The voyage of the Belgica under the command of Adrienne de Gerlache set out from Antwerp, Belgium at the end of August 1897. It is one of the most fascinating of the early Antarctic expeditions and also probably the least comfortable one to have taken part in for all concerned.

It is notable for being the first expedition to Antarctic of a purely scientific nature, and was the first time that anyone had over wintered in Antarctica proper. A group of sealers had wintered on King George Island in the South Shetlands in 1821 after their ship was blown off in a storm and rescue was not possible until the next summer, but this was the first time a winter had been spent at Antarctic continental latitudes. It was also an unplanned winter - although, perhaps for the expedition leader de Gerlache it wasn't so accidental - for the rest of the men at least, there was no intention nor notice of overwintering.

Amongst the crew were Roald Amundsen, later to be the first man to sail the North West Passage and also to reach the South Pole and Frederick A. Cook a man who would contentiously later claim to be the first man to reach the North Pole.

Problems with the expedition began long before Antarctic waters were even reached, unlike other expedition leaders who spent the utmost care and efforts in selecting the members of the expedition, de Gerlache seemed to pay little or no heed once the officers and scientific staff were recruited. Of the original crew that left Antwerp on the Belgica, two abandoned the expedition shortly afterwards at Ostend, Belgium during a forced return to port for repairs, a further two went ashore there without permission and returned drunk. Of the others, there were some who seemed to know and understand little about basic seamanship, and one who refused to leave his bunk when ordered to turn out to prevent the Belgica from accidentally ramming the Royal Yacht.

In Montevideo (Uruguay, South America), the cook was sacked after a fight and a Swedish seaman taken on. Between there and Punta Arenas, Chile the most Southern Port in South America, an engineer allowed the boiler to run dry (potentially fatal to the Belgicas steam-engine) despite an earlier warning - he was put off the ship at the next land-fall. At Punta Arenas there were further disciplinary problems with men being found drunk, refusing to work when required, making demands on pay and accusing de Gerlache of prejudice against the Norwegian crew members. At one point de Gerlache even made an agreement with the Chilean Navy to send a boarding party to try and restore order on board.

The Belgica fast in the ice after a blizzard

Eventually three Belgians and the Swedish cook were put ashore and the ship left for Antarctica undermanned and in what must have been an uncertain state of mind for many of those on board. Certainly those who knew something about pack ice and the wisdom of entering it so late in the season, such as Cook and Amundsen, were not comfortable with the decisions being made by de Gerlache, but they also had their own positions in the crew to think of as their jobs were partly to help keep discipline and ensure that the commanders orders were followed.

En route to Antarctica, a young sailor Carl Wiencke was washed overboard and lost, despite the heroic efforts of Captain Georges Lecointe to try and rescue him. Wiencke Island was named in his honour.

In any event, after much late season surveying, the ship was iced into the pack on the 3rd of March 1898. The disparate crew with their several nationalities and languages started the winter well keeping themselves as busy and making themselves as cosy as they were able. This didn't last very long however, as unprepared for the winter as they were, they didn't have sufficient equipment or supplies to be comfortable, occupied or properly nourished. On March the 21st 1898 Cook wrote:

"We are imprisoned in an endless sea of ice... We have told all the tales, real and imaginative, to which we are equal. Time weighs heavily upon us as the darkness slowly advances".

All of these factors took their toll on the men and by the 19th of May when the sun disappeared below the horizon for the start of the long Antarctic night where it would not be seen again for another 63 days, their plight was starting to become desperate.

There was a shortage of food, and what there was lacked in variety and in particular in vitamin C - signs of scurvy began to show in a number of the men. This was exacerbated by de Gerlache's dislike of the only local source of this vital nutrient - fresh penguin and seal meat that had been killed and stored before the onset of winter. Such was the expedition leaders hatred of these meats, that he forbad his men even from eating it.

On June the 5th Lieutenant Danco died of heart failure, it seems from an previously undiagnosed long-existing condition that had been considerably worsened by the cold, lack of proper food and harsh conditions. In the words of Henryk Arctowski the Polish geologist:

"In the obscurity of the midday twilight we carried Lieutenant Danco's body to a hole which had been cut in the ice, and committed it to the deep. A bitter wind was blowing as, with bared heads, each of us silent, we left him there...And the floe drifted on..."

The return of the sun on the 22nd of July lifted the men's spirits, but illness still prevailed, de Gerlache and Lecointe wrote their wills and took to their beds able to do little else. Two of the crew, Tollefsen and Knudsen started to show signs of mental illness and moral in general was at rock bottom, Cook (the ships surgeon) also noted heart irregularities in several of the men, scurvy was rife by now. A particularly bitter blow was the death of the ship's cat "Nansen", once bright and friendly, the cat too became withdrawn, would growl at people and eventually faded away to excessive sleep and then death.

Cook and Amundsen then took command as de Gerlache and Lecointe were unable to fulfil this role due their illness. Cook in particular reversed their fortunes by retrieving the frozen penguin and seal meat and making sure that each man ate some each day and spent some time in front of the fire. He  improved moral by not allowing them to become totally introspective and organising complicated games - huge sums of imaginary money were gambled in card games. Even de Gerlache began to eat the meat that he had previously hated so much and slowly, the men all recovered their health and to some extent, their spirits. By July the 31st, Lecointe was sufficiently recovered to be able to join Amundsen and Cook on a sledging trip away from the confines of the ship.

Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache - Commandant Belgian. A complex character, the preparations for the expedition were not always transparent and there are unanswered questions about how planned the winter in Antarctica was. de Gerlache was certainly not a great planner nor a leader, but he did achieve his aim and was feted by the establishment on his return to Europe after a truly remarkable voyage. Born Hasselt, Belgium 2nd August 1866 - Died Brussels, Belgium 4ht December 1934

Georges Lecointe - Captain, executive officer and hydrographer Belgian. Georges Lecointe had been approached by de Gerlache as early as 1895 to be his second in command, the appointment was made until June 1897 however partly as funding had not been raised for the expedition. On his return from Antarctica, Lecointe became Scientific Director at the Royal Astronomical Observatory at Uccle (Belgium), being joined there for a time until 1907 by Antoine Dobrowolski, also a veteran of the Belgica expedition. Lecointe was interned during the 1st World War in Holland from 1914-18. Born Antwerp, Belgium 29 April 1869 - Died in Uccle, Belgium in 1929.

Roald Amundsen - 1st mate expedition leader Gjøa / northwest passage 1903-06 leader of the south pole party on the first successful expedition to reach the South Pole - 1910-11 Fram Norwegian. Roald Amundsen had a specific reason for wanting to go on the Belgica expedition, he went in order to obtain experience to enable him to get his skipper's licence. As one day he intended to mount his own polar expedition and if he could qualify as ship's captain, there would be no conflict in having to share the command of an expedition with a ship's captain.

Emile Danco - Magnetician Belgian. Emile Danco had been a close friend of de Gerlache for some years prior to the expedition, he had accompanied de Gerlache on the Castor in search of a suitable vessel for the expedition. Danco had foreseen the possible problems posed by having an international and disparate crew, in particular if both the principle officers were Norwegian (like Amundsen). Danco tragically died during the expedition of what the surgeon, Cook, described as the exacerbation of an underlying chronic valvular heart disease by the stresses and difficult conditions of the winter on board the Belgica. He weakened after they were beset in the pack ice and died in early June 1898. Born Malines, Belgium 29 November 1869 - Died on Belgica amongst pack-ice 5th June 1898

Emile Racovitza - Naturalist (zoologist) Romanian.

Henryk Arctowski - Geologist, Oceanographer and Meteorologist Polish. Arctowski had been a student at the University of Liège and had already studied Antarctica from a distance. He was a very cosmopolitan character and after the voyage emigrated to the USA, where he held a scientific post at the New York Public Library from 1910-1920 (having turned down the offer of a position of education minister from the prime minister). After this, he returned to Poland to become director of the Geophysical Institute of Lwów University where he remained to 1939 when he returned once again to the USA. While he was there war broke out, unable to return to Poland, joined the Smithsonian Institution. In 1977, the Poles named their permanent Antarctic base after him - Henryk Arctowski station at Admiralty Bay, King George Island on the Antarctic Peninsula. Born Warsaw, Poland, July 15, 1871 - Died  Washington, USA, Feb 21 1958.

Antoine Dobrowolski - Assistant meteorologist Polish. On his return from Antarctica, Dobrowolski spent some time at the Royal Astronomical Observatory at Uccle (Belgium) with Lecointe the Belgica's captain who had become Scientific Director. Dobrowolski spent the 1st World War in Sweden. He eventually became director of the Polish Meteorological Institute and Professor in Warsaw. Born Dworchowitzé, Poland June 6, 1872 - Died in 1954.

Frederick A. Cook - Surgeon, anthropologist and photographer American

Henri Somers - Engineer Belgian Born 1863

Max Van Rysselberghe Belgian. After the expedition, settled in Chile where he worked as an engineer on the railways for some time. Born 1878

Jules Melaerts - officer Belgian. Stayed in the Navy, his previous occupation on return from Antarctica. He made another polar journey, though this time to the Arctic. Became second in command of a training ship and ended his career in Zeebrugge (Belgium).

Jan Van Mirlo - sailor Belgian

Gustav Dufour - sailor Belgian

Louis Michotte - sailor Belgian

Carl Augustus Wiencke - sailor Belgian. Lost his life en route to Antarctica around the South Shetland Islands. Wiencke was clearing coal out of the scuppers where it had been washed by waves during a gale when he fell overboard. Amundsen and Cook on watch in the bridge heard his cries and went aft to see him floundering in huge seas. He was thrown a log attached to a line which he was able to grab hold of and was drawn closer to the ship. The captain, Lecointe volunteered to be lowered down to haul Wiencke in, and was almost inundated by waves and drowned himself. In the cold and violent seas, Wiencke let go of his life-line and was lost. His loss was taken hard on a ship already ill at ease.

Adam Tollefsen - sailor Norwegian. Tollefsen had a harder time than many during the long Antarctic night losing his sanity and needing to be treated for this by Dr. Cook. Fortunately he eventually recovered.

Hjalmar Johansen - sailor stoker - Nansen/Fram North Pole attempt 1893-96   Amundsen/Fram - first successful expedition to reach the South Pole - 1910-11 Fram Norwegian

Johan Koren - sailor Norwegian

Engebret Knudsen - sailor Norwegian. Knudsen was one of those who suffered from signs of mental illness during the Antarctic night, while he recovered to some degree, he died shortly after the voyage ended.

Through the First Antarctic Night by Frederick A. Cook USA UK	Roald Amundsen's Belgica Diary: The First Scientific Expedition to the Antarctic Roald Amundsen, Hugo Decleir (Editor)
Let Heroes Speak: Antarctic Explorers, 1772-1922    UK A brief synopsis of all major expeditions to Antarctica from Captain Cook to Shackleton.	Voyage of the Belgica: Fifteen Months in the Antarctic UK Adrien De Gerlache De Gomery, Maurice Raraty (Translator)

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