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J.-B. Charcot; father of French polar research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Jean Malaurie
Jean Malaurie
Affiliation:
Centre d'Etudes Arctiques, CNRS, 19 rue Amélie, 75007 Paris, France
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Abstract

Born in 1867 and trained as a doctor, Jean-Baptiste Charcot gave up a fashionable medical practice to become, in his mid-thirties, France's leading polar explorer. His two major expeditions to the peninsular sector of Antarctica and the Bellingshausen Sea (1903–05, 1908–10) resulted in many new discoveries of land and established his reputation as a leader in the fields of scientific oceanography, research and survey. After service in World War I he continued polar work with a series of ten summer expeditions to the Arctic (1926–36), in which many young explorers were trained. Lost with his ship Pourquoi Pas? in a storm off Iceland in 1936, Charcot is remembered for qualities of leadership and scientific integrity which inspire the current generation of French polar scientists.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 25 , Issue 154 , July 1989 , pp. 191 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

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