The explorer Luigi Maria D’Albertis was born in Voltri a coastal port near Genoa on 21 November 1841.
His uncle, who sent him to a Jesuit school, raised him as an orphan.
He was there influenced by a priest to study unexplored places
1860 Took part under command of Giuseppe Garibaldi in the invading of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which led to the unification of the Kingdom of Italy.
When he returned in Genoa he started studying in the Museum of National History.
25 November 1871 together with an other naturalist he left Genoa, and arrived in the Vogelkop, at that time Dutch Papua New Guinea on 09 April 1872.
There he collected exotic birds and headhunting trophies before he traveled to Sydney, Australia. From there he returned to Europe, where he stayed till the end of 1874.
Then he traveled to Yule Island in the Torres Strait in March 1875, he used the island as his base camp, and from there he traveled along the coast of Papua New Guinea to collect specimens.
During one of these expeditions he joined the small steamer ELLENGOWAN and steamed 150 miles upstreams the Fly River, before returning.
D’Albertis was very disappointed that the ELLENGOWAN turned around; he was convinced that this river was the key to the interior of Papua New Guinea.
After this voyage he got the backing from the government of New South Wales, who did give him the riverboat NEVA for a new expedition upstream of the Fly River. The NEVA got a tonnage of about 9 tons.
With a crew of 9 men from around the world he sailed on 23 May 1876, after eight days he had already passed the point where the ELLENGOWAN returned. Hostile tribes met him but by firing his guns he scared the tribesmen off. Shortage of food and trouble among his crew did not stop D’Albertis, he collected specimens of plants and animals, unknown in the western world.
27 June 1876 about 580 miles upstream from the delta, the river became too narrow to proceed further. He was in sight of a mountain chain which he named King Victor Emmanuel in honour of the King of Italy (they are now known as Star Mountains). He stole two skeletons from a burial platform on this expedition.
When the NEVA returned she entered a tributaries of the Fly River but on 04 July she grounded, and they had to wait for heavy rain before she became free. He named its tributaries Alice after the wife of the New South Wales Governor.
06 July she was free again and the NEVA returned home, at that time most of the crew were sick with fever. During the return voyage they were shooting at tribesmen who were coming to near. After 10 days she reached again the delta of the river. During a fierce encounter with the natives 45 arrows struck the NEVA.
The expedition was a great success and they came back whit large numbers of exotic specimens.
The next year D’Albertis returned to Sydney to look for financially backing for a new expedition.
He succeeded in a second NEVA expedition in 1877 but by repeating the voyage of the previous year, he was met by serious problems with hostile natives, after the prior bad experience they had with D’Albertis first expedition, and he ended 50 miles short of where he had gone in 1876, after a six month voyage. He encountered again crew problems, which deserted or became so sick to work.
After this voyage D’Albertis returned to Italy in 1878, where he spent the following years in writing up the histories of his expedition.
Then he moved to Sardinia where he spent the rest of his life.
He died on Sardinia in the town of Sassari on 2 September 1901.
Papua New Guinea 1987 45t sg552, scott?. 1999 50t sg858, scott?
Source: some-web-sites. Explorers and Discoverers of the World, edited by Daniel B Baker.