Belgica

[PMarione]

The Patria was obtained and re-named Belgica for the Belgian Antarctic Expedition led by Commandant Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery. The main aim of the expedition was to find the position of the South Magnetic Pole.
The expedition was intended to be summer only, returning before the Antarctic winter began.

The Belgica left Antwerp on August 16th 1897.
She crossed the Antarctic Circle on the 15th of Feb 1898 off Palmer Land on the Antarctic Peninsula.
The men of the Belgica made the first ever land excursions into Antarctica, spending a week ashore in an attempt to travel inland.

De Gerlache later ventured further south in an attempt to beat the furthest south record held by James Ross, 57 years earlier, in 1841, but it was too late in the season to be so southerly and by the 3rd of March 1898 the Belgica was trapped in the sea ice.

Thus involuntarily, the Belgica was the first ship to winter in Antarctica. The unprepared crew had a very difficult time of things, de Gerlache and his captain both succumbed to scurvy with many other of the crew.

The Norwegian first mate Roald Amundsen (later to be the leader of the first team to reach the South Pole) and American surgeon Frederick Cook (later to be the first man to reach the North Pole) rallied the crew and enforced a diet of fresh seal meat.

After more than a year trapped in the ice, the crew sawed a channel through the ice over a period of weeks to free the ship which could then return to Belgium.

Afterwards the Belgica was used as a fish processing vessel. During the WWII Britain employed the ship as an ammunition storage vessel.
It was shelled by the Germans. It was not hit but sunk all the same.

The wreck of the Belgica has recently been examined by divers. The Belgica Society wanted to find out if the ship can be salvaged from the bottom of the sea off Norway.

The structure of the wreck is still in good shape. Many beams are still sturdy and will be strong enough to retrieve the entire ship.
Salvage work and transport to Belgium could cost 1.5 million Euros. If it can be salvaged the wreck of the Belgica will go on show in Belgium.

110 years after the Belgica expedition, on 16 February 2009, Belgium has inaugurated the new Princess Elisabeth station in Antarctica. This project is a major first: the only polar base operating entirely on renewable energies.

http://www.antarcticstation.org/index.php?s=1&rs=home

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