La DIVES in the expedition to St Paul in 1874

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The Sailing vessel depict on the MS must be the L:a DIVES she was the vessel on which the expedition sailed to St Paul in 1874.

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES OF THE
FRENCH SOUTHERN LANDS IN 1874
The year 1874 marks 150 years of the transit of Venus in front of the Sun and of the scientific expeditions carried out in the southern lands to observe this astronomical phenomenon. Six observatories were built in the Austral Islands by expeditions from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France. In Kerguelen, the British built 3 observatories. One of them located near Le Pouce was located in 2020 by the TAAF heritage mission. Germans and Americans also built observatories in Kerguelen. A French expedition led by Ernest Mouchez built an observatory on Saint-Paul Island.

https://taaf.fr/actualite/le-programme- ... est-sorti/

Amédée Ernest Barthélémy Mouchez
was born in Madrid on August 24, 1821. His family, originally from Chatou, had settled in Spain to set up commercial businesses. In 1837 Amédée returned to France to enter the naval school. Between 1839 and 1854, Mouchez often sailed to the coasts of South America and the Antilles for hydrographic missions. From 1850 to 1854, he toured the world on the corvette  La CAPRICIEUSE, he then went, for 10 years, to survey the coasts of Brazil to draw up hydrographic maps. In 1874 he led a mission which took him to Saint Paul Island, and which consisted of observing the passage of Venus in front of the sun, a phenomenon which only occurs once a century. It was with the birth of the southern park of the city of Paris that Rear-Admiral Mouchez approved the opening of an observatory dedicated to the navy in 1875. Rear-Admiral Mouchez from 1878 until his death, will direct the observatory. In 1887, he decided to create the sky map, a project in which 18 observatories around the world participated. He renovated the devices, opened the observatory to the public and unified the time in France, to the time of the Paris meridian. Rear Admiral Mouchez died on June 25, 1892.

source: Wikipedia

The crew boarded in Marseille on July 28, 1874, on board of the liner AMAZONE, while the material is transported by a transport
of the State, La DIVES. The meeting takes place in Réunion , where the crew joins La DIVES for the expedition to St Paul Island.
More on the La Dives is given on: viewtopic.php?p=7896&hilit=DIVES#p7896

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