A summary of "The Travels of Dumont d’Urville" by Anatoly Varshavsky

This book is a biographical account of the life of the French navigator Jules-César Sébastien Dumont d’Urville, published in 1977. It tells the story of a man whose circumnavigations of the globe enriched European science with numerous geographical discoveries, and whose discovery of an ancient statue became the property of the Louvre.

Early years and the Venus de Milo

Jules-César was born in 1790. After the early death of his father, the boy was raised by his mother and uncle, Abbé Croisel. The young man entered the naval school in Toulon. Due to the defeat of the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar, French ships remained trapped in port for a long time. Dumont d’Urville devoted this time to the study of foreign languages, botany, and entomology.

Dumont d’Urville’s first major voyage took place on the ship "La Chevrette" in the Aegean Sea. During a stop on the island of Milos, a local farmer, Yorgos, showed the French an ancient statue he had found, which he had been keeping in his barn. Dumont d’Urville immediately recognized the find’s value. The ship weighed anchor and headed for Constantinople. There, Dumont d’Urville reported everything to the French ambassador, the Marquis de Rivière. He ordered the embassy secretary, Viscount Marcellus, to acquire the sculpture.

While the French vessel L’Estafette was sailing to retrieve the statue, Verga, a Turkish representative, arrived in Milos. He began intimidating the elders and Yorgos to seize the find. On May 23, 1820, L’Estafette entered Milos harbor. The statue was already in Verga’s possession, but after tense negotiations involving armed sailors, the French retrieved it. They refunded the Turk the money he had paid. Today, this sculpture is known throughout the world as the Venus de Milo.

Corvette Expedition

Several years later, Dumont d’Urville set out on a circumnavigation of the globe on the corvette "Rakushka." This scientific expedition collected a vast array of data on the distribution of surface and deep water temperatures in the world’s oceans. The sailors brought back to France rich collections of flora and fauna. The renowned biologist Georges Cuvier gave an enthusiastic review of the scientific results of this voyage. Dumont d’Urville received well-deserved recognition in academic circles.

The Search for La Perouse

One of the greatest mysteries of the time remained the fate of Captain Jean-François de La Pérouse. His frigates, the Boussole and the Astrolabe, had disappeared without a trace many years earlier. Dumont d’Urville was tasked with leading a rescue expedition on the renamed Rakushka, now called the Astrolabe.

Meanwhile, English captain Peter Dillon, on the ship St. Patrick, accidentally discovered traces of the lost expedition. On Tikopia Island, he encountered Martin Buchert and the sailor Chulia, who turned out to be in possession of a silver French sword hilt. The islanders told Dillon they had traded the items with the inhabitants of the neighboring island of Vanikoro. Local elders remembered how two large ships had been wrecked on coral reefs during a violent storm.

Dumont d’Urville directed his Astrolabe toward Vanikoro. For a long time, the locals were reluctant to reveal the exact location of the wreck. Thanks to the friendly attitude of the French crew and gifts, one of the leaders boarded a boat and pointed out a passage between the reefs. French sailors examined the bottom and found cannons, cannonballs, and lead plates. There was no doubt: La Pérouse’s ships had crashed here. On March 14, 1828, a volley of rifle fire and cannon shots broke the silence: the sailors were saluting the wooden monument they had erected on the shore of Vanikoro.

Meanwhile, Peter Dillon arrived in Paris. The British government handed over the relics he had found to France. Barthélemy de Lesseps, the consul general in Lisbon and the only surviving member of La Pérouse’s expedition, was invited to identify the items. He confirmed the authenticity of the objects.

Exploring Oceania

During his travels, Dumont d’Urville thoroughly explored the Pacific Ocean. He brought sixty-five maps back to France. The navigator collected numerous drawings depicting settlements, clothing, utensils, and weapons of the native inhabitants. Based on this data, he proposed dividing the vast expanse of water into four major regions based on ethnographic features: Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Malaysia. This classification has become firmly established in geographical science. The expedition covered over forty-six thousand kilometers and determined the locations of numerous islands in the Tonga and Fiji archipelagos.

The Path to Antarctica

In 1837, a new expedition began on the ships Astrolabe and Zélée. Dumont d’Urville received an audience with King Louis-Philippe, after which the ships headed south. The captain received a farewell message from the renowned Russian navigator I. F. Kruzenshtern.

Both French vessels were ordinary merchantmen — cargo ships converted for long-distance voyages. Their displacement was approximately 380 tons. The voyage took place in difficult conditions. The ships often became trapped in ice. Seeking free passage south, the sailors suffered from scurvy and harsh cold. The French were competing with the English expeditions of James Ross and the American ships of Charles Wilkes.

At the end of 1839, the ships arrived at the port of Hobart Town on the island of Tasmania. The vessels needed repairs, and the exhausted sailors needed rest. The race to discover the Southern Continent was in full swing, and Dumont d’Urville was eager to get ahead of the competition. Repairs were hastily carried out, and on January 2, 1840, the expedition set out again.

On January 18, 1840, the sailors sighted sheer ice cliffs and landed. The French raised their flag on the new land. Dumont d’Urville named the discovered territory Adélie Land, in honor of his wife. Soon, the ships bid farewell to the ice-bound continent and set course north.

Return and death

In the autumn of 1840, the battered corvettes dropped anchor in the inner roadstead of Toulon. The voyage lasted thirty-eight months. Dumont d’Urville was promoted to rear admiral. The French Geographical Society awarded him a gold medal in recognition of his discoveries. The captain began painstaking work on a multi-volume account of his journey to the South Pole.

The life of the celebrated navigator ended tragically. On May 8, 1842, the admiral, along with his wife and son, went to a celebration in Versailles. The celebration was a resounding success, with a large crowd in attendance. On the return journey, a terrible train accident occurred. Dozens of passengers perished in the fire. Dumont d’Urville and his family also lost their lives in the train crash. The man who had circumnavigated the globe three times, unscathed, through storms and tempests, was buried in Paris at the Montparnasse Cemetery.