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

      Almost to Antarctica:

      Adrien de Gerlache on Charcot’s Français Expedition

      de Gerlache and Charcot, presumably aboard the Français in 1903. (source)

             In 1903, Olympic silver medalist and celebrated physician Jean-Baptiste Charcot decided he would bear the challenge of bringing France into the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration. In January of that year, he reached out to Adrien de Gerlache, seeking advice on building an iceworthy ship. de Gerlache was glad to help: he advised Charcot to install stronger transverse beams and to reinforce the hull with iron. He also signed on as the expedition’s oceanographer. At the start, Charcot’s expedition was destined for the Arctic. While they were planning, however, the Swedish explorer Otto Nordenskjöld failed to return from Antarctica on time, sending a wave of panic through the European press. Charcot acted quickly. According to his biographer and mentee Marthe Oulie, “In the international sphere of polar exploration, mutual help is a rule from which no one shrinks. This time it was, perhaps, a means for the quicker realisation of a plan of wider scope.” Charcot announced that he would be going off to rescue Nordenskjod, cleverly avoiding any accusations of straying into another national expedition’s territory by offering his humble services as a savior. It certainly helped that South was considered the more scientifically exciting region at the time; in fact, when he wrote of the plan to his friend and fellow planner Paul Plénau, he cautioned, “Don’t get excited - keep calm while you read the rest.”

              Though de Gerlache agreed to the change of plans, he would never actually make it back to the Antarctic circle. He joined the Français for its departure - and was thus on board when a loosened tow rope swung free and killed Maignan, a French sailor. Such an ill omen surely reminded de Gerlache of his own expedition’s stumbling start. Oulie emphasizes the impact it had on Charcot: she writes quite empathetically about his deep commitment to the physical and emotional well-being of his crew. As they set off the second time, she writes, “Charcot watched over everything, and kept up everyone’s spirits.” But there was one man who worried him: de Gerlache. According to Oulie, de Gerlache had gotten engaged shortly before the expedition and “did not seem to be able to get over the separation.” Overwhelmed by his emotions, he separated from the voyage in Madeira. 

              Or so goes one version of the story.

              Other sources, including Charcot himself, report that de Gerlache stayed with the expedition until they reached the state of Pernambuco in Brazil. Charcot politely frames the reason for de Gerlache’s departure (and the simultaneous resignation of two scientists) as being over disagreements in the planned scientific program. This is certainly quite possible: Charcot’s plans were to take them along the very same route the Belgica had followed, which de Gerlache may have feared could be embarrassing. Charcot was also more inclined to treat his men as equals than de Gerlache, which would have created friction as they tried to share the role of delivering orders. Given how quickly de Gerlache signed up with the Duke of Orléans after breaking with Charcot, it does seem as if this philosophical difference played a role in his career choices. But there was another factor at play. 

              This was actually de Gerlache’s second engagement. 

              While organizing the Belgica expedition, de Gerlache was invited by his friends and patrons the Osterrieths to spend some time with their good friends the Van Praet family. Their daughter, Anna Van Praet, made quite the impact on Adrien: he fell in love with her, writing frequently to Léonie Osterrieth about his desperate wish to return for his “petite Anna.” According to Léonie’s letters to Adrien, the feeling was mutual (Verlinden 182-5). When the Belgica at last returned to Antwerp, it was only a matter of days before La Meuse announced the engagement of Commander de Gerlache to a “young woman from a prominent Antwerp family.” 
             
              And then: it ended.

              By the end of the week, the engagement was over. de Gerlache would beg leave from his scheduled appearances at the Belgica lecture series, citing laryngitis and migraines; at Lecointe’s request, he was granted an entire year to recuperate in the south of France. He left immediately. 

              de Gerlache’s biographer indicates that the now-famous commander spent much of his time in France lamenting this crushing heartbreak. He wrote to Madame Osterrieth numerous times about his woes, urging her to convince Anna that he was, in fact, a very religious man, and expressing his fears that his “poor head” would be his ultimate undoing. Adrien even promised God to give a model of the Belgica to his family’s parish “if He gives me back my girlfriend and allows me to be her husband” (Verlinden, 183). 

              Whatever it was that Adrien de Gerlache said or did between November 13th and 16th, 1899, it was enough to convince Anna Van Praet that she wanted nothing more to do with him. At the same time, Adrien’s friend Robert Osterrieth was planning his nuptials with his own fiancée, also named Anna; Lecointe had returned to an enthusiastically loyal fiancée; and Arctowski was soon to meet the woman who would be his wife. Even though Adrien’s mother had come along with him, he felt desperately alone.

              At some point, Adrien gave up on his little Anna; he turned back to his other concerns, burdened as he was by expedition debts and medical mysteries. He and his mother stayed in France, mostly in Nice, for the rest of the new century’s first year. Eventually, a woman named Suzanne Poulet crossed paths with them, and she and Adrien fell in love. He asked her to marry him in 1903, amidst the planning period for Charcot’s Français expedition. She said yes. And then he went away. 

              I do not mean to diminish the love that Adrien felt for Suzanne, or to imply that other motives were stronger for him, but: after months at sea with Charcot, whose wife had explicitly threatened divorce if he went through with his Antarctic plans, Adrien may have felt far more nervous about the probability of his new fiancée deciding to wait for him. It seems to me that he was motivated not just by love, but by fear. The fear of being rejected, again, while his closest friends were starting to raise their first few children. Would it really be worth the trouble of wintering in Antarctica and having his own expedition’s research publicly double-checked if there was no wife waiting on the other side? Apparently not. He left the boat in Pernambuco. It was the closest he would ever get to an Antarctic return.