thumb|upright=1.4| anchored at [[Mount William (Antarctica)|Mount William]]

The Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899 was the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic region. Led by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery aboard the RV Belgica, it was the first Belgian Antarctic expedition and is considered the first expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Among its members were Frederick Cook and Roald Amundsen, explorers who would later attempt the respective conquests of the North and South Poles.

Preparation and surveying

In 1896, after a period of intensive lobbying, Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery purchased the Norwegian-built whaling ship Patria, which, following an extensive refit, he renamed . De Gerlache had worked together with the Geographical Society of Brussels to organize a national subscription, but was able to outfit his expedition only after the Belgian government voted in favor of two large subsidies, making it a state-supported undertaking. With a multinational crew that included Roald Amundsen from Norway, Emil Racoviță from Romania, and Henryk Arctowski from Poland, Belgica set sail from Antwerp on 16 August 1897.

thumb|Historical burgee of the Royal Yacht Club of Belgium in Antwerp, which was used as a masthead pennant by the Belgica during the expedition

En route to the Antarctic, the expedition visited Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, and Montevideo. Belgica was received particularly enthusiastically in Rio, where a large Belgian community lived. Frederick Cook, an American, joined the expedition there. The Brazilians were also very interested in the Belgian scientific undertaking. The Historical and Geographical Society of Rio held a special meeting where the scientists and officers of the expedition were offered membership.

During January 1898, Belgica reached the coast of Graham Land. On 22 January, Carl Wiencke was washed overboard during a storm and drowned. Wiencke Island was named in his honor. Sailing in between the Graham Land coast and a long string of islands to the west, de Gerlache named the passage "Belgica Strait"; it was later renamed Gerlache Strait in his honor. After charting and naming several islands from some twenty separate landings, the expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle on 15 February.

Failing to find a way into the Weddell Sea on 28 February, de Gerlache's expedition became trapped in the ice of the Bellingshausen Sea, near Peter I Island. It is likely that de Gerlache intentionally sailed deep into the pack ice in order to freeze his vessel into the ice for the winter. Despite the crew's efforts to free the Belgica, they quickly realised that they would be trapped for the duration of the Antarctic winter.

Winter

thumb| trapped in the ice

The Belgica expedition was poorly equipped and did not have enough winter clothing for every man on board. There was a shortage of food, and what there was lacked in variety. Penguins and seals were hunted and their meat stored before the onset of winter left the region devoid of wildlife. Warm clothing was improvised from the materials available. On 21 March 1898, Cook wrote: "We are imprisoned in an endless sea of ice ... We have told all the tales, real and imaginative, to which we are equal. Time weighs heavily upon us as the darkness slowly advances." Several weeks later, on 17 May, the perpetual darkness of polar night set in, and lasted until 23 July.

De Gerlache disliked the penguin and seal meat that had been stored and initially tried to ban its consumption, but eventually encouraged it. Signs of scurvy began to show in some of the men. De Gerlache and Captain Georges Lecointe became so ill they wrote their wills. Two of the crew started to show signs of mental illness and morale in general was extremely poor. Lieutenant Danco fell ill from a heart condition and died on 5 June.

Several months of hardship followed. Even as spring and summer arrived, attempts to free the ship and its crew from the grip of the ice failed. By January 1899, Belgica was still trapped in ice about thick and the possibility of another winter in the ice seemed real. Open water was visible about away and Cook suggested that trenches be cut to the open water to allow Belgica to escape the ice. The weakened crew used the explosive tonite and various tools to create the channel. Finally, on 15 February, they managed to start slowly down the channel they had cleared during the weeks before. It took them nearly a month to cover and, on 14 March, they cleared the ice. The expedition returned to Antwerp on 5 November 1899. Though the circumstances had been severe, the expedition had nevertheless managed to collect scientific data, including a full year of meteorological observations.

Reception

In Antwerp, the return of the expedition was heartily welcomed. A special committee had been planning the festivities for months. Typical for polar expeditions in this age, feelings of national and regional pride surrounded the homecoming celebrations. On the day they first set foot on Belgian soil again, La Brabançonne sounded and the national flag was seen waving from many houses. The Belgian state honored de Gerlache and his men by making them members of the Royal Order of Leopold, and the municipal government of Antwerp honored the men with medals and by writing their names in the Golden Book of the city.

Personnel

thumb|upright=1.2|From left to right: [[Adrien de Gerlache|de Gerlache, Nansen, Somers, Danco, Amundsen, Bryde, Van Rysselberghe, Andvord]]

The expedition team included many notable individuals:

  • Adrien de Gerlache – Belgian – commander
  • Georges Lecointe – Belgian – captain, executive officer, and hydrographer
  • Roald Amundsen – Norwegian – first mate
  • Henri Somers – Belgian – chief engineer
  • Frederick Cook – American – surgeon, anthropologist, and photographer
  • Henryk Arctowski – Polish – geologist, oceanographer, and meteorologist
  • Émile Danco – Belgian – geophysical observations; died on June 5, 1898, from heart problems and exhaustion <!--. Émile Danco was born in Mechelen and received a very rigid upbringing from his father, a lieutenant-colonel in the Belgian army. His mother died while he was still an infant. He entered the Royal Military Academy in 1888 and after completing his studies obtained a commission as an artillery lieutenant in 1891. That year, his father died and Danco wanted to travel abroad. He tried to be detached to the French Navy, like his friend Lecointe, but the Belgian government declined his request. Next, he applied to de Gerlache, also a personal friend, for a position in the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, and even made a substantial donation to the expedition fund. Initially, de Gerlache was hesitant to accept his offer since he knew that Danco had cardiac problems, but gave in at the end. The Belgian army was not so forthcoming: it took an intervention from the archbishop of Mechelen to obtain permission to participate. He prepared by studying magnetism and meteorology and learned to ski in Norway, where he assisted de Gerlache with the preparation of the Belgica. During the expedition he performed regular magnetic observations and assisted Arctowski, until May 1898, when he fell ill. He remained bedridden, but optimistic, until his death. The wake and burial at sea weighted heavily on the other expedition members. Lecointe took over his observations and published a biography in the resulting scientific report. Danco Coast (originally Danco Land), Danco Island and the asteroid 9812 Danco were named in his honor.-->
  • Emil Racoviță – Romanian – zoologist, botanist, and speleologist
  • Antoni Bolesław Dobrowolski – Polish – assistant meteorologist
  • Jules Melaerts – Belgian – third lieutenant<!--. In 1908 he was second-in-command on the training ship Comte de Smet de Nayer and later became harbourmaster in Zeebrugge.
  • Henri Somers (1863–?): Belgian – chief mechanic. After his return he became chief mechanic of the Ostend-Dover ferries.-->
  • Louis Michotte – Belgian – steward and cook<!--. Michotte volunteered to take over as a cook after the original cook was fired and his replacement became ill. His cooking was not universally acclaimed, as Frederic Cook wrote: On his return to Belgium he became the butler of Philippe d'Orléans, and in this capacity participated in the 1905 Belgica expedition to Spitsbergen and Greenland, with Gerlache as captain.-->
  • Adam Tollefsen – Norwegian – able seaman; suffered a mental breakdown during the expedition and had to be committed to a mental institution on his return
  • Ludvig-Hjalmar Johansen – Norwegian – able seaman
  • Engebret Knudsen – Norwegian – able seaman
  • Gustave-Gaston Dufour – Belgian – able seaman
  • Jan Van Mirlo – Belgian – able seaman<!-- Born in Antwerp, conscripted, but allowed to fulfill his military service on board the Belgica. After his return he obtained a position as lock keeper in recognition of his participation in the expedition. He regularly returned to life at sea as a sailor for a few months at time and was well known in artistic circles in his hometown. The poet Jan van Nijlen published the poem De Gedroomde Reis based on his experiences in the Antarctic. At the end of his life his wife had him committed to a mental institution due to his free-spending habits. His memoirs formed the basis of the historical novel De Winter van de Belgica (Winter of the Belgica).-->
  • Carl August Wiencke – Norwegian – able seaman; washed overboard and drowned on January 22, 1898, on the way to Antarctica. Wiencke Island was named in his honor.
  • Johan Koren – Norwegian – cabin boy and assistant zoologist<!--. He was a theology student before the expedition and became a preacher after his return. He died in 1919 in Vladivostok. and was buried in the Antarctic.

Personnel resigned or let go:

See also

  • Belgian Antarctic Program
  • Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
  • List of Antarctic expeditions

Footnotes

Bibliography

  • Bulletin de la Société Royale de Géographie d'Anvers. vol. 20–24 (1896–1900).
  • Bulletin de la Société Royale Belge de Géographie. vol. 20–24 (1896–1900).
  • Expedition Belge au Pôle Sud: la Belgica et son Equipage (Anvers: Bellemans, s.a. 1897)
  • Amundsen, Roald, Decleir, H. (ed), Roald Amundsen's Belgica Diary. The first scientific expedition to the Antarctic (Bluntisham 1999)
  • Baughman, T.H. Before the heroes came. Antarctica in the 1890s (Nebraska 1994)
  • Decleir, H., de Broyer, C. (eds), The Belgica expedition centennial: perspectives on Antarctic science and history (Brussels 2001)
  • Gerlache de Gomery, A., M. Raraty (translation), Fifteen months in the Antarctic (Bluntisham 1998)
  • Lambrechts, J., Antarctica. De Belgen op de pool (Antwerp 2011). ISBN 9789081833509
  • Lecointe, G., C. Kaiser and H. Goldfine (translation), In the Land of the Penguins (Erskine 2020)