Captain Raymond Rallier du Baty on board the J

Raymond Rallier du Baty (30 August 1881 – 7 May 1978) was a French sailor and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, from

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

, who carried out surveys of 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 in the southern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

in the early 20th century. Rallier du Baty took part in the 1904-1907 Third

French Antarctic Expedition The French Antarctic Expedition is any of several French expeditions in Antarctica. First expedition In 1772, Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec and the naturalist Jean Guillaume Bruguière sailed to the Antarctic region in search of the fabl ...

led by

Jean-Baptiste Charcot Jean-Baptiste-Étienne-Auguste Charcot (15 July 1867 – 16 September 1936), born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a French scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. His father was the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893). Life Jean- ...

. From September 1907 to July 1909 Captain Raymond Rallier du Baty sailed from Boulogne to

Melbourne 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 met ...

in a 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 ...

, known as the J. B. Charcot. The J. B. Charcot weighed forty-eight tons and completed this trip in 15,000 miles. The reason for this voyage was primarily to chart the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands. Du Baty and his brother Henri du Baty funded this expedition by harvesting the oil of the

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 its ...

s in the area. Raymond Rallier du Baty wrote a book detailing his experience on the J. B. Charcot, entitled

15,000 Miles in a Ketch ''15,000 Miles in a Ketch'' is a non-fiction book written by French explorer and sailor Captain Raymond Rallier du Baty, published by Thomas Nelson and Sons in 1922. The book describes Captain du Baty's experience on the voyage of the ''J.B. C ...

. They returned again in 1913-1914 in ''La Curieuse'' to carry out further surveys. These efforts led to the publication of the first full map of the archipelago in 1922. Rallier du Baty is commemorated in several geographic features, including

Péninsule Rallier du Baty The Rallier du Baty Peninsula (french: Péninsule Rallier du Baty or ''Presqu'ile Rallier du Baty'') is a peninsula of Grande Terre, the main island of the subantarctic Kerguelen archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean. It occupies the south-we ...

in the Kerguelen Archipelago, and

Rallier Island Rallier Island () is a small island with a small islet off its north side, lying 0.25 nautical miles (0.5 km) west of the northwest extremity of Booth Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago. Discovered by the French Antarctic Expedition under Jea ...

and Rallier Channel in the

Wilhelm Archipelago The Wilhelm Archipelago is an island archipelago off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula in Antarctica. Wilhelm Archipelago consists of numerous islands, the largest of which are Booth Island and Hovgaard Island. The archipelago extends f ...

of the Antarctic Peninsula. Raymond Rallier du Baty's father was a commander in the French navy and his uncle was an admiral.

Publications

* 1917 - ''

''. Thomas Nelson and Sons: London. * 1946 - ''Dans l'ombre de Jean Charcot. Notes personnelles de R.Rallier du Baty transcrites et complètèes par Pierre Navarre''. Arthaud: Paris. (In French). * 1991 - ''Aventures aux Kerguelen''. Ouest France. (A French translation of ''Fifteen Thousand Miles in A Ketch'').

References

1881 births 1978 deaths People from Lorient French explorers French sailors Kerguelen Islands Subantarctic expeditions {{Explorer-stub