first ice, mass of 50 feet height on 200 of extent; the 17, the ices had from 100 to 130 feet out of 3 to 400 measuring apparatuses of extent. The ground was to 8, with 10 miles from there; it was an immense ribbon extending as far as the eye can see from the S.S. - E. with O.S. - 0. , high from 2 to 300 measuring apparatuses, entirely covered of ice and snow; one was by 66°, 38 latitude and 138°, 21 longitude Is, under the polar circle the Antarctic and with little distance from the Magnetic pole; it was high and powerful barrier which closed the road with the ships.

Dumont d' Urville announced with its crew that this ground would bear from now on the name of Ad3elie coast, of the name of his wife.

The January 27th, forced to give up all projects of exploration of the Ad3elie coast, which one had traced approximately 150 miles of extent, it went to North, under all possible sails, to escape from the labyrinth where it was committed. Thus, the 1840 by 65°, 20 latitude and 128°, 121 longitude Is, it says a final good-bye to these wild areas and put the course at North to rejoin Hobart-Town, where it arrived the February 17th.

He still visited the New Zealand, the New Caledonia, the strait Torrès-Tinior, touched with the Mauritius and returned in France.

The accident

It was on its return created Rear-admiral (December 1840) and accepted Société of Geography the large gold medal.

It dealt with publishing its Voyage to the south pole and in Oceania when it perishes with all its family (her wife and its son) in the first railway accident French, which took place close to Meudon (railroad of Versailles), the May 8th 1842 when a convoy left Versailles for Paris, by the railroad of left bank of the the Seine tested, with the height of Meudon, a terrible accident. The axle of the machine which was at the head had suddenly broken, the engine stopped short, the second engine gave him a violent impulse and in front of it the space of 150 pas. La pushed it forces this impulse was such as the second machine went up on the first, broke the hearth and covered the burning coal road. In their turn, the coaches arrived on the second engine, pushed the first coach on it, the second on the jusques first and so on and including the fifth. The convoy had left the rails, the cars reversed the ones on the others closing all the exits, removing all the chances of hello and below these amoncelées cars the hearth of the fire was which the wind still fed. In few moments, the fire rose with an extraordinary height and the interior of the coaches became a burning furnace. When fire had lost its intensity, one precipitated with the help of the victims; thirty-nine disfigured corpses were lying on the hillock which borders the way; one found then only fragments formless of human body, trunks without members, of the legs and the separate arms of the trunk. Among these remains, one recognized the sections of the bodies of the rear-admiral d' Urville, his wife and his 14 years old son.

The Voyage to the south pole appeared in 1841 - 1846.

It is buried with the Cimetière of Montparnasse to Paris.

Posterity

Later, in the honor of his Cartography S of quality, one gave his name to the Mer of Urville close to the the Antarctic, to the Cape d' Urville in Irian Jaya (Indonesia) and to the island of Urville in New Zealand. The Base the Antarctic Dumont d' Urville, was also named in its honor.

Several colleges with Caen, Toulon or Maurepas bear its name which was also given to a street of the 8th district of Paris, Havre and Condé-sur-Noireau.

The account of its voyages was published of 24 volumes with six volumes of illustrations.

External bonds

Voyage to the South pole and in Oceania, on the corvettes " Astrolabe" and " Zélée" (volume 1 to 9 + Atlas), downloadable original works on the Gallica waiter of the BNF:
Exploration of New Zealand
Dumont d' Urville - Alabordache

Partial sources

Random links: