| Pacific Voyages |  |
Scientific discovery was a major focus point of the voyage of the Astrolabe. Dumont d'Urville had studied navigation, astronomy, oceanic languages, botany and entomology. He also had an interest in anthropology and phrenology. The natural history collections he took back to France were richer than any taken back by any other single expedition. It was a remarkably dangerous voyage and required great skill in sailing and navigation.
Mapping, collecting, documenting and painting were carried out on board by naturalists, hydrographers, draughtsmen and surgeons dedicated to observing and recording new worlds of nature and humankind. His ship was effectively a floating laboratory come museum crewed by scientists. Dumont d'Urville brought back thousands of natural history specimens, artists' drawings, detailed charts of coastlines and could claim major discoveries in the Antarctic. He discovered and collected several new species, including the Adélie penguin, which were placed in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.
Dumont d'Urville also obtained 2 kiwi which were given to him in the Bay of Islands by a local Māori.
"I noticed a native carrying in his hands one of those curious birds which do not seem to be found anywhere except in New Zealand and which the natives know by the name of Kivi-Kivi. He gave it to me for a small sum of money. Delighted with his bargain, the native, at my request, hurried to go and get a second live one, for which he asked double the price of the first."
(Wright, 1955, p. 74)
Dumont d'Urville was also interested in racial differences and observed that Oceania had 3 distinct races of indigenous people : Polynesian, Melanesians and Micronesians. He was the first to map these accurately and geographically. Dumoutier (an ethnologist) gathered data on the size and shape of skulls from different ethnic groups and modelled plaster busts from the living subject.
Dumont d'Urville made a great contribution to completing the mapping of the Pacific and was the French equivalent of James Cook. In fact, Dumont d'Urville visited more of the Pacific and Oceania during his 3 voyages than Cook. The charts compiled by his officers were still in use 60 years later.
The 7 atlases published from this voyage, which are in the Macmillan Brown Library’s collection, contain intricate drawings which were produced from the specimens collected. The professional illustrators used watercolours for some drawings and include great detail. They are a wonderful pictorial record of the rich diversity of sights seen on the voyage.
