Jules Dumont d'Urville
Rear Admiral
Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (
May 23,
1790,
Condé-sur-Noireau,
France –
May 8,
1842,
Meudon,
France) was a
French explorer and
naval officer, who explored the south and western
Pacific,
Australia,
New Zealand, and
Antarctica.
His first feat as an explorer, one which brought him much acclaim and proved to be his most significant discovery, occurred in
1820 during an expedition to the
Greek islands. On that expedition, D'Urville recognized the true value of a recently unearthed statue as an ancient masterpiece that had been carved around the year
130 BC, and immediately arranged for the government of France to acquire one of the most valuable and famous statues in the world. The
Venus de Milo now stands in the
Louvre in
Paris.
In
1822 he sailed on a voyage around the world under
Captain Duperrey, and brought home a very fine collection of animals and plants. In
1826 he was sent to the Pacific, surveyed the coasts of
New Guinea,
New Zealand, and other islands, and found out the probable place of the death of
La Perouse. Following this expedition, he coined the terms
Micronesia and
Melanesia, distinguishing these Pacific cultures and island groups from
Polynesia. In
1837, on an expedition to the South Polar regions, he sailed along a coastal area of Antarctica that he named the
Adélie Coast in honor of his wife. On his return in
1840, he was made
rear admiral.
Later, in honor of his many valuable chartings, the
D'Urville Sea off Antarctica;
D'Urville Island in the
Joinville Island group in Antarctica;
Cape d'Urville,
Irian Jaya,
Indonesia; and
D'Urville Island in
New Zealand were named after him. The
Dumont d'Urville Station on Antarctica is also named after him, as is the Rue Dumont d'Urville, a street near the
Champs-Élysées in Paris'
8th district.
D'Urville was killed with his wife and son in a
railroad accident near
Meudon, France. He is buried in the
Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France. The account of his voyages was published in twenty-four volumes, with six large volumes of illustrations.
Dumont d'Urville is also a French base in Antarctica at 64°40' S and 140°1' E.From Dumont d'Urville in 1967 several French sounding rockets of the typ Dragon were launched.
* http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/dragon.htm
