Decouverte de la Terre Adelie le 19 Janvier 1840.

Superb lithograph of the two French ships, Astrolabe and Zelle, under the command of Dumont D’Urville in Antarctic waters.

France whose international standing had been overtaken by Britain’s
naval dominance, had not taken part in any major voyages of exploration
in the C18th.

So it was this aim that King Louis-Philippe instructed Dumont
d’Urville to mount an expedition to explore the southern regions of
Antarctica and the Pacific. The expedition left on two corvettes, the
Astrolabe, under the command of Dumont d’Urville who had already sailed
around the world on the Zelee. 

The ships reached Port Famine at the end of 1838 and after a few
days rest, headed further south on January 8th. They sighted their first
ice floe the following day and a few days later at 59° 30’S ‘an immense
block in the form of a triangular prism’ could be seen, glistening when
the fog lifted. Dumont d’Urville’s instructions were to follow
Weddell’s route and see how far beyond the Englishman’s final latitude
they could penetrate. His crew had been promised a bonus of 100 francs
each if they reached 75°S and a further 20 francs for every degree
further south. The ships reached 65° where they were confronted by an
impenetrable ice floe. ‘To the limits of the horizon on both east and
west, spread an immense plain of blocks of ice…’. D’Urville at this
point was forced to turn back and on March 7 the two ships left the
South Shetlands.

After exploring the southern regions Dumont D’Urville the ships
sailed to the Pacific visiting many of the islands, Singapore, Batavia,
and reached Hobart at the end of 1839.

After a short period of
rest in Hobart the ships headed south again on January 1, 1840, this
time reaching about 64°S and found themselves suddenly surrounded by
icebergs. On January 19, land was sighted, it was completely covered
with snow so high it was impossible to see the summit. D’Urville named
the coast, Terre Adelie after his wife. The expedition had established
the approximate position of the magnetic pole and d’Urville felt that
their task had been accomplished and left Antarctica and headed for New
Zealand.

The maps and views were published in the official
accounts of the voyage and are the finest ever produced of Antarctica
and intended to reflect France’s rightful place on the international
stage. 

 Embossed blind stamp “Gide Editeur Paris” denoting that is from the original edition of “Voyage au Pole Sud”.