Pourquoi Pas? (Charcot)

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
shipstamps
Posts: 0
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:12 pm

Pourquoi Pas? (Charcot)

Post by shipstamps » Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:05 pm

Over the centuries, Polar Regions have been a source of fascination to explorers. Jean-Baptiste Charcot was one of them. Put in Charcot’s own words, the vast expanses of ice had “a strange luring effect” on him. The irresistible calling became combined with scientific interest. Jean-Baptiste Charcot was convinced that “doing something useful” was necessary above all else.
The son of Jean Martin Charcot, the great Salpêtrière hospital doctor and the inventor of modern neurology, Jean-Baptiste, was born 15th July 1867 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, on the outskirts of Paris. He completed medical studies and set up his own surgery, which he had a tendency to forget about, preferring cruises in cold countries, for instance to the Faeroe Isles and Iceland. He tried his hand at scientific observation and felt that this was where his calling lay. The divorce from his first wife gave him the excuse he needed to break all links with his country. Jean-Baptiste Charcot fulfilled his dream in 1903 when he set forth for Antarctica on a threemasted schooner, Le Français. The mission met with considerable success: 1,000 kilometres of coasts mapped out, 75 cases of notes, measurements and collections destined to the French national Natural History Museum.
Charcot married once more, this time to Meg Cléry in 1907.
Dr. Charcot's second expedition to the Antarctic was in the Pourquoi Pas? a wooden, barque-rigged screw-steamer, built by Gautier of St. Malo, to the design of a British firm of naval architects. She proved to be one of the best Polar ships ever built. The vessel was equipped with electric light, superb scientific equipment, and carried 14 small boats designed to perform various specialised tasks. Her crew numbered 22, and there were eight scientists on board, each of whom had his own private cabin and workroom. The spacious, lofty messroom contained 18 bunks, the petty officers having a messroom and cabins to themselves. The Pourquoi Pas? was laid down in September 1907, and was completed on May 18, 1908. Her white hull, rounded section, and lofty funnel made her familiar to everyone In St. Malo. She was 139.7ft. x 31.2ft. x 15.4ft. The vessel left Cherbourg, after coaling, on August 31, 1908, and returned to Le Havre on June 3, 1910. She did not visit the Antarctic again, but made a series of oceanographical cruises and annual visits to Greenland, the last of which took place in July 1936.
On September 15, she left Reykjavik, Iceland, and that night ran into a gale. At 5.15 the following morning she twice struck a submerged rock but managed to get clear only to be driven on to a reef about 1.5 miles from land. Apart from one man all the crew perished. Dr. Charcot was last seen on the bridge of his vessel after he had given orders to abandon ship.
He was to be the first Frenchman to walk on the eastern coast of Greenland in 1925. Captain Charcot is remembered as a talented explorer, appreciated for his sincere kindness, his availability and his respect for nature.

Various web sites.
FSAT SG24, 94,214/5 Brit Ant SG74a Falk Dep SG36 Greenland SG?
Attachments
SG24
SG24
SG94
SG94
SG214
SG214
SG215
SG215
SG74a
SG74a
SG G36
SG G36
2007 (Small).jpg
536.jpeg

Arturo
Posts: 723
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:11 pm

Re: Pourquoi Pas? (Charcot)

Post by Arturo » Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:37 pm

Pourquoi Pas

Laos 1983, S.G.?, Scott: 492.
Attachments
Pourquoi Pas.jpg

Arturo
Posts: 723
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:11 pm

Re: Pourquoi Pas? (Charcot)

Post by Arturo » Sun Feb 01, 2015 9:24 pm

Pourquoi Pas? IV (Barque) 1908 (Charcot)

The Pourquoi Pas ? IV was the fourth ship built for Jean-Baptiste Charcot. She completed the second Charcot expedition of the Antarctic regions from 1908 to 1910. Charcot died aboard when she was wrecked on 16 September 1936, off the coast of Iceland. Of the forty men on board, only one survived.

In 1907, Jean-Baptiste Charcot launched a new Antarctic expedition and began work on a new ship, the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV, a three-masted barque designed for polar exploration, equipped with a motor and containing three laboratories and a library. It was built at Saint-Malo to plans by Francois Gautier, in his shipyard.

From 1908 to 1910, Charcot set out in the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV, wintering at Petermann Island, on his second polar expedition. He returned to France in 1910 laden with scientific discoveries - he had finished the mapping of Alexander Island and discovered a new island, Charcot Land.

In 1912, the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV became the French Navy's first school ship. From 1918 to 1925, Charcot took the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV on various scientific missions in the North Atlantic, the English Channel, the Mediterranean and the Faroe Islands, mainly to study underwater lithology and geology by means of drag nets, to whose material and use Charcot made major improvements.

From 1925 onwards, limited by age, Charcot lost command of the ship (though he remained on board as head of the expedition) for her many voyages around the Arctic glaciers. In 1926, Charcot and the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV explored the eastern coast of Greenland and brought back many fossils and samples of insects and flora.

In 1928, the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV set out to investigate the disappearance of the large French seaplane Latham 47 with the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen on board, which had itself been looking for the Italian general Umberto Nobile, who had set out to cross the North Pole in the dirigible Italia and not been heard from since.

In 1934, Charcot and the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV set up an ethnographic mission in Greenland headed by Paul-Émile Victor, who spent a year in Angmagssalik living amid the Eskimo population. In 1935, Charcot and the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV returned there to look for Victor and his three companions (Gessain, Pérez et Matter) and began the mapping of these regions. On 16 September that year, the ship managed to reach a small port to escape a cyclone which ravaged the coasts of Iceland.

In September 1936, returning from the mission to Greenland to deliver scientific material to Victor's mission (which had just traversed the ice sheets in 50 days) and after carrying out a survey mission, the Pourquoi-Pas ? IV stopped at Reykjavík to re-provision with fuel on 13 September. They set out for Saint-Malo two days later, on 15 September, but on 16 September the ship was caught in a violent cyclonic storm and lost on the reefs of Álftanes at Mýrar. 23 of the crew were lost in the wreck and 17 survivors died before rescue came, leaving only one survivor, Eugène Gonidec, master steersman. Jean-Baptiste Charcot was one of the dead, aged 69. Pourquoi Pas Point and Pourquoi Pas Island were later named after it.

Malagasy 1993, S.G.?, Scott: 1131h.

Source: Wikipedia.
Attachments
Pourquoi Pas.jpg
1.jpg
2.jpg
3.jpg

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Pourquoi Pas? (Charcot)

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:16 pm

POURQUOI-PAS? – 80th Memorial Anniversary

September 16th this year marks the 80th anniversary of the foundering of the French research vessel POURQUOI-PAS? (Why not?) at Mýrar in Borgarfjörður. This event is remembered as one of the most tragic maritime accidents in Iceland. The ship’s commander was the great arctic explorer Dr. Jean-Baptiste Charcot. 40 young Frenchmen, scientists and fishermen, lost their lives that day. The POURQUOI-PAS? was returning from her thirteenth research expedition to the Arctic when an engine failure caused the ship to moor in Reykjavik. Jean-Baptiste Charcot (1867-1936) was one of the pioneers in exploring and mapping the polar territories in early last century. He had numerous friends in Iceland and the loss of the POURQUOI-PAS? came as tragic news to Icelanders at the time. When memorial services were held for those who lost their lives, all the shops were closed in the capital, an unprecedented mark of honor for a foreign person. A biography of Charcot (in French) by Serge Kahn was translated into Icelandic by Friðrik Rafnsson and published by JPV Editions in 2006. In Sandgerði, a comprehensive permanent exhibition curated by the University Centre sheds light on the life and work of Dr. Charcot. Charcot will also be remembered with a symposium held at the University of Iceland in September.
http://wopa-stamps.com/index.php?contro ... e&id=31149
Iceland 2016 1000g sgMS?, scott?

Iceland 2016 1000g sgMS?, scott?
Togo 2015 1500F sg?, scott?
French Antarctic Territory 2022 2 = 2.00Euro sgMS?, Scott? More info on this issue is given at: viewtopic.php?t=18201
Attachments
Tog072115OceanographySht.jpg
2016 Pourquoi-Pas FDC.jpg
2016 Pourquoi-Pas MS.jpg
2022 POURQUOI PAS i (2).jpg
2022 POURQUOI PAS i (2).jpg (157.83 KiB) Viewed 223 times
Last edited by aukepalmhof on Thu Nov 24, 2022 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Pourquoi Pas? (Charcot)

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:46 pm

The POURQUOI-PAS? Is sinking. Standing on the bridge, Jean-Baptiste Charcot said serenely: "Ah, my poor children! These are his last words, reported by the only survivor of the shipwreck. Not far from the Icelandic coast, on September 16, 1936, a legend of polar exploration died out.

Extract from the philatelic document.
The stamp is a summary of the universe of Jean-Baptiste Charcot: the POURQUOI PAS? The polar-regions, the seagull Rita who was his pet.

France 2017 1.31Euro sg?, scott?
http://www.wopa-stamps.com/index.php?co ... 20170425_2
Attachments
2017 pourqoui pas.jpg

Post Reply