The Belgica & Beyond
amateur translations, scans, & assorted research by m.w.
actively under construction.
WRITTEN FROM THE BELGICA 1897-1899
CORRESPONDENCE
- coverage in the Belgian press, translated
- coverage in the British press
- coverage in the American press
- scientific lectures, translated
- list of Expedition publications a) Lecointe on Danco’s contributions
QUELQUES EXPÉDITIONS SUIVANTES
- de Gerlache & Charcot (the Français)
de Gerlache & the Duke of Orléans (the Belgica in the Arctic) - the failed Second Belgian Antarctic Expedition (Arctowski & Lecointe)
- the successful Second Belgian Antarctic Expedition (Gaston de Gerlache)
- the Royal Belgian Observatory
Georges Lecointe’s 20th Century
MARRIAGES & OTHER LIFE EVENTS
Lecointe Family Arctowski - de Gerlache
- Racovitza
- van Mirlo
- van Rysselberghe
ASSORTED BELGICA RESOURCES
- bibliography
- associated persons
- contemporary photographs
the sailors of the Belgica performing a “starlight concert” on Sept. 26, 1897, from Johan Koren’s diary
contact: packloafertranslations@gmail.com
Georges Lecointe’s 20th Century
All his life he was himself: passionate in his work, firm in his decisions, tireless in his endeavors.
— E. LAGRANGE, georges lecointe: in memorium
Assorted information relating to the post-expedition life of Captain Georges Lecointe (1869-1929). Collected and transcribed/translated by m.w. from Belgian, French, and Luxembourgish national archives of birth/death/marriage certificates, contemporary newspapers, In the Land of the Penguins by Georges Lecointe, and sources provided by Hilde Langenaken, archivist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium.
Please contact packloafertranslations@gmail.com with any questions or further information. This page is mostly intended as an organizational tool for myself and a supplement to Lecointe’s fairly extensive Wikipedia page.
In Defense of a Belgian Navy
Alongside his older brother Albert, Georges Lecointe was an avid proponent of a Royal Belgian Navy: not just the mercantile navy the country already possessed, but a proper branch of the military, modeled after the French or British institutions. Their arguments in favor of this development largely rested on 1) the expansion of Belgian colonial power and 2) the (re)production of class, decorum, and hierarchies. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both Lecointe brothers repeatedly appeared in newspapers and periodicals as they promoted their proposition to the government and the general public.
Lecointe’s desire to see a Belgian Navy pops up throughout his other writing, even in his account of the Belgica’s voyage. Shortly before setting out, he published La Création d’une Marine Nationale Belge (The Creation of a National Belgian Navy), a treatise on the organization, armament, and benefits of a national navy. He goes into extensive detail about the exact types of ships Belgium might procure to better train its men into proper sailors and even suggests that with the right training, Belgium could eventually overtake Britain as a maritime power.
A few years later, Albert and Georges got their way: a training ship, the Comte de Smet de Naeyer, was built in 1904 to train sailors on a simple route to and from Scotland. Sadly, this victory was short-lived. In 1906, the Comte de Smet de Naeyer sank with an entire crew of men, leaving, to my knowledge, zero survivors. The Lecointe brothers — particularly Albert — were crushed. They both appeared in dozens of short articles about the incident, expressing their regrets as well as their lingering hopes that such a disaster wouldn’t fully impede the development of a navy. Over the next year, Georges would direct the shame and frustration he surely felt into the process of publishing a tribute to one of the dead sailors. He wrote an introduction for the Biography of Baron Henri van Zuylen van Nyevelt, Second in Command of the Teaching Ship “Comte de Smet de Naeyer,” 26 August 1878 - 19 April 1906, a short biography written by the deceased’s mother.
When the First World War broke out, Belgium was without a navy. They founded a very small order by 1917, but abolished it a decade later, in 1927, due to budgetary concerns. This back-and-forth would continue throughout the twentieth century.
Though neither of the Lecointe brothers would live to see the actual development of a full-scale Belgian navy, in the 1950s, the corps named at least one ship, F901, after Georges. Its nameplate and plaque in his honor are now installed in the Royal Military Museum of Brussels, sharing a small room with the nameplate of the former ship HAdrien de Gerlache.
(images of the military museum taken by m.w. spring 2024)
At the Observatory + In the News: Coming Soon
Lecointe in WWI
At the fall of Antwerp, M. Lecointe, who was defending one of the northern forts, had to beat a retreat and was taken prisoner. He is interned in Assen in the Oldenbroeck Camp.
— L’Indépendance Belge (Edited in England), Friday, 23 April 1915
I have before me a proclamation from Major Haneuse and Commander Lecointe. It’s dated the month of August. I’ve extracted the following lines:
We have also noticed, regretfully, how some soldiers have been reduced to veritable beggars. They write to several charitable committees all at once and make the situations of their families seem as if they were deprived of everything. When they’re noticed, the charitable committees, stretched beyond their capacity by the numerous exaggerated demands, refuse to follow through and send our requests back to us before they’ve been examined.
The investigation with which we would proceed cannot start because all too often these appeals to charity are unjustified.
Belgians! do not forget the thousands of compatriots suffering the blackest misery, and that any help, money, or piece of clothing granted to us without a formal request is taken away; finally, if this proceeds as such, in this year of suffering, it is not just thoughtlessness, it is a robbery.
— L’Indépendance Belge (Edited in England), Wednesday, 22 December 1915
(excerpt from a front-page article)
(excerpt from a front-page article)
Lecointe’s Obituaries