5: En Route for Dakar 



AT Tamise, on the Scheldt, above Antwerp, a cargo-ship is being 

 built. Two professors from Brussels visit it frequently. The fact 

 is that the Belgian Government has put the Scaldis at their disposal to 

 take the FNRS 2 to its diving site and the ship must, consequently, be 

 prepared for its work. It is a ship of 3500 tons, powered by steam, 

 which is superior to Diesel, in that its speed can be varied rapidly, and 

 it can go into reverse as often as is desired : it is thus very manœuvrable, 

 which is important in our venture. 



To say that this ship was conceived under a lucky star and that good 

 luck always accompanied her would be an exaggeration. Before being 

 used by us she made her maiden voyage to the Baltic : ill-luck pursued 

 her, for the electric motor which actuated the rudder broke down : that 

 could happen to any ship, and an emergency device is provided which, 

 operated by hand, allows the crew to navigate. But, as luck would 

 have it, the Scaldis was in shoal water: the men rushed forward but, 

 before they could intervene, the ship struck a shoal. The crew just 

 managed to avoid shipwreck, but the Scaldis had to be put into dry 

 dock. Later, while we were on board, she stopped in the middle of the 

 Channel because of damage to an engine. A few days later there were 

 fresh alarms : this time it was our own engineer who, with the help of 

 the lathe from our little workshop, repaired a defective valve. Another 

 time, with our oxy-acetylene welding apparatus, he repaired a damaged 

 steampipe. At Dakar the single screw of the Scaldis was found to have 

 two blades instead of three and she had to go once more into dry 

 dock. After returning from our expedition she was sold to Bulgaria. 



Such is the ship, then, with which we had to work. The master. 

 Captain Laforce, a crew of fifty, and the members of our expedition, 

 made up her complement. Madame Cosyns accompanied her husband, 

 as chemist : among other tasks, she had to maintain in good order the 

 apparatus, which, during the dives, measured the amount of carbon 

 dioxide in the air inside the sphere. My son Jacques was also one of 

 the party, as well as two young biologists from the University of 

 Brussels, Georges Marlier and Van den Eeckhoudt, who were joined 

 at Dunkirk by Theodore Monod, Professor at the Museum of Natural 

 History at Paris and Director of the Institut Français d'Afrique Noire 

 at Dakar, the oceanographer Claude Francis-Boeuf, whose tragic end 



[51 ] 



