''15,000 Miles in a Ketch'' is a non-fiction book written by French explorer and sailor
Captain Raymond Rallier du Baty
Raymond Rallier du Baty (30 August 1881 – 7 May 1978) was a French sailor and explorer, from Lorient in Brittany, who carried out surveys of the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean in the early 20th century.
Rallier du ...
, published by
Thomas Nelson and Sons
Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in West Bow, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1798, as the namesake of its founder. It is a subsidiary of HarperCollins, the publishing unit of News Corp. It describes itself as a "world leading publisher a ...
in 1922. The book describes Captain du Baty's experience on the voyage of the ''J.B. Charcot'', a small French fishing
ketch
A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...
which weighed 48 tons. The aim of this voyage was to chart the
subantarctic
The sub-Antarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands ...
Kerguelen Islands
The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...
, which they funded by hunting
southern elephant seal
The southern elephant seal (''Mirounga leonina'') is one of two species of elephant seals. It is the largest member of the clade Pinnipedia and the order Carnivora, as well as the largest extant marine mammal that is not a cetacean. It gets it ...
s in the local area and selling their oil. The crew set out from
Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...
in September 1907. and sailed across the South Atlantic, Antarctic and Indian seas to outside
Melbourne Harbour
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metrop ...
in July 1909. The voyage totalled a distance of 15,000 miles, which is where the name of the novel originates.
Translations
Although du Baty's native language was French, 15,000 Miles in a Ketch was first published in English. It was later translated to and published in French in 1991 by Ed. maritimes et d'outre-mer under the title, Aventures aux Kerguelen.
Preface
Since
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 (t ...
went round the world in the
Golden Hind
''Golden Hind'' was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as ''Pelican,'' but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hat ...
there has perhaps been no voyage quite so venturesome as that in a little French fishing ketch, of forty-five tons, called the J.B. Charcot, which set out from Boulogne in September of the year 1907, and, sailing across the South Atlantic, and the Antarctic and Indian seas, lay to outside Melbourne Harbour in July 1909 - a distance of 15,000 miles.
She was commanded by two young French-men hardly more than boys in age, though captains in the French merchant service, named Raymond and Henri du Baty, and she carried a tiny crew of one seaman and three lads.
When a little while ago Captain Raymond Rallier du Baty was welcomed home by the French Geographical Society, Prince Roland Bonaparte, its president, summed up the voyage in the following words:
'You are sixteenth-century adventurers,' he said, 'who have been lost in the twentieth.'
The story of their remarkable trip in the little J. B. Charcot, named after the famous French explorer who has just returned from the Antarctic, as written by the leader of the expedition, is a true and vivid tale of romance and adventure which carries one back to the youth of the world, when men first began to venture out into unknown seas in frail craft. With high spirits, full of French gaiety, he tells of terrific storms encountered by his fishing boat, and of the many hardships which they faced with brave hearts.
References
External links
*{{Internet Archive, dli.ernet.286087, Fifteen Thousand Miles in a Ketch
1922 non-fiction books
French non-fiction books