J.-B. Charcot; father of French polar research

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Malaurie, Jean
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1989
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Arctic; Bellingshausen Sea; Charcot; Pourquoi Pas; Pourquoi-Pas; Pourquoi-Pas?; Antarc*; Antarctica; Iceland; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400010780; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400010780

Abstract Born in 1867 and trained as a doctor, Jean-Baptiste Charcot gave up a fashionable medical practice to become, in his mid-thirties, France's leading polar explorer. His two major expeditions to the peninsular sector of Antarctica and the Bellingshausen Sea (1903–05, 1908–10) resulted in many new discoveries of land and established his reputation as a leader in the fields of scientific oceanography, research and survey. After service in World War I he continued polar work with a series of ten summer expeditions to the Arctic (1926–36), in which many young explorers were trained. Lost with his ship Pourquoi Pas? in a storm off Iceland in 1936, Charcot is remembered for qualities of leadership and scientific integrity which inspire the current generation of French polar scientists.