![]() ![]() Among its members were Frederick Cook and Roald Amundsen, who would later become famed polar explorers. Led by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery, then in his early 30s, it is considered the first expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition was the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic region. ![]() The ship was stuck fast for more than a year and her men became the first to endure the physical and mental torture of winter south of the Antarctic Circle. What began as an effort to chart the little-known polar regions, document their flora and fauna and geology, and reach the south magnetic pole turned into an epic struggle for survival after de Gerlache sailed the Belgica deep into the pack ice of the Bellingshausen Sea. Commanded by the young naval lieutenant Adrien de Gerlache, the Belgian Antarctic Expedition was to be the first purely scientific mission to the southernmost continent. ![]() On August 16, 1897, a three-mast barque called the Belgica left Antwerp, Belgium, and set sail for Antarctica. From “Fragments du récit de voyage,” by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery, part of Résultats du voyage de la Belgica en 1897-99 sous le commandement de A. ![]() The layout of the Belgica, with officers’ quarters at the stern, laboratories amidships, and crew quarters in the forecastle, belowdecks. ![]()
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