was troubled and anxious that I could only read a few of his letters in the limited
amount of time that I had left that day. Most certainly I had no time to take notes.
However, I received assurances that the letters would be copied and sent to me in
Bucharest. Four days later, copies of the letters were sitting on my desk at the
Museum of Natural History “Grigore Antipa” in Bucharest.
Unfortunately, the letters from Racovitza have not been published yet. Only a
limited number of his letters have been discussed in the book “Emil Racovitza, the
naturalist of the Belgica expedition” (All Publishing House, 1998), issued the same
year as the volume published by the Romanian Cultural Foundation in French
“Racovitza E. – Letters, Antarctic Diary, Conferences”. But this last publication,
printed under excellent graphic conditions (Collection Rameau d’Or), included a
mysterious cover which concealed completely the real title of the book. In addition,
it had a disastrous distribution and a large number of volumes were returned to the
editor.
In 1998, the year of the Belgica centenary, I was invited for a few days at the Ast
castle in Huise Zingem, property of the son of Adrien de Gerlache, the baron Gaston
de Gerlache. He was an Antarctic explorer himself who led the Belgian expedition
of 1957 after being a hero of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
I was invited to study the extraordinary archives of the de Gerlache family. One
day, while we were discussing in his study full of keepsakes, under the eye gaze of a
big Royal Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica) perfectly adapted to its frigid environment, the Baron de Gerlache shared with me his astonishment: indeed, the
Belgica expedition had been forgotten by the authors of exploration and discovery
books in spite of its significant accomplishments. It was the first expedition to spend
winter beyond the South Polar Circle, surviving the extreme Polar night and making
complex scientific observations during an entire year. It was also the first expedition
with an international team including the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the future
conqueror of the South Pole on the 14th December 1911, and Frederick Cook, the
future conqueror of the North Pole on the 21st April 1918. I tried to understand why
the records for this particular expedition were so scarce in spite of its remarkable
history which succeeded with so many advances in the field of Antarctic research.
Beyond the books written by certain members of the expedition staff (Frederick
Cook, Adrien de Gerlache, Georges Lecointe) and some conferences in 1900, the
publications are very rare. The number of related documents preserved in European
archives are largely unknown. I do not know if my arguments convinced Gaston de
Gerlache, but I still believe I was right.
That is the reason why I selected out of hundreds of original documents, the
minutes of a meeting of the staff of the Belgica expedition, written by Georges
Lecointe on the 22nd of September 1898, a day after the discussions held on the
21st September “at two hours in the afternoon, with the purpose of fixing the
program of the time schedule to put in place after the release of the ship from the
ice”.
594
A. Marinescu
amount of time that I had left that day. Most certainly I had no time to take notes.
However, I received assurances that the letters would be copied and sent to me in
Bucharest. Four days later, copies of the letters were sitting on my desk at the
Museum of Natural History “Grigore Antipa” in Bucharest.
Unfortunately, the letters from Racovitza have not been published yet. Only a
limited number of his letters have been discussed in the book “Emil Racovitza, the
naturalist of the Belgica expedition” (All Publishing House, 1998), issued the same
year as the volume published by the Romanian Cultural Foundation in French
“Racovitza E. – Letters, Antarctic Diary, Conferences”. But this last publication,
printed under excellent graphic conditions (Collection Rameau d’Or), included a
mysterious cover which concealed completely the real title of the book. In addition,
it had a disastrous distribution and a large number of volumes were returned to the
editor.
In 1998, the year of the Belgica centenary, I was invited for a few days at the Ast
castle in Huise Zingem, property of the son of Adrien de Gerlache, the baron Gaston
de Gerlache. He was an Antarctic explorer himself who led the Belgian expedition
of 1957 after being a hero of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
I was invited to study the extraordinary archives of the de Gerlache family. One
day, while we were discussing in his study full of keepsakes, under the eye gaze of a
big Royal Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica) perfectly adapted to its frigid environment, the Baron de Gerlache shared with me his astonishment: indeed, the
Belgica expedition had been forgotten by the authors of exploration and discovery
books in spite of its significant accomplishments. It was the first expedition to spend
winter beyond the South Polar Circle, surviving the extreme Polar night and making
complex scientific observations during an entire year. It was also the first expedition
with an international team including the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the future
conqueror of the South Pole on the 14th December 1911, and Frederick Cook, the
future conqueror of the North Pole on the 21st April 1918. I tried to understand why
the records for this particular expedition were so scarce in spite of its remarkable
history which succeeded with so many advances in the field of Antarctic research.
Beyond the books written by certain members of the expedition staff (Frederick
Cook, Adrien de Gerlache, Georges Lecointe) and some conferences in 1900, the
publications are very rare. The number of related documents preserved in European
archives are largely unknown. I do not know if my arguments convinced Gaston de
Gerlache, but I still believe I was right.
That is the reason why I selected out of hundreds of original documents, the
minutes of a meeting of the staff of the Belgica expedition, written by Georges
Lecointe on the 22nd of September 1898, a day after the discussions held on the
21st September “at two hours in the afternoon, with the purpose of fixing the
program of the time schedule to put in place after the release of the ship from the
ice”.
594
A. Marinescu