TITLE: DUMONT d'URVILLE AND THE CITY of GIANTS
2001 22 X 30 INCHES

Jules Dumont d'Urville:
1790-1842, French naval officer, explorer, botanist, linguist.

On January 20th 1840, two ships of the French fleet were in sight of the
Antarctic coastline. Commander Jules Dumont d’Urville wrote, in his diary, about
the lofty icebergs they encountered: "Their perpendicular walls towered above
our masts; they over hung our ships, whose dimensions seemed ridiculously
diminutive compared with these enormous masses. One could imagine oneself in the
narrow streets of a city of giants."

The ships, Astrolabe and Zelee, were becalmed until the next day. At 9PM on
the 21st, landing parties from the ships scrambled ashore on the mainland of
Antarctica. An officer had the foresight to bring a bottle of Bordeaux to
toast their success.