198 siege of the south pole 
Some attempt to plate the bows with metal is recorded 
but it proved ineffectual and the whole plan of a man-of- 
war of the period with the sides pierced by great square 
ports for guns was unfavourable for navigation with any 
degree of comfort in high latitudes. The ships were two 
corvettes, the Astrolabe, of which D’Urville once more 
took command and the Zelee, under the command of 
Captain Jacquinot. The Paris Academy of Sciences 
gave elaborate instructions as to the scientific observa- 
tions which it was most important to make through- 
out the voyage and especially in the far south ; but it 
was evident that the sympathy of the commander was 
with the human rather than the physical group of sciences, 
and that the honour of France was the leading motive that 
led him to struggle with the polar ice. His health was 
not good, indeed he was a martyr to gout ; and he himself 
told with infinite humour how on the first occasion when 
he hobbled down to his ship as she lay in harbour he over- 
heard a sailor remark : “ Oh, that old chappie won’t lead 
us very far,”* and how he grimly resolved to lead his 
crew a great deal farther than any of them would care 
to go. 
The ships sailed from Toulon on September 7th, 
1837 and made their way southward through the Atlantic 
to Magellan Strait where they worked for some time at 
the survey of that miserable channel, the despair of every 
sailor who shunned the Scylla of Cape Horn to fall into 
its Charybdis. Early in January, 1838, D’Urville set out 
for the south with the object of repeating Weddell’s fa- 
mous voyage, and securing for France the glory of get- 
ting still nearer to the pole. This service had been spe- 
cially put before him by the King and the portion of the 
* “ Oh ! ce bonhomme-la ne nous menera pas loin ! ” 
