---
title: "European and American voyages of scientific exploration"
chunk: 11/11
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"
---

Albatross belonged to the Committee on Fisheries of the United States and it carried out numerous scientific expeditions under the direction of Alexander Emanuel Agassiz (1835–1910). The primary goal was an inventory of the Pacific fishery reserves but many other observations are carried out by Townsend and other scientists.

Captain: Zera Tanner (1835–1906)
Naturalist: Charles Haskins Townsend (1859–1944)

==== 1897–98: Lila and Mattie ====
Zoologist Walter Rothschild commissioned the Webster-Harris Expedition to the Galápagos Islands from June 1897 to February 1898. This expedition on the schooner Lila & Mattie is well-described in the 1983 book titled Dear Lord Rothschild by Miriam Rothschild. In the 1936 book Oceanic Birds of South America by Robert Cushman Murphy, Rollo Beck describes the seminal telegram from C.M Harris that started his long and important association with the Galápagos Islands. The original of this telegram is in the Rollo Beck Collection in the California Academy of Sciences Archives. There is also a photo from Beck's Sierra Nevada collecting trip in the archives of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology on the University of California, Berkeley campus. The story of buried treasure on Tower Island connected with this trip was apparently known to Captain Lindbridge during this voyage, but the information was not revealed until after the group had left Tower Island. This trip lasted from June 1897 to February 1898, after having started on a tragic note with the deaths of three of the original crew to Yellow Fever, and having to reconstitute the expedition in San Francisco, California.

Naturalist: Rollo Beck (1870–1950)
Organizer: Frank Blake Webster
Organizer: Charles Miller Harris

==== 1897–98: Belgica ====
Adrien de Gerlache was an officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897 to 1899. He acquired Le Patria in 1896 renaming it Belgica. He left Antwerp on 16 August 1897 passing winter in the Antarctic before returning to Belgium on 5 November 1898.

Captain: Adrien de Gerlache (1866–1934)
Naturalist: Emil Racovita (1868–1947)

==== 1898–99: Valdivia ====

A German deep-sea expedition exploring in Antarctic regions, the Valdivia being a steamship in the Hamburg-American line of steamers. The subscription was launched by Georg von Neumayer (1826–1909) and only consisted of a single vessel instead of the two planned. The expedition quickly reached the Cape of Good Hope where the study of deep waters began. The ship reached Antarctic pack ice and rediscovered Bouvet Island followed by the Kerguelen Islands. For the first time, evidence of deep water in this region was provided by survey. The Valdivia then passed to the Indian Ocean, studying the coast of Sumatra before returning to its port of origin 29 April 1899.

Captain: Adalbert Krech (1852–1907)
Naturalist: Carl Chun (1852–1914).
Publication: C. Chun (1903), "Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres".

== See also ==
Circumnavigation
History of navigation
List of explorers
List of circumnavigations
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
U.S. National Geodetic Survey
Chronology of European exploration of Asia
Timeline of European exploration
List of Arctic expeditions
List of Antarctic expeditions
Apostles of Linnaeus
Capture of Manuel Briones

== References ==

== Bibliography ==