CHAPTER X 
DUMONT D’URVILLE AND THE FRENCH DASHES TOWARD 
THE SOUTH POLE 
“ . . . And as a lance 
The fiery eyes of France 
Touched the world’s sleep, and as a sleep made pass 
Forth of men’s heavier ears and eyes 
Smitten with fire and thunder from new skies.” 
— Swinburne. 
AT the beginning of the nineteenth century the British 
flag was less known on the Pacific and in the South- 
ern Ocean than the flags of the United States and France. 
The extraordinary value placed upon whale oil at that 
period sent fleets of whalers to all parts of the ocean ; but 
British enterprise had marked the Arctic seas for its own 
and comparatively few ships were engaged in the lengthy 
voyages of the sperm whaler. This work employed many 
French vessels and voyages of three or more years in 
duration were common from the whaling ports of France. 
It was the custom of the French Ministry of Marine to 
send a frigate on a tour of the world to visit the whale- 
men at their headquarters on the various desolate islands 
in the south temperate zone, bringing them supplies, 
furnishing medical advice, punishing delinquents, hunting 
up shipwrecked mariners and in every possible way re- 
minding the wanderers that they were citizens of the re- 
public, or subjects of the empire or monarchy as the case 
might be, and that wherever they wandered they belonged 
to France and were not forgotten by the fatherland. In 
this way the countrymen of De Gonneville, Bouvet, 
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