Emplacement de l’ancienne colonie de Philippeville (Detroit de Magellan)

Superb lithograph of the crew of the French ships, Astrolabe and Zelle, under the command of Dumont D’Urville in a long boat in Magellan Straits.

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.

From D’Urville, D. Voyage au Pole Sud. Paris