The 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island was an astronomical expedition by French scientists to observe the 9 December 1874

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a tra ...

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 ...

Campbell Island in the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-smal ...

some 600 km south of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. It was one of several such scientific expeditions from various countries sent around the world to observe the rare astronomical event.

Preparation

The expedition was conducted under the auspices of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at th ...

which established a committee to plan the operation. A year before the transit was due, the French naval frigate FRWS ''Vire'', based at

Nouméa Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, an ...

and commanded by Captain J. Jacquemart, visited the island from 28 November to 25 December 1873. The officers and crew of the ship made a thorough survey of the coastline and set up a platform for astronomical equipment on the headland between Camp Cove and Garden Cove in Perseverance Harbour and cleared a path to the beach. They also planted a garden with potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables. The leader of the main expedition was A. Bouquet de la Grye, a naval

hydrographer Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary ...

, assisted by hydrographer P. Hatt and naval officer Th. Courrejolles who was in charge of the photographic equipment. The fourth scientist was naturalist and expedition doctor

Henri Filhol Henri Filhol Henri Filhol (13 May 1843 – 28 April 1902) was a French medical doctor, malacologist and naturalist born in Toulouse. He was the son of Édouard Filhol (1814-1883), curator of the Muséum de Toulouse. After receiving his early ...

. They were accompanied by a support staff which included technicians, carpenters and mechanics. The expedition departed

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

in June 1874. They reached Sydney on 21 August and joined the ''Vire'' which had brought equipment from Nouméa. They left Sydney on 2 September and arrived at Campbell Island on 9 September.

Campbell Island

After briefly checking North East Harbour and rejecting it as a venue for their work, they continued to Perseverance Harbour and Garden Cove. There, finding that there was insufficient space for their encampment and equipment and that nothing had survived in the vegetable garden except for a few cabbages, they set up their camp in Venus Bay instead. September was occupied by unloading the ''Vire'', erecting several prefabricated buildings and constructing a 20 m stone

jetty A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

. Pens were built for the sheep and pigs brought as food. On 22 September one of the technicians, Paul Duris, died of

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over severa ...

and was buried on the point opposite Venus Bay. The encampment was ready for occupation on 1 October. From mid October until mid November the ''Vire'' was away and the expedition members filled their time testing their equipment and repairing that which had been damaged on the outward voyage. Filhol collected natural history specimens and observed the wildlife. The weather was not helpful; the expedition endured a series of storms which caused damage to the buildings. On 9 December the skies were cloudy, though as the time of the transit approached the sun appeared briefly giving the observers a view of Venus against the sun's corona – a view obscured by clouds at the moment of first contact. They also had a twenty-second view of Venus at the end of the transit between third and fourth contacts as it was half off the sun's disc. No useful measurements were able to be made. It took three weeks for the expedition to dismantle their camp and load the ship. They departed on 28 December. Although observations and measurements of the transit had been unsuccessful, Filhol published a comprehensive account of his examination of the natural history of the island, while the chart produced by the naval officers subsequently formed the basis of maps of the island and British Admiralty charts for several decades. Many geographic features were named by the expedition after its own personnel and members of the transit committee in Paris, as well as for other expedition-related objects, including: * Courrejolles Point * De la Vire Point * Filhol Peak * Garden Cove * Jacquemart Island * Mount Azimuth * Mount Dumas * Mount Faye * Mount Fizeau * Mount Paris * Puiseux Peak * Venus Bay * Yvon Villarceau Peak

Other expeditions

The Campbell Island expedition was one of six French expeditions sent to observe the 1874 transit. The other two sites in the southern hemisphere were Saint Paul Island in the Indian Ocean and Nouméa in New Caledonia, while in the northern hemisphere French astronomers visited

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in th ...

in Japan,

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

in China, and

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in Vietnam. Other countries which sent similar expeditions were the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Campbell Island, New Zealand Transit of Venus Pacific expeditions 1874 in science History of astronomy French Academy of Sciences Expeditions from France Subantarctic expeditions 1874 in New Zealand