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Jean-Baptiste, true to his fathers'
wishes, became a doctor himself but his first love was for
sailing and the sea. At the age of thirty-five, Jean-
Baptiste told Paul-Emile Victor that he was "nothing more
than my father's son", a situation he disliked intensely. It
was the turn of the century and three scientific expeditions
were in the organizational stage: Adrien
de Gerlache's Belgian
expedition (the Belgica Expedition), Carsten
Borchgrevink's British
expedition (the Southern Cross Expedition) and W.S.
Bruce's Scottish expedition (the Scotia
Expedition). While in
his early twenties, Jean-Baptiste purchased his first yacht,
the Courlis. Later, he traded the 26-foot boat for a
larger vessel, the Pourquoi-Pas?. In 1893,
Jean-Baptiste's father passed away, leaving him a
considerable fortune of 400,000 gold francs. In 1896,
Jean-Baptiste married the granddaughter of the famous poet
and novelist Victor Hugo, but the marriage was soon in
trouble as his wife didn't share the same passion for
scientific exploration. He continued his medical practice
but soon turned his attention to the construction of a new
vessel which was to be used on a scientific expedition to
Greenland. He used his inheritance to contract the
well-known shipwright, Gauthier, to build a three-masted
schooner, the Français. She was a beautiful
ship, built entirely of oak and only the best materials,
measuring 150-feet in length and 25-feet in the beam.
Charcot contacted Adrien de Gerlache for advice and
assistance with the construction. On his suggestion, the bow
of the ship was reinforced and the hull strengthened at the
waterline with transverse beams. In the
spring of 1903, news reached Europe that Otto
Nordenskjöld and the
Antarctic were missing. Although his plans were to
the north, Charcot immediately turned his attention to the
south determined to assist in the search for the Swedish
explorer. He wrote to his friend and supporter Paul
Pléneau: "Instead of going North, we should go South!
In the South we are certain to succeed, for very little
exploration has been done... We have only to get there to
achieve something great and fine". Charcot asked his friend
to help him and Pléneau, a director of an engineering
company, responded, "Where you like. When you like. For as
long as you like". The high
cost of construction of the ship depleted the financial
resources of Charcot. The doctor-turned-explorer now turned
to the nation to help finance the expedition, all in the
name of France. He managed to gain the support of the
Academie des Sciences, the Societe de
Geographie and the Museum of Natural History. But it was
the Paris newspaper, Le Matin which published his
plans and raised 150,000 francs for "The French Antarctic
Expedition". Other private contributions rolled in which
left Charcot with a working fund of 450,000 francs.
President Emile Loubet gave his stamp of approval to the
expedition and the plans were set: take the
Français to Antarctic waters, explore the west
coast of Graham Land from the north, venture south to
Adelaide Island and, if possible, Alexander Island, charting
the coastline and gathering botanical, zoological,
hydrographic and meteorological data along the way.
Charcot's sponsors also required him to determine whether
Antarctica was a continent or a group of small islands,
surrounded by ice. The
weather was stormy as the Français prepared to
leave Le Havre on August 15, 1903. On board were Paul
Pléneau and the Belgian explorer, Adrien de Gerlache.
A sailor, named Maignan, was handling the stern rope when
the vessel suddenly tore loose from it's cleat; the large
stern rope struck Maignan and killed him instantly. The
Français sadly gave up her attempt to leave
and would not try again until August 27. Finally underway,
the Français stopped briefly at Madeira and
then tracked south-south-west to the port of Pernambuco in
Brazil. The voyage took two months and after arriving in
Brazil, Adrien de Gerlache told Charcot of his desire to
return to Belgium as his heart was with his financée
and not with the expedition. Charcot sadly gave up and
continued on to Buenos Aires, arriving on November 16. Here
news reached Charcot that Nordenskjöld had been rescued
and the Antarctic crushed in the ice. The Swedish and
Norwegian explorers arrived in Buenos Aires in December and
soon were invited to visit Charcot and the
Français. Otto Nordenskjöld was impressed
with the Frenchmans' plans and gifted him with five
Greenland huskies. Two
scientists, Turquet and Gourdon, came aboard the ship and
the Français left Buenos Aires on December 23.
A month later they arrived at Orange Harbour, at the
southern tip of Tierra del Fuego, and on January 27, 1904,
set sail once again for the south. By February 1 they were
in the South Shetlands, where they saw the first icebergs.
For the next few days they coasted along the northwest shore
of the Palmer Archipelago and on February 5 the engine began
to give them trouble. The boiler pipes ruptured which
created an immediate drop in pressure. With propeller
jerking, Charcot was able to ease the Français
through the icebergs and into Biscoe Bay off Cape Errera.
On February 7 the weather improved to
where she could make a run for Flanders Bay. She remained
there for eleven days as the engineers sealed the pipes and
repaired the boiler. On February 19 the
Français reached an inlet at Wiencke Island
Charcot named Port Lockroy, after the Minister of Marine.
When they attempted to go south, more ice blocked them and
further engine trouble developed. Charcot wrote, "Millions
of tiny, hard snow crystals penetrate our skin and eyes like
fine needles, causing horrible pain". They fought on and
reached 65°5'S, 64°W, as far south as de Gerlache
and a degree farther south than Nordenskjöld had
reached. It was here, in a shallow bay on the north coast of
Wandel (now Booth) Island, that Charcot decided to wait out
the winter. The
Français at Booth Island The men
worked hard during those first days of winter and Charcot
knew quite well that in order to remain productive, the men
should be given as much privacy as possible. After all,
tempers could grow quite short as the men bunked aboard the
Français. The bunks were each equipped with a
sliding door and curtained cubicles contained wash basins of
which the lids could serve as writing desks. Charcot
provided a choice of meals from a menu, along with a daily
ration of wine and rum. Old newspaper stories were discussed
between the men and lectures were given but despite all the
efforts to combat boredom, the winter nights became very
long indeed. Charcot, creative as he was, came up with a
plan to have an "Antarctic" picnic. At 10:30 am on May 30,
all those who could be spared from the
Français set off for Hovgaard Island on a
picnic! Charcot wrote, "We had to break up the meat and
butter with axes...An hour and a half later I was able to
produce a fine Polar meal, though we had to eat very
quickly, dancing about all the time to keep our feet
warm". Winter
set in and everything became cold to the touch. The men
wrapped themselves in clothes as the temperature dropped to
-36°F and the Français froze in. During
one of the trips ashore, Rallier du Baty and three other
sailors became lost in the fog. A search party found the men
suffering from frostbite and exposure. On board the ship,
Lieutenant Matha contracted myocarditis. Charcot applied a
treatment recommended by de Gerlache and by September Matha
was back on his feet and performing his duties. On
November 24 the whaleboat was loaded with camping equipment,
20 days' rations, scientific instruments and a sledge. The
plan was to go from Petermann Island (10 miles away) to the
Graham Land coast. Petermann Island was reached despite the
need to break up ice along the way. Unfortunately, the
stretch between Petermann Island and the shoreline of Graham
Land was packed too tight with ice for the whaleboat to be
used. To make matters worse, the ice was too thin to support
the men's weight. Faced with an enormous challenge, the
men put forth a superhuman effort to pull the heavily laden
boat through the ice. Standing outside the boat in freezing
water up to their knees, the men agonized 10 to 18 hours per
day for five gut-wrenching days before reaching the
mainland. Despite wearing dark glasses, many of the men
suffered from snow-blindness, described by Charcot as "a
handful of pepper in the eyes". They eventually managed to
climb the 2900-foot crest of Cape Tuxen and spent a week
surveying the Graham Land coast between Booth Island and the
Biscoe Islands to the south. By the
middle of December the southerly winds cleared much of the
ice from the bay. The men worked diligently at creating a
channel through the ice from which the
Français could escape. The engine still wasn't
working properly but, nevertheless, was sufficient to drive
the vessel. With a path clear to the sea, the men celebrated
Christmas--Charcot took the gramophone ashore to play
popular music for the penguin colony! Presents, brought from
home, were exchanged and opened; the following day the
Français weighed anchor. They
forced their way through the pack ice, skirting the Biscoe
Islands, and navigated the channel between Adelaide Island
and the Loubet Coast. On January 13, 1905, Alexander Island,
60 miles to the south, presented itself in all it's glory.
Later that day, Charcot wrote, "We were about a mile from
land when, passing approximately a cable's length from a
large tabular iceberg more than 150 feet high, the ship
received a terrible shock, the bow rearing almost
vertically". The ship had struck a rock and water was now
flooding in. The engine was running so poorly that the pumps
had to be operated by hand. The engineer, Libois, lowered
himself into the water in the bow and spent several hours
working on the damaged hull. The weather was worsening so
Charcot was left with no other option than turning north to
seek shelter. Abandoning plans for further
exploration, the men worked 45 minutes out of every hour,
day and night, with fingers freezing to pump handles in
their attempt to reach Port Lockroy, on Wiencke Island. They
reached Wiencke Island on January 29 and made repairs over
the next ten days. On February 15, the
Français skirted Smith Island in the South
Shetlands and then struggled on to reach the sanctuary of
Puerto Madryn at Tierra del Fuego. While there, Charcot
learned that his wife was concerned for his safety and had
attempted to organize a rescue mission---she also decided to
divorce him on grounds of desertion. They
were warmly welcomed in Buenos Aires, where all the ships in
the port "dressed" in their honor. The
Français went into drydock and upon inspection
was discovered to have a 24-foot rip in the false keel. The
Argentinean Government offered to buy her, for use as a
supply ship, and since the offer was too good to refuse,
Charcot quickly consented. Charcot, the crew and 75 crates
of scientific results departed Buenos Aires on May 5, 1905
aboard the liner Algerie. It would be several months
before the results of the expedition would be published but
France was already aware that she had a new hero: Commandant
Charcot. Almost 620 miles of coasts and islands had been
sketched and charted; a map was produced which, with
corrections made by Charcot's Pourquoi-pas?
Expedition three years later, remained the only accurate map
for the next quarter of a century.
Captain
Scott
called him the "polar gentleman". The two men originally met
on the slopes of Mont Ventoux where both were training for
the next polar expedition each was to undertake. At this
retreat they worked together to develop equipment that would
later save the life of Australian Douglas Mawson, some
fifteen years later. Jean-Baptiste Charcot was born on July
15, 1867 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. Jean-Baptiste's
father, Jean-Martin Charcot, was a notable neurologist;
specialists came from all over the world to learn from
Professor Charcot. 
A number of structures were
built on the island to accommodate the crew and scientific
instruments. Supplies of coal, fuel, roofing beams, cement
pillars and marble slabs were offloaded from the
Français as the crew made preparations for the
coming winter. A series of small holes were dug along the
shoreline to provide water in case of a fire aboard the
ship. By early April, scientific studies were at their peak:
Lieutenant Matha and Rallier du Baty were busy with
astronomical and topographical observations; Turquet was
busy collecting zoological samples; the geologist, Gourdon,
was classifying minerals and rocks; Pléneau worked on
the engine and a photographic record of the
expedition.