The Voyage of the Astrolabe 1837 - 1840

Portrait of Dumont d'Urville

Crew

Astrolabe – 102 officers and crew.
Zélée - 81 crew.
Deaths : 22
Deserters : 13
Disembarked : 8
Left sick en route : 8

Ships

Astrolabe - 380 ton corvette
Zelee - 300 ton corvette.

Timeline

1837	February	King Louis-Philippe asks Dumont d’Urville to explore the South Pole
	7 September	Astrolabe and Zélée set sail from Toulon, France.
	30 September – 7 October	Tenerife, Canary Islands
	13 December – 9 January	Straits of Magellan
	13 January	Entered Antarctic waters
1838	15 January	Sighted icebergs
	22 January	Went aboard ice flow
	25 January	South Orkney Islands
	9 February	Astrolabe caught in ice in South Shetlands
	7 March	Left the Southern ocean
	6 April - 23 May	Talcahuano Bay, Chile. Spent 2 months here, lots crew had scurvy, got supplies
	25 May – 1 June	Valparaiso, Chile.
	3-15 August	Mangareva, Gambier Islands
	25 August – 3 September	Nuka Hiva, Marquesas Islands
	September	Tahiti, Samoa
	October	Tonga, Fiji
	6 November	Vanikoro, Santa Cruz Islands
	12 November – 7 December	Solomon Islands
	22-26 December	Caroline Islands
1839	1-12 January	Guam
	29 January - 25 February	Indonesia
	27 March – 6 April	North coast Australia, Raffles Bay.
	23-30 April	Triton Bay, New Guinea
	27 June – 2 July	Singapore
	21 July-6 August	Philippines
	23 August – 30 September	Semarang, Java, Indonesia
	1 November	“From November 1 to December 12 our ships were a scene of death and mourning” wrote Dumont d’Urville. 4 died on the Astrolabe, 5 on the Zélée
	12 December	Arrived Hobart, Tasmania
1840	1 January	Sailed from Hobart to Antarctic
	19 January	Land sighted on Antarctica, Dumont d’Urville named it Terre Adélie, after his wife, saw a new penguin species, the Adélie penguin.
	29 January	Came across the Porpoise – part of the American Wilkes expedition.
	1 February	Returned to Hobart
	17-25 February	Hobart
	11-20 March	Auckland Islands
	30 March – 3 April	Otago harbour. Met up with the Porpoise again
	8-17 April	Akaroa
	29 April – 4 May	Bay of Islands where they were informed of the Treaty of Waitangi, and that Captain Hobson was the Governor of NZ. Dumomt d’Urville given 2 kiwis from a native Māori
	14-16 May	Loyalty Islands
	1-4 June	Torres Strait – stuck on reefs and unloaded natural history collections and supplies
	21-26 June	Anchored Kupang Bay, Timor.
	7-9 September	St Helena
	6 Nov	Toulon
1842	8 May	Dumont d'Urville , wife and child killed in train crash