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Adrien de Gerlache

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Adrien de Gerlache

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Auction Date:2016 Apr 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Gorgeous sepia 6.25 x 4.25 photo of a ship trapped within an Arctic ice field, affixed to its original photography sheet and mount, signed in French on the mount in black ink (translated), “The ‘Belgica’ of the Southern night, 1898. A small alterable token of a large and unalterable friendship, A. de G.” In fine condition, with a crease to left border of mount, and some chipping near initials.

In 1896, Belgian Royal Navy lieutenant Adrien de Gerlache began preparations for his first Antarctic expedition by purchasing the Norwegian whaler Patria. After extensively refitting the ship and building an ideal crew—Roald Amundsen and Frederick Cook among its members—he rechristened it the Belgica and set sail in August of 1897. Shortly after crossing into the Antarctic Circle on February 15, 1898, the ship became immovably trapped in the ice, forcing the crew to remain there through the winter. Battling off scurvy, hunger, and insanity, they eventually cleared a makeshift channel through the use of tools and dynamite. De Gerlache and the crew of the Belgica fled the ice fields on March 14, 1899, returning to Antwerp with more than a year’s worth of meteorological observations. A remarkable photograph of the ice-locked Belgica—the first we have offered—boldly signed by its idealistic young commander.