---
title: "European and American voyages of scientific exploration"
chunk: 8/11
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_and_American_voyages_of_scientific_exploration"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:39:10.846547+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The second voyage of L'Astrolabe, this time accompanied by La Zélée, sailed on 7 September 1837 and at the end of November, the ships reached the Strait of Magellan. Dumont thought there was sufficient time to explore the strait for three weeks, taking into account the precise maps drawn by Phillip Parker King between 1826 and 1830, before heading south again but two weeks after seeing their first iceberg, the ships were encased in pack ice for a while. After reaching the South Orkney Islands, the expedition headed directly to the South Shetland Islands and the Bransfield Strait. Then located some land which was named Terre de Louis-Philippe (now called Graham Land), the Joinville Island group and Rosamel Island (now called Andersson Island). In poor shape the two ships headed for Talcahuano in Chile. Turning south they led for the first time some experiments to determine the approximate position of the South Magnetic Pole, discovered the Terre Adélie on 20 January 1840, and landed two days later on an islet of the Géologie Archipelago (66°36′19″S 140°4′0″E) 4 km from the mainland to take mineral and animal samples.

Captains: Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790–1842) (L'Astrolabe), Charles Hector Jacquinot (1796–1879) (La Zélée)
Physician-naturalist: on "The Astrolabe", Jacques Bernard Hombron (1798–1852) surgeon-major of 2nd class and Louis Le Breton (1818–1866) surgeon 3rd class and "La Zélée" Honoré Jacquinot (1815–1887) 3rd class surgeon, Elie Jean François Le Guillou (1806 – after 1860) surgeon, 3rd class
Preparer-naturalist, phrenologist: Pierre Marie Alexandre Dumoutier (1797–1871)
Illustrator: Ernest Goupil (1814–1840) (replaced on his death on 1 April 1840 to Hobart-Town by Louis Le Breton surgeon, 3rd class)
Hydrographer-cartographer: Clément Adrien Vincendon-Dumoulin (1811–1858)
Publications: J. Dumont d'Urville then Clément Adrien Vincendon-Dumoulin, assisted Desgraz Secretary of L'Astrolabe "Histoire du voyage" from Tome 4 to 10 tome 1, tome 2, tome 3, tome 4, tome 5, volume 6, tome 7, tome 8, tome 9, tome 10.
For all other publications by themes and authors, refer to Expédition Dumont d'Urville in the Publications part.

==== 1837–43: HMS Beagle ====
The mission was the hydrographic survey of the coasts of Australia. In 1839 Lieutenant Stokes sighted a natural harbour which Wickham named Port Darwin after Charles Darwin, who had previously sailed round the world on the Beagle. The later settlement nearby eventually became the city of Darwin, Northern Territory. In 1841 Wickham fell ill, and Stokes took command.

Captain: John Clements Wickham (1798–1864), succeeded by John Lort Stokes (1812–1885)
Physician-naturalist: Benjamin Bynoe (1804–1865)
Publication: J. L. Stokes, Discoveries in Australia, With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (London, 1846)

==== 1838–42: USS Vincennes and USS Peacock ====

The "Wilkes Expedition", included naturalists, botanists, a mineralogist, taxidermists, artists and a philologist in the ships Vincennes, Peacock, the brig Porpoise, the store-ship Relief, and two schooners, Sea Gull, and Flying Fish.
Departing Hampton Roads on 18 August 18, 1838, the expedition stopped at Madeira and Rio de Janeiro, Argentina; visited Tierra del Fuego, Chile, Peru, the Tuamotu Archipelago, Samoa, and New South Wales. From Sydney, the fleet sailed into the Antarctic Ocean in December 1839 and reported the discovery "of an Antarctic continent west of the Balleny Islands" of which it sighted the coast on 25 January 1840. Next, the expedition visited Fiji and the Hawaiian Islands in 1840. In July 1840, two sailors, one of whom was Wilkes' nephew, Midshipman Wilkes Henry, were killed while bartering for food on Malolo, in Fiji. Wilkes' retribution was swift and severe. According to an old man of Malolo Island, nearly 80 Fijians were killed in the incident.
From December 1840 to March 1841, his men with native Hawaiian porters hauled a pendulum to the summit of Mauna Loa to measure gravity. He explored the west coast of North America, including the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, the Columbia River, San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River, in 1841.
The expedition returned by way of the Philippines, the Sulu Archipelago, Borneo, Singapore, Polynesia and the Cape of Good Hope, reaching New York City on 10 June 1842. This was the first circumnavigation of the world funded by the Government of the United States and the last by a sailing vessel. The expedition was poorly prepared and of five vessels which left, only two returned to port. The natural history collections were very rich with 50,000 plant specimens (approximately 10 000 species) and 4,000 specimens of animals (half being new species).

Captains: Charles Wilkes (1798–1877) (USS Vincennes) and William Levereth Hudson (USS Peacock) (1794–1862)
Doctor-tries: J.L. Fox
Naturalists: Charles Pickering (1805–1878), Titian Ramsay Peale (1799–1885), James Dwight Dana (1813–1895), William Dunlop Brackenridge (1810–1893)
Publication: V. Wilkes, Narrative of the United States exploring Expedition. (twenty volumes, 1845–1876)

==== 1839–43: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror ====

This British trip, sponsored by the Royal Society, was to discover magnetic and geographic features of the Antarctic. The expedition was prepared with great care by James Clark Ross, already familiar with Polar navigation. The two ships left the United Kingdom on 19 September 1839, stopping to explore the Kerguelen Islands in 1840, and then on Tasmania to build a magnetic observatory for the Antarctic and to conduct cartographic work. Mount Erebus and the Ross Sea were discovered during this journey. After three attempts, Ross admitted that the magnetic pole lay in land that he could not reach. Following the footsteps of his uncle John Ross, he performed the first deep sea surveys up to 4800 m (2677 fathoms), using ropes. Unfortunately biological specimens collected decomposed.