The Belgica & Beyond


amateur translations, scans, & assorted research by m.w.
actively under construction.

WRITTEN FROM THE BELGICA 1897-1899

  1. Racovitza’s cartoons 
  2. Racovitza’s shipboard diary
  3. Racovitza’s letters home
  4. Lecointe’s meeting notes

CORRESPONDENCE

  1. before
  2. after

    NEWS OF THE BELGICA 1896-1900

    1. coverage in the Belgian press, translated
    2. coverage in the British press
    3. coverage in the American press
    4. scientific lectures, translated
    5. list of Expedition publications
      6.        a) Lecointe on Danco’s contributions

    QUELQUES EXPÉDITIONS SUIVANTES

    1. de Gerlache & Charcot (the Français)
    2. de Gerlache & the Duke of Orléans (the Belgica in the Arctic)
    3. the failed Second Belgian Antarctic Expedition (Arctowski & Lecointe)
    4. the successful Second Belgian Antarctic Expedition (Gaston de Gerlache)
    5.  the Royal Belgian Observatory
    6. Georges Lecointe’s 20th Century

      MARRIAGES & OTHER LIFE EVENTS

      1. Lecointe Family
      2. Arctowski
      3. de Gerlache
      4. Racovitza
      5. van Mirlo
      6. van Rysselberghe

      ASSORTED BELGICA RESOURCES

      1. bibliography
      2. associated persons
      3. contemporary photographs


      the sailors of the Belgica performing a “starlight concert” on Sept. 26, 1897, from Johan Koren’s diary

      contact: packloafertranslations@gmail.com
      To: Roald Amundsen
      From: Emile Racovitza

      from: Banyuls-sur-Mer, to: Oslo, 10 May 1907

      Dear sir,

          Thank you for your kind letter and for the news you have given me of Roald. 

          Poor Roald! I’m sure he misses the pack! He’s sure to be very tired from all of these conferences and all of these banquets that he must attend.

          I regret that he cannot reset himself a bit in the calm of Banyuls.

          That will be for another time. I am in Banyuls every year from the month of March to the month of July.

          I ask you to please pass my friendliest sentiments along to Roald and I remain your dearly devoted,

              Emile G. Racovitza


      from: Cluj, to: Oslo, 27 March 1928


      My dear Amundsen,

      Thank you for your lovely letter; it reminded me of the good times of our youth so cordially spent aboard the Belgica.

      I believe you know that since 1920 I’ve been in Cluj. I’m sending along two brochures to show you what I’ve been doing here. You’ll see that the “ices” continue to occupy me Always and that I have not, despite my 60 years, abandoned explorations. It’s true that these are “miniature” explorations and not the magnificent exploits which characterize your fractious activity and which I have followed with joy, satisfactions no less satisfying because I am not always considered as the most achieved type, physically, intellectually, and morally the perfect explorer. 

      Alas, it is hardly probable that we would fortuitously encounter each other in Oslo, but that is not to say that we could not meet halfway in Paris, Berlin, or… Cluj. What prevents my travel is not the distance in kilometers, but the “distance” in “dollars.” Our currency is so wretched we cannot leave our borders. 

      Still have cordial memories, my dear friend, and think of me always as your dearly devoted,

      Emile-G. Racovitza