ANTARCTIC EXPLORATIONS OFTHE “POURQUOI PAS?”
In the history of man’s conquest of Antarctica, Jean Baptise Charcot’s name should be numbered with those of Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton. “No one has surpassed him and few have equaled him as a leader and as a scientific observer,” wrote Edwin Balch, the historian of Polar Expeditions (1913). With the support of the Academie des Sciences, the Musee d’Histoire Naturelle, and the Societe de Geographie (and the national subscription organized by the Parisian Newspaper Le Matin), Charcot sailed to Antarctica in August 1903 to chart the area between Graham Land and Alexander Island to collect the scientific data required by his sponsors. The findings of his first voyage were well received by the scientific community and he submitted a prospectus for a further voyage to
the French Academie de Sciences which was in turn well received. Charcot began preparing for his second Antarctic expedition almost as soon as he arrived back from his first on a ship called the Francais in 1905. It was far from clear whether or not the Antarctic Peninsula, a large portion the west coast of which had been surveyed by Charcot on his first voyage was indeed a part of the Antarctic Continent or simply a collection of islands. Initially Charcot tried to re-purchase the Francais sold to the Argentinean government at the end of his first voyage, but it was being prepared for use by Argentina's own Antarctic program. The next thought was to purchase and convert a whaler or sealer from the Arctic fleet, but there was no suitable vessel. Eventually he turned once again to Pere Gautier of St.Malo who had so successfully built the Francais. The new vessel was
the fourth one that he had owned with the name Pourquoi Pas?. She was launched on May 18, 1908, a three-masted barque constructed to the highest standards. She was immensely strong, built with thicker ribs and more of them than normal ships of her size, the ribs were covered with a double layer
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