Baron Gaston de Gerlache de Gomery (

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, 17 November 1919 –

Oudenaarde Oudenaarde (; french: Audenarde ; in English sometimes ''Oudenarde'') is a Belgian municipality in the Flemish province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Oudenaarde proper and the towns of Bevere, Edelare, Eine, Ename, H ...

, 13 July 2006) was a Belgian polar explorer. Gaston de Gerlache was the son of

Adrien de Gerlache Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery (; 2 August 1866 – 4 December 1934) was a Belgian officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99. Early years Born in Hasselt in eastern Belgium as th ...

, and followed in the tracks of his father by leading the second Belgian expedition to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

in 1957–1958, 60 years after his father led the 1897–1899

Belgian Antarctic Expedition The Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899 was the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic region. Led by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery aboard the RV ''Belgica'', it was the first Belgian Antarctic expedition and is considered the firs ...

aboard the ship ''Belgica''. Gaston de Gerlache and his crew established the

King Baudouin Baudouin (;, ; nl, Boudewijn Albert Karel Leopold Axel Maria Gustaaf, ; german: Balduin Albrecht Karl Leopold Axel Maria Gustav. 7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993), Dutch name Boudewijn, was King of the Belgians from 17 July 1951 until his dea ...

Base in 1958 in the context of the International Geophysical Year. On 11 December 1958 an aircraft with four Belgians, led by Gaston de Gerlache crashed in the Crystal Mountains, 250 km from King Baudouin Base, Antarctica. The crew was searched for and rescued on 16 December by the Soviet polar pilot V. M. Perov on an

Li-2 The Lisunov Li-2 (NATO reporting name: Cab), originally designated PS-84, was a license-built Soviet-version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Moscow-Khimki and, after evacuation in 1941, at TAPO in Tashkent. The proj ...

aircraft, that had taken off from

Mirny Station The Mirny Station (russian: Мирный, literally ''Peaceful'') is a Russian (formerly Soviet) first Antarctic science station located in Queen Mary Land, Antarctica, on the Antarctic coast of the Davis Sea. The station is managed by the ...

.Rescue of Belgian Plane Crew in Antarctic
Soviet Bloc International Geophysical Year Information, 16 January 1959, U. S. Department of Commerce, pp. 18–19 In 1960 Gaston de Gerlache published his travel journal ''Retour dans l'antarctique''. A year later he made a documentary about his expedition named ''Plein sud''. An article, "Belgium in the Antarctic", written by Gaston de Gerlache de Gomery appeared in the ''Geographical'' magazine (May 1962 issue). Mount Gaston de Gerlache in the

Queen Fabiola Mountains Queen Fabiola Mountains is a group of mountains in Antarctica, long, consisting mainly of seven small massifs which trend north–south, forming a partial barrier to the flow of inland ice. The mountains stand in isolation about southwest of th ...

on Antarctica was named after him.

References

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Artikel in Trends over Gaston de Gerlache
Belgian explorers 1919 births 2006 deaths {{Belgium-stub