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29-405: Georges Lecointe may refer to: Georges Lecointe (explorer) (1869–1929), Belgian naval officer and explorer Georges Lecointe (rower) (1897–1932), French rower [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

58-727: A number of ships in the Mediterranean , the Atlantic , Cochinchina and Tonkin . In 1897 he was attached to the French Observatory of the Bureau des Longitudes and published a course on astronomical navigation and dead reckoning , La navigation astronomique et la navigation estimée , aimed at navy students of the École Polytechnique. For this achievement, he received the Légion d’Honneur in France which

87-730: A trip to Constantinople and the Black Sea , he worked for the Holland-America Line as fourth officer, before obtaining an appointment as lieutenant in the Belgian Navy. Until July 1894 he was an officer on Ostend-Dover ferries, meanwhile taking courses and becoming a captain on 22 August 1894. Frustrated by the monotonous work aboard the Ostend-Dover ferries, de Gerlache offered his services to Belgian King Leopold II and Welsh-American adventurer Henry Morton Stanley , for an expedition to

116-696: The Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99. Born in Hasselt in eastern Belgium as the son of an army officer, de Gerlache was educated in Brussels . From a young age, he was deeply attracted by the sea, and made three voyages in 1883 and 1884 to the United States as a cabin boy on an ocean liner. He studied engineering at the Free University of Brussels . After finishing his third year in 1885, he quit

145-564: The Belgica expedition. An illness forced him to resign from the Royal Observatory in 1925 and eventually caused his death in Uccle, on 27 May 1929. Academic titles: Honorary Distinctions: Lecointe Island , Mount Lecointe , Lecointe Guyot , Georges Point and the asteroid 3755 Lecointe were named in his honor. The Belgian Navy named two Algerine -class minesweepers after him:

174-739: The Belgica . Charlotte Bay was named after her, and they married shortly after his return. The couple had three children: Henri, Charlotte and Louis-Georges. Both sons studied at the Free University of Brussels. On his return, Lecointe was called to the Boxer war in China as a second in command in the navy. He was appointed in 1900 as scientific director, then in 1914 as Director of the Royal Observatory in Uccle. Together with Henryk Arctowski , Emile Racovitza and Antoni Bolesław Dobrowolski he organized

203-774: The Congo , but the offer was turned down. A letter to polar explorer Otto Nordenskiöld went unanswered. Finally he started planning and promoting his own Antarctic expedition, proposing his plan in 1894 to the Belgian Royal Geographical Society . In 1896, de Gerlache purchased the Norwegian -built whaling ship Patria , which he extensively refitted and renamed Belgica . With a multinational crew including Roald Amundsen , Frederick Cook , Antoni Bolesław Dobrowolski , Henryk Arctowski and Emil Racoviță , he set sail from Antwerp on 16 August 1897. The Belgica reached

232-614: The École Polytechnique for the French Navy . The Belgian government detached him to the French Navy, where he was ultimately promoted to ship-of-the-line lieutenant in 1897, or captain-commandant in Belgian army. This three-year detachment was exceptional and happened as a result of an audience with king Leopold II : it was only granted to one other Belgian officer, but refused to his friend Emile Danco . Between 1894 and 1897 he trained on

261-699: The Belgian King Leopold II allowed him to use in Belgium. In his second book, La création d'une marine nationale Belge ( On the Creation of a Belgian National Navy ), he pleaded for the re-creation of the Belgian Navy , which had been abolished in 1862. This, however, did not happen until the end of the World War I . It must be remembered that the Belgica ' s company was as cosmopolitan as it could be, and it

290-534: The International Polar Commission and Congresses in 1906, 1908 & 1913. In 1907, he accepted to become the leader of the second Belgian Antarctic Expedition, a project initiated by Henryk Arctowski. Such an expedition never eventuated due to the lack of funds. He served voluntarily during the First World War as an artillery major and was involved in the defense of Antwerp , but spent most of

319-596: The M901 Georges Lecointe (1950-1959, ex HMS  Cadmus ) and the F901 Georges Lecointe (1959-1969, ex HMCS  Wallaceburg ). Adrien de Gerlache Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery FRSGS ( French pronunciation: [adʁijɛ̃ viktɔʁ ʒozɛf də ʒɛʁlaʃ də ɡɔmʁi] ; 2 August 1866 – 4 December 1934) was a Belgian officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led

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348-680: The coast of Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula in January 1898. Sailing between the Graham Land coast and a string of islands to the west, de Gerlache named the passage Belgica Strait. This strait was later renamed Gerlache Strait in his honour. After charting and naming several islands during some 20 separate landings, they crossed the Antarctic Circle on 15 February 1898. On 28 February 1898, de Gerlache's expedition became trapped in

377-560: The crew finally managed to free the Belgica . On reaching South America Lecointe started exploring the Andes while de Gerlache sailed the Belgica back to Belgium. After his return, Lecointe published Au Pays des Manchots ( In the Land of the Penguins ), chronicling the Belgica expedition (refer to item in selected works).. Lecointe was engaged to Charlotte Dumeiz (1873–1940) before the departure of

406-567: The earth's magnetism. The expedition set sail from Antwerp in August 1897 and started observations in the Antarctic region later that year. On 22 January 1898 sailor Carl Wiencke was washed overboard and drowned, despite a heroic rescue effort by Lecointe. They made their way to the Weddell Sea in early 1898, where the Belgica became trapped in pack ice, forcing them to overwinter for some 13 months. All

435-448: The expeditioners suffered heavily from scurvy , including Lecointe, but only for a few days in mid-July 1898. Despite de Gerlache's misgivings, they cajoled the sick expedition members into eating fresh seal and penguin meat, nursing them back to health. At the end of July 1898, Lecointe, together with Frederick Cook and Roald Amundsen, went on a one-week sledge excursion southward in order to test new tent design, equipment and to assess

464-537: The explorer Gaston de Gerlache in 1919. In the 1950s, Gaston followed in his father's footsteps, participating in a Belgian research station in Antarctica. Adrien de Gerlache died in Brussels in 1934, aged 68, from paratyphoid fever . Several geographical features were named in his honour, mostly in Antarctica: Cape Gerlache , Mount Gerlache , Gerlache Inlet , Gerlache Island , Gerlache Strait and

493-472: The feasibility of an escape through the pack ice escape. Lecointe, jointly with Cook and Amundsen, drafted a detailed plan to reach the South Magnetic Pole in 1899–1900; this was discussed on board during the period of August to November 1898. On another occasion, Lecointe, not knowing the presence of Frederick Cook on the ice during the night, had taken him for a seal, and nearly shot him. Early in 1899

522-470: The ice of the Bellinghausen Sea , near Peter I Island . Despite their efforts, they quickly realised that they would be forced to spend the winter in Antarctica. Total darkness set in on 17 May, lasting until 23 July. Another seven months of hardship followed as the crew laboured to free the vessel from the ice. Several men lost their sanity, including one Belgian sailor who left the ship "announcing he

551-412: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Georges_Lecointe&oldid=932842626 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Georges Lecointe (explorer) Georges Lecointe

580-623: The main supports of this expedition. Emile Danco, a mutual friend of Lecointe and expedition commander Adrien de Gerlache , proposed him in October 1896 to join the Belgian Antarctic Expedition. De Gerlache chose Georges Lecointe not so much for his nautical experience as for his scientific background. Lecointe had, in fact, been detached to the Montsouris observatory, and it was because of his knowledge of astronomy and hydrography that he

609-589: The scientific results of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, as secretary of the commission charged with the publication of the results. In addition, he oversaw a large-scale renovation of the Royal Observatory. He founded the Belgian Maritime and Vessels Association. Lecointe created the International Association for polar research, a forerunner of the Antarctic Treaty [16] and was the secretary of

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638-619: The university and joined the Belgian Navy on 19 January 1886. After graduating from the nautical college of Ostend he worked on fishery protection vessels as second and third lieutenant. In October 1887 he signed on as a seaman on the Craigie Burn , an English ship, for a voyage to San Francisco , but the ship failed to round Cape Horn and was sold for scrap in Montevideo . He returned to Europe after spending time in Uruguay and Argentina . After

667-658: The war interned in the Netherlands after the fall of the city. After the war he turned his attention to international cooperation in the sciences, and played an important role in the creation of the International Research Council and affiliated scientific unions, in particular the International Astronomical Union . He served as its vice-president from 1919 to 1922, and lead its Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams from 1920 to 1922, while it

696-566: Was awarded a prize by the Académie française . The fungi collected during the expedition were described in a paper published in 1905 by Marietta Hanson Rousseau and Elisa Caroline Bommer . de Gerlache participated in several other expeditions, including: He had two children with his first wife, Suzanne Poulet, whom he married in 1904: Philippe (born 1906) and Marie-Louise (born 1908). After this marriage ended in 1913, de Gerlache married Elisabeth Höjer from Sweden . With her, he had another son,

725-691: Was born in Antwerp on 29 April 1869. His father was a well-known mathematics teacher and he proved early on to be a gifted student. He entered the Royal Military Academy in 1886 and the Military Cartographic Institute. After being appointed in 1891 as second lieutenant in the First field artillery regiment and spending some time in the cavalry school in Ypres , he passed the officer examination of

754-427: Was going back to Belgium" . The party also suffered from scurvy . On 15 February 1899, the vessel was able to begin moving through the channel that the crew had cleared. It took them nearly a month to cover 7 miles, and on 14 March they cleared the ice. The expedition returned to Antwerp on 5 November 1899. In 1902, de Gerlache's book Quinze Mois dans l'Antarctique ('Fifteen Months in Antarctica'), published in 1901,

783-547: Was taken on. He had also won his "nautical" spurs on the voyages he had made, including a number to the Far East in the French navy [17].De Gerlache offered him the position once more in 1897 as second-in-command of the expedition. Lecointe accepted after due request by the Belgian prime minister and the war minister. He was also responsible for the astronomical and hydrographical observations and, after Danco's death in 1898, measurements of

812-630: Was temporarily located in Uccle following the First World War. In 1919 he was elected to the executive committee of the International Research Council at its founding congress in Brussels, together with Schuster , Volterra and Hale , with Picard as president. Lecointe was also president of the Royal Belgian Geographical Society (vice-president 1900–1912, new presidency in 1912), the very society that actively sponsored

841-405: Was the business of the second in command to keep all these men together and get the best possible work out of them. Lecointe acquitted himself admirably; amiable and firm, he secured the respect of all. As a navigator and astronomer he was unsurpassable, and when he afterwards took over the magnetic work he rendered great services in this department also. Lecointe will always be remembered as one of

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