Jules Dumont d'Urville

Naval Officer and Explorer · 1790–1842

Who is Jules Dumont d'Urville?

Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville was a French Navy officer, linguist, and botanist born in Condé-sur-Noireau, Normandy. Early in his career he helped identify the ancient statue now known as the Venus de Milo and pressed for its acquisition by France in 1820. He went on to command three major exploratory voyages through the Pacific and southern oceans aboard the corvette Astrolabe, and later the Astrolabe together with the Zélée. On 21 January 1840, during his third and final voyage, his expedition became among the first to sight and land on the Antarctic mainland, at a stretch of coast he named Terre Adélie (Adélie Land) in tribute to his wife, Adèle, who had endured three long separations during his voyages; the newly recorded penguin species there was likewise later named Adélie in her honor. Dumont d'Urville died in one of France's first major railway disasters, a train crash near Versailles in 1842. Adélie Land remains the Antarctic sector administered today as part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.

Sources: Jules Dumont d'Urville, Voyage au Pôle Sud et dans l'Océanie sur les corvettes l'Astrolabe et la Zélée, exécuté par ordre du Roi pendant les années 1837-1838-1839-1840 (Paris, Gide, 1841-1846) · Musée national de la Marine, "Jules Dumont d'Urville, l'appel de la découverte" · AMAEPF, "Découverte de la Terre Adélie par Dumont d'Urville"

Quotes by Jules Dumont d'Urville

J'envoyai aussitôt un de nos matelots déployer un drapeau sur ces terres qu'aucune créature humaine n'avait ni vues ni foulées avant nous.

“I immediately sent one of our sailors to unfurl a flag on these lands which no human being had ever seen or set foot upon before us.”

Dumont d'Urville's own account of claiming Adélie Land for France on 21 January 1840 — the first confirmed landing on the Antarctic mainland by a French expedition.

Jules Dumont d'Urville

Source: Jules Dumont d'Urville, Voyage au Pôle Sud et dans l'Océanie sur les corvettes l'Astrolabe et la Zélée, exécuté par ordre du Roi pendant les années 1837-1838-1839-1840 (Paris, Gide, 1841-1846)

Reconnaissance éternelle à celle qui, trois fois, m'a permis de faire le tour du monde, en assumant sur elle-même nos charges de famille et le poids de la séparation.

“Eternal gratitude to she who, three times, allowed me to sail around the world, taking upon herself our family duties and the weight of our separation.”

The tribute Dumont d'Urville gave his crew when naming the newly discovered Antarctic coast "Terre Adélie" after his wife Adèle, who endured three long expeditions apart from him.

Jules Dumont d'Urville

À dix heures du matin, nous distinguâmes distinctement la terre, s'étendant de l'est à l'ouest à perte de vue, formée de hautes montagnes couvertes de neige.

“At ten o'clock in the morning, we distinctly made out the land, stretching from east to west as far as the eye could see, formed of high mountains covered in snow.”

Dumont d'Urville's journal entry of 22 January 1840, the morning after his expedition's landing, describing the newly sighted Antarctic coastline that would become Terre Adélie.

Jules Dumont d'Urville