The ships of French Southern and Antarctic Territories

The scientific research in Antarctic as in Arctic has always required specially conceived ships. First they allowed to discover isolated lands, then at 19th and 20th century transport and supplying.
Here is the history of some ships which mark the history of Southern and Antarctic French Territories.

This overseas territories is composed of 4 districts :

on Antarctic continent , Terre Adelie, Dumont d'Urville base, by 140° 01E 66° 40S

St Paul et Amsterdam islands, Martin de Vivies base, by 77° 32E 27° 41S

the 5 Crozet islands , Alfred Faure base, by 51° 52E 6° 24S

Kerguelen archipelago , Port-aux-Français base, by 70° 13E 49° 21S

AMSTERDAM island is discovered by Juan Sebastian de El Cano, on board of VICTORIA , taking back the 18 survivors of Magellan expedition .

The caraque displaced less than 90 tons ; she was a loading ship, heavier than the exploration caravels of Caribbean.

In 1771, Nicolas Marion-Dufresne receives two flutes Mascarin and Marquis-de-Castries.

Colour test

After having rejoined Bourbon island then Capetown, left on 28-12-1771, the ships sail to south ; two weeks later, they discover Austral islands (Marion and Prince Edward Islands); on January 29 , the "îles Froides" (Cold islands) are in view (occidental group of Crozet) ; on January 24, they land on îles Arides (Dry islands), that the First mate, Julien Crozet, will take possession. After a call in Tasmania, they land on New-Zealand where Marion-Dufresne is killed after a 3 months stay.

Two French flutes, La FORTUNE and le GROS VENTRE, mastered by the knight de Kerguelen-Tremarec form an expedition in the Southern Seas and on February 14, 1772 they sail in front of Fortune islands. A second expedition occurs in march 1772 with the vessel Le ROLLAND and the frigate L'OISEAU.

ASTROLABE

LA COQUILLE, a gabare of 380 t, used by Duperrey in 1822 is a former horses carrier. Jules Dumont d'Urville renamed her ASTROLABE and arrives in front of Antarctic continent on January 19, 1840 and gives her his wife name, Terre Adélie.

LA NOVARA

This Austro-Hungarian frigate, built at Venice from 1843 to 1850, is selected for a round-the-world scientific expedition from 1857 to 1859. She approaches St Paul et Amsterdam on November 9 1857 for a first scientific mission.

To know more : SMS Novara Home Page


	HEROÏNE French royal navy Corvette used in 1887 to check and complete information on Crozet archipelago .	TAMARIS Iron barque in service for Bordes from 1877 to 1887 built at La Seyne sur Mer (463 t) wrecked at Crozet island in the night of 8 to 9/3/1887. The three castaways fix an iron plate to an albatross neck to call rescues.

MEURTHE is a three-masted aviso-transport built in 1885 in Rochefort for the French Navy. In 1887, MEURTHE was assigned to the local resort of Reunion Island. In addition to its commander Lieutenant Frédéric Richard-Foy. the staff includes Ensign René Daveluy, future rear admiral. 1 While on a stopover at Diego-Suarez, Madagascar, the MEURTHE was sent to the Crozet Islands to rescue the castaways of the TAMARIS who took refuge there. Before the arrival of the aviso, the castaways, short of provision, left their island aboard a rowboat and disappeared at sea.


EUREviso. She leaves Diego-Suarez on 12-12-1892. Calls in Kerguelen then St Paul (22-1-1893) and Amsterdam (24/1/94) before going back to La Réunion and Madagascar. Used to install a food store in St Paul.		YVES DE KERGUELEN Barque Sunrise, built at Cowes in 1877 (220 gross tons) She leaves Le Havre on 8-12-1912 with 15 crew and arrives at Cape Town on 14/3 to stay until 12/4/1913. She arrives at Port Couvreux at the end of April 1913 for map making and leaves on July 31 to return to Capetown (23/9) where she is disarmed on 3/12 to be sold on 11/12.

GAUSS is purchased in 1904 by the Canadian explorer Bernier to take possession of Baffin Land in right of Canada, November 9, 1906. To know more: http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/usque-ad-mare/chapitre4-5.htm
GAUSS is built at Kiel (Germany) in 1900 from a model of FRAM. She leaves Kiel on 11-8-1901 with the expedition of Eric von Drygalski. She arrives at Kerguelen on 31-12-1901 and leaves Observatory bay on 31-1-1902


	LE FRANÇAIS is a three masted schooner built at St Malo equipped of a 125 hp auxiliary engine. Charcot will realise an important hydrographic work in the West of Palmer peninsula ; the ship will be then sold in Argentina.

40 metres long , 9m20 beam, 4m30 draft in load, POURQUOI-PAS is the first polar ship to have crossed the two polar circles .
First ship built in France for a polar expedition , she is equipped of two laboratories and their annexes, of a large dark-room. The ship conceived at St Malo may accommodate 34 crew members.		Rigged as a full-rigged ship, with a tonnage of 460 tons she can reach 11 knots under sails and 8 knots with a 500 hp auxiliary engine . From 1908 to 1910, she winters in Antarctic (Palmer archipelago , in South Shetlands) ; then from 1911 to 1914, from 1920 to 1924 she realises several oceanographic cruises in Atlantic and sails in northern seas.

In 1925, he is the first French to moor on the western coast of Greenland where he comes back in 1931, during the second international polar year . In 1934, he lands Paul-Émile Victor and his companions who will do an important ethnologic work close to Eskimos. At his return, off Iceland, they find force 12 winds which push them on reefs. One single man on 40 will survive to the wreck.

J-B CHARCOT
Ketch of Raymond Rallier du Baty, former crew of le Français (1903-1905). Dundee of 17 m long, ex -Sacré Coeur de Jesus (Holly heart of Jesus), built in1897 at Boulogne sur Mer as herring fishing ship ; 46 net tons. Leaves Boulogne on 22-9-1907 and joins Rio from 19 until 28/12. then Tristan from 21 to 27/1. 7 Crew. Henry Rallier du Baty is the master ; Raymond, his brother, is the first mate. Meteorology works in Kerguelen where she arrives on 6/3/1908. Leaves Kerguelen on 3/6/1909. Call in Melbourne on 26/7. Map making at Kerguelen.
Mischief is a former wooden pilot cutter built in 1906, acquired in 1954 by Bill Tillman, British explorer, mountaineer and navigator who was an officer of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. He visited Crozet in 1959.

LA CURIEUSE
She is launched in Boulogne (Leon Lefevre yards) on 3 April 1912. Equipped with a 40 horsepower petrol engine (6 knots) 7 crew. Master : Raymond Rallier du Baty. Boulogne 16-7-1912 Southampton 27-7 Cherbourg 18-9 Madère 29-9 Canaries 10-10 Dakar 28-10 Rio 19-12 Montevideo 9-2 Buenos Aires 14-2 to 17-2, Montevideo 18-2 Capetown 3-7-1913 to 20-9 Kerguelen : from 22-10 scientific mission 20-5-1914 : Amsterdam 16-10 Sydney: disarmed and sold on 13-3-1929 to Compagnie Française d'Océanie (Ramona)
	Oak built ketch of 75 GRT , 20,75 m length.

ANTARES French Navy Aviso, built in 1915, commissioned in 1930 to mark the national sovereingty on St Paul et Amsterdam. 81 metres long, with a tonnage of 1140, she is manoeuvré par 8 officers and 97 crew. 440 tons of coal give her 3000 miles of autonomy for a maximal theoritical speed of 17 knots.
ANTARES arrives on 16 January 1931 off Crozet, calls at Kerguelen on 22 January and hits Saint-Paul-et-Amsterdam on 10 February before going back to Mauritius on 18 February .

COMMANDANT CHARCOT
Former mines net layer of US navy "Lance Wood" 1943 - wood Length = 55m, width=11m 1460t of displacement 2 electric diesel of 90 horsepower. Becomes French on 28/8/47 (Atiette) at La Guadeloupe.

1- she leaves St Malo on 14/9/48 and calls at Brest (left on 26/11), Casablanca, Durban, Hobart (26/1/49-5/2/50), Casablanca, Durban, Hobart (26/1/49-5/2/50). she cannot cross the ice pack and U-turns to Brest on 11/6/49. The master was frigate captain Max Douguet (YT157) ; P.E. VICTOR was a member of the expedition.
2- Brest 20/9/49, Melbourne 1-12, Hobart 8/12 au 21/12. On 18/1, she moors at Cape of Discovery she left on February 8 . After calls at Kerguelen (7/4), St Paul-et-Amsterdam (13/4), Hobart (23/2-15/3), she arrives at Brest (10-6-50).
3- On October 3 1950 she leaves Brest with 50 crew. After Hobart (12-12 to 28-12) and Port-Martin (9/1/21), they lay down provisions and fuel at Pointe Geologie. The ship left definitively Terre Adelie on 5-2-51 and returns to Brest on 1st of June ; she is disarmed few months later.

TOTTAN
Norwegian whale ship of 540 tons, she replaces the Commandant Charcot : she left Rouen on 11/10/51 for Terre Adelie and arrives in front of Port-Martin on 21/12/51.
After a call at Pointe Geologie on 24/1, returns to Hobart on 1-2-52. Goes back in 52/53 : Pointe Geologie on 2/1/53 (6 days from Hobart) leaves Macquarie island on 14/1/53 to return to Auckland and Hobart (25/1)
	TOTTAN is chartered by Australia for four voyages between 1951 and 1953.

ITALO MARSANO

She left Marseille on 9/11/1950 for Tamatave (Madagascar) where she calls on 10/12 ; at Maurice on 26/12, at Port-aux-Français on 3/1, at Kerguelen from 5/1 to 15/1 ; she is at St Paul- et Amsterdam on 26/1. Returns at St Denis-de-la-Réunion on 12/2.
Built in 1944 at Richmond (California) as a Liberty ship for the US maritime commission under the name ABRAM S. HEWITT. Her characteristics are :
Tonnage 7.176 gross, 4.380 net., 10.865 dwt., displacement 14.245 tons ; powered by a 2.500 ihp triple expansion steam engine, one screw, speed 10.5/11 knots ; She could carry 9.146 tons of cargo ; crew of 81 men.
Sold in janvier 1947 to Cia Transoceanica La Veloce and renamed QUEMAR then ITALO MARSANO. Chartered by Messageries Maritimes in 1950-51, then managed by Andrea Marsano at Genoa. Sank in the South China Sea in 1964.

GALLIENI
Built at Port-de-Bouc in 1954. Supply ship.

Cover of Gallieni with Paquebot cancellation.

GALLIENI
Built at Port-de-Bouc in 1954. Supply ship.
115.20 m long and 16,10 m breadth, 4120 t, she is designed to serve on the western coast of Madagascar with a capacity of 12 passengers in cabins and 350 deck passangers. Equiped in 1957 of an hélicopter deck, she is used until 1972. From 1967, she serves for oceanographic missions in the Indian Ocean .Sold in 1973, and broken up in 1983. She has been replaced by the MARION-DUFRESNE.

Leaves Diego Suarez on 22-10-55. After a short call in Tamatave, she arrives at Kerguelen (2 until 5-11), Amsterdam (8 to 17-11) and returns to Tamatave on 24-11.
Logistic turn-round. Diego Suarez on 17-4-56 a short call in Tamatave, arrives at Kerguelen (30-4 to 3-5) Amsterdam (6-5-56 to 10-5) and returns to Tamatave on 17-5.
GALLIENI lands men on Possession island on 21/12/61 ; on 27/12 the ship calls at Kerguelen and on January the 5th at St Paul et Amsterdam. A second turn round occurs at Crozet from Kerguelen on 3 and 4 February ; a third one occurs at the end of the year 62.


NORSEL Norwegian polar ship of 600 t chartered for IGY after use for Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expédition of 1949-52. Leaves Rouen on 16/10/55 and arrives in front of Pointe Geologie archipelago on 1st January 1956 after calls at Algiers, Aden, Maurice and Hobart. Carries the gear to built Dumont d'Urville station . Leaves on 26/1, calls at Hobart on 2/2/56 and returns to Cherbourg on 1st April.		ST MARCOUF Liberty-ship built in 1945 by New England Shipbuilding Corp as John Robert Gordon. 1945 Lease lend to French Gov't. 1946 French Gov't (Cie Generale Transatlantique) 1947 SAINT MARCOUF, same owners / managers. Transfered in 1950 to Messageries Maritimes Sold in 1960 and scrapped in 1963 at La Spezia.

These two Danish freighters specially conceived for the polar seas, have similar dimensions : about 75 metres long.

The helicopter is carried on the forward deck.

THALA DAN built in 1957 Gt 2183. Ice strengthened, equipped with a controllable pitch propeller, THALA DAN is chartered by France to service its base at Dumont D'Urville. In 1975 she was rebuilt at Frederikshavn Vaerft, Danemark. The bridge was enclosed, an extra deck with cabins was added, and a helicopter pad was installed. The stamp shows her after the rebuild.

MAGGA DAN built in 1956.
Tonnage 1.957 gross
Accommodation for 36 passengers in two berths cabins. Was also fitted out with a hospital. Did have a large crownest in her foremast which contains all the navigation instruments for a safe passage through the ice. In 1961/62, she is chartered by Expéditions Polaires Françaises.

TAAF chartered for the seasons 1982/83 and 1983/84 the canadian ship LADY FRANKLIN .
Launched as BALTIC VALIANT in 1970, 2124 Gt, long of 103.42 m, she is powered by a MAN diesel engine of 4.050 hp., at 15 knots.
Bunker capacity 344 cubic meters. Three cranes for cargo handling, two of 10 tons, in combination 20 tons, the third of 5 tons. Used in the fortnightly year round cargo liner service between England and Finland via the Kiel Canal. , she is chartered by C.A. Crosbie Shipping Ltd. of Newfoundland and renamed in LADY FRANKLIN .
Crew 15, passenger capacity maximal 65.

In 1988, Ferronia International Shipping, FISH, subsidiary of Compagnie Nationale de Navigation, takes back the Canadian ice-breaker Fort Resolution.Built by Fergusson yards at Glasgow, FISH gives her the name of Terre Adelie discovery ship, ASTROLABE		ASTROLABE, owned by P&O Maritime, rotated during the southern summer to the Dumont d'Urville base from the port of Hobart in Tasmania until early 2017. After her last rotation in early 2017, she started a new career in Papua New Guinea, for the American NGO YWAM (Youth with a Mission): renamed YWAM Liberty he supplies very isolated islands, of the archipelago of Papua New Guinea.

Equipped of two engines of 3083 hp, with a maximal speed of 14 knots, she is fitted with layouts for 5 officers, 8 crew and 48 passengers. 65m06 long, 13m large, 4m78 draft, load capacity of 946 tons. Range of 12000 miles at 12 knots. Classified A1 class ice-breaker, she can sail at 3 knots in a 1 metre thick ice-pack. The stern is equipped of a 30 cm thick knife. Every year, she realises 5 trips between Hobart and Dumont d'Urville between December and march. border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">

POLARBJORN is built in 1975.

Length: 49.62m
Beam: 11.50m
Draught: 5.30m
She is powered by a main engine MAK 9M452AK of 2945 hp and two auxiliary engines Deutz BF6M of 16 208 hp.
Gross tonnage: 949 tons

The icebreaker POLARBJORN is bought in 1995 by Greenpeace and renamed M/V Arctic Sunrise. To see more on:
http://archive.greenpeace.org/~climate/arctic99/reports/mvas.html
http://web.greenpeace.org/ships/ship-detail?ship_id=6721 L'ASTROLABE is in 1991 the second ship after Nordenskjold VEGA to complete a tour of the euro-asiatic continent : left from Le Havre on 27 July 1991, she reaches Murmansk on August 3 ; she sails through Bering strait on 27, crossing the Nord-East passage and reaches Hakodate, in Japan, on September 2 before entering in the Indian Ocean and the Suez canal.


DIVES is built in Brest in 1870 as a three-masted transport for the French Navy, with a 600 HP auxiliary engine. In 1874, under command of captain Duperre, she sails to Saint-Paul with a team of French astronomes to observe when the planet Venus would transit the sun.	CANCALAIS, first vessel managed by Société Anonyme de Pêche Malgache et Réunionnaise SAPMER founded in 1947. She was the last French barquetine built in &920 for fishing on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and she was used for two fisheries at Saint-Paul-et-Amsterdam in 1948 and 1949.

L'ESPERANCE, launched in Netherlands, is bought in June 1928 to a Belgian ship-owner by the Bossière brothers: she is a 40 meters long steamer, 7 meters broad and of 350 gross register tons, equipped with a machine of 265 CV. After the failure of the sealing campaigns, the ship is abandoned in Kerguelen in 1931.	The transport vessel JEANNE D'ARC, with hardware to build a whale factory and its staff in charge of exploitation, arrives at Kerguelen on October 24th, 1908. 76 meters long and measuring 1323 tons, she was built at Sunderland (G.B.) in 1882. In April 1912, when the fishery ends, Jeanne d'Arc leaves Kerguelen definitively and returns to Norway in June 1912; she is broken in 1913.

The cargo ILE ST PAUL, built in Netherlands, is bought by La Langouste Françaises ; she is used to carry Madagascans personal and equipment to the Island St Paul. The company finishes in disaster in 1931 after an epidemic of beriberi which kills 90 employees. The ship is dismantled at St Denis, Réunion, and the hull was scuttled there.

RADIOLEINE is an old oil transport built for the Company Société Pétrole Transports in May 1912. Torpedoed by U96 in Fastnet, she does not sink and is recovered by her crew. Acquired by Kerguelen Sealing & Whaling Co Ltd, as a factory ship, she arrives at Kerguelen at the end of August 1924 and leaves the islands on March 29th, 1925. When the contract with the Bossière brothers ceased, this ship always under the command Mr. B. Olsen continued to drive out the seals.

VALDIVIA, a 2600 t HAPAG ship is used in 1898 /1899 for a German scientific exhibition in the Antarctic. The schooner REVE armed by Raoul Fleurie, buried on Saint-Paul island October 10th, 1904.

Jules Verne located the first three chapters of the Ice Sphinx (1897) on the Desolation Islands, where his hero, the American mineralogist Joerling, before embarking southward aboard the schooner Halbrane, spent the months of June to August 1839 at Christmas Harbour. Without ever having gone there, the French novelist makes a precise geographical description and establishes a fictitious permanent and cosmopolitan colony of twenty souls around Fenimore Atkins, the patron of the Au Cormoran-Vert, living from the seasonal release of English and American sealing and whaling vessels.
	Vendée Globe was raced for the first time in 89: it was a solo race around the world without call, without assistance. Built in composite in 1991 for Jean-Luc Van den Heede, Groupe Sofap-Helvim, a 60-foot monohull, ran the Vendée Globe 92/93 and VDH finished second in 116 days.
Ecureuil Poitou-Charentes 2 is a 60 feet open monohull (18,28 m long) designed by Jean Berret and Olivier Racoupeau. She was made of carbon and was equipped, the first time for a racing yacht, of a pendular keel. 13 December 1994: Isabelle Autissier, victim of a dismasting, arrives at the Kerguelen to repair Ecureuil Poitou Charente. She left two days later for Sydney, the end of the 2nd stage of the BOC, a solo round the world race with stopovers. She had triumphed in the first leg (Charleston-Cape Town) ahead of her five-day second.
	Built in France on the initiative of Jean-Louis Étienne, medical explorer, in 1989, designed by naval architects Luc Bouvet and Olivier Petit, the schooner Antarctica was used from 1991 to 1996 by Jean-Louis Étienne for scientific expeditions in Antarctica, at the Erebus volcano and then wintering at Spitzberg. Antarctica became Tara in 2003 and continues to be used as a floating laboratory.

Pierre Étienne Bourgeois de Boynes, Marquis de Boynes (1718/1783), Secretary of State for the Navy of Louis XV, ordered Kerguelen’s expeditions in the Indian Ocean (which gave the minister’s name to two small islands of the Kerguelen) and created an establishment in Madagascar. The situation continued to deteriorate under his ministry: a slowdown in shipbuilding, a decrease in material stocks, and difficulties in maintaining the fleet. He was dismissed by Louis XVI on 20 July 1774 and replaced by Turgot. In 1696, Willem de Vlamingh (1640/ circa 1698) a Dutch naval officer led the expedition to search the west coast of Australia for the survivors of the Ridderschap van Holland, a missing Dutch East India Company vessel with 325 passengers on board while en route to Batavia.. The search was unsuccessful, but Vlamingh took advantage of his trip to map the west coast of Australia. Vlamingh had three ships under his command including the De Geelvink frigate. After a call in Capetown of sevreal weeks, she sailed Eastbound and reached St Paul and Amsterdam where he is the first to land.

Tromelin Island is a French island of the Indian Ocean belonging to the district of the Scattered Islands of the Indian Ocean (French: Îles Éparses or Îles Éparses de l'océan Indien), attached to the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Tromelin Island had a tragic episode. On the night of July 31 to August 1, 1761, L'Utile, a frigate of the French East India Company, sank on the coral reefs of the island. After the construction of a boat two months after the shipwreck, the remaining 122 crewmembers took their places, leaving the Malagasy slaves on the island with some provisions. On 29 November 1776, fifteen years after the shipwreck, the Chevalier de Tromelin, commander of the corvette La Dauphine, recovered the eight surviving slaves: seven women and an eight-month-old child.

Pierre-François Péron, (1769 à Lambézellec (Finistère)- 1846 Luynes) sailed to many different places in the late 18th century. He owned his ship until it was captured by the British, after which he became a hunter and adventurer. He was stranded for three years (from 1792 to 1795) on New Amsterdam Island or Amsterdam Island. In his memoirs Péron describes his survival on the island of Amsterdam alone. The ship depicted shoud be EMELIE a brig rigged whaler.

Fishing is the only significant economic activity that is established sustainably in the TAAF. The interest of these territories lies in their immense maritime zone and in particular the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). .

Built in Poland in 2001 for Cap Bourbon, then completed by Piriou, Cap Horn ceased to be operated by Cap Bourbon when this one received Cap Kersaint, sufficient to fish its annual quota of legine. The Sapmer was then able to replace the aging Croix-du-Sud sold in Cape Verde.	Based in La Réunion, 55m49 long, Albius fishes the toothfish and other fishes living in the deep sea (2000 m), especially in the economic zones of Crozet and Kerguelen.

Ile Bourbon, a longliner-freezer built in 2001 at Piriou yards in Concarneau, is the first boat of this type to be built in a French yard. The main focus of the operation of this vessel is on toothfish and grenadier and ray.	Mascareignes III is with Île Bourbon, Albius, Cap Horn one of the 4 longliners of the SAPMER Société Anonyme de Pêche Maritime et de Ravitaillement, founded in 1947, the historic operator of fishing in the waters of the Antarctic terrirories.

Croix du Sud, freezer longliner, built in Norway in 1987 then jumboized in 1999 by Piriou was sold in Cape Verde.	In 2009, PIRIOU delivered Saint André to Pêche Avenir, the first diesel-electric longliner. Since 2017, during each southern summer, Saint-André and her 28 crew have gone between 60° and 65° south latitude to fish for toothfish.
	Cap Kersaint has diesel/electric propulsion. 3 diesel generators provide the electrical power required to drive the 2 azimuth thrusters. This ship integrates a stern ramp and a central well system for hauling the longline.

Lobster fishing is carried out from Reunion Island by a single vessel, Austral, with a crew of about 50. Austral is a 77 m factory trawler built in 1993, transformed for the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam fisheries to allow it to launch small fishing boats.

Built in Gdansk in 1997, Caroline Glacial specialized in toothfish fishing, has changed owners and flags several times, as her activities are illegal. In June 2004, renamed Apache, she was boarded in Kergelen by the southern patrol vessel Albatros. She was transformed into a high-seas patrol vessel named LE MALIN, used from Reunion Island, for fisheries control, intelligence and anti-pollution missions.

Buoy-lighthouse tender Marius Moutet sailed from Tamatave on 26 April 1954 with 32 tons of equipment to build the first weather station in Tromelin. On 30 April at 10:00 a.m., the Marius Moutet anchored 1500 m off and departed on 5 May at about 6:30 p.m. The Marius Moutet will reach Tamatave on May 7.
	March 2003 : France Telecom’s (now Orange Marine) Descartes cableship comes to carry out a mission to Crozet Islands on behalf of the UN: the installation of a seismic station. The set transmits the information to the Alfred FAURE base via 40 km of optical fiber. The data are transmitted by satellite to Vienna for exploitation. At 144.50 m long, René Descartes, a ship specialized in laying, raising and maintaining submarine cables, equipped with a DP (Dynamic Positioning) and various positioning systems, ensures precise positioning up to 5 m close.



The new Astrolabe, based at Réunion Island, is an icebreaker built as part of a partnership between, on the one hand, the TAAF community and the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV), and on the other hand the Ministry of Defence (French Navy). For the benefit of the TAAF and the French Polar Institute, the French Navy carries out cargo and passenger transport missions between Hobart in Tasmania (Australia) and the Dumont-d'Urville base (Adelie land), with 4 to 5 rotations during the 120 days of the southern summer, from November to February. The first departure in mid-November 2019 was postponed due to damage. The mission to supply the French bases was then entrusted to the Australian Department of Antarctica, which chartered the icebreaker Aurora AustralisThis ice-breaker should be replaced by a new one, called Nuyina.

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