SURVIVOR'S STORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 69, 18 September 1936, Page 9

SURVIVOR'S STORY

POURQUOI-PAS WRECK VESSEL RUNS AGROUND TERRIFIC SEAS OVER DECKS United Tress Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. COPENHAGEN, September IC. The only survivor of the wreck of the French polar expedition's barque Pourquoi-pas, Eugene Gonedec, saved his life by clinging to a piece of wreckage on which he was washed ashore unconscious, four miles from the wreck and after nearly five hours in icy water. The Pourquoi-pas sailed from Reykjavik, Iceland, on the night of Sep" tember 15. She immediately encountered a fierce storm- and was wrecked while apparently striving to return. Rescue vessels found only her masts above the water. On board the Pour-quoi-pas were Dr. Charcot, seven French scientists, and a crew of 26, all French.

"The vessel, ran aground at 5 a.m. and immediately sprang a leak," said Gonedec. "The engines stopped soon afterwards, and the boiler burst. Terrific seas broke over the decks, "preventing the launching of the lifeboats. I managed to swim ashore because I seized a piece of wreckage. Others were either washed overboard or trapped." Dr. Charcot was known as the French Shackleton.

"This is my last polar voyage," he said on the eve of his sailing. , V

PEREZ NOT ABOARD PARIS, September 16. It is now established that Perez had not joined the Pcurquoi-pas. Instead, he; boarded a faster steamer for Copenhagen. A Copenhagen message published yesterday stated that* Dr. Charcot sailed for Angmagsalik, Greenland, to bring back to France Robert Gessai and Michel Perez, who, with Paulemile Vic tor, intended to cross Greenland by sleigh and carry out scientific investigations. Victor .remained in Greenland, and it was understood that Gessai. and Perez were aboard the Pour-quoi-pas.

GALLANT EXPLORER BRITISH PRESS TRIBUTES . (British Official Wireless.) (Received September 18,10.55 a.m.) RUGBY. September 17. Warm tributes are paid in the Press to,the work of Dr. Jean Charcot, the famous French Polar explorer and scientist who, with 32 other members of the crew of his four-masted barque Pourquoi Pas, was drowned yesterday when. the. vessel-was totally wrecked off Iceland. Dr. Charcot was well known among English scientists and had done valuable research work in Arctic and Antarctic waters. The president of the Royal Geographical Society, Admiral Sir William Goodenough, described him as one of the most gallant of Polar explorers. During the war Dr. Charcot was placed in command of a new submarine chaser of his own design and was given the rank of lieutenantcommander in the British Navy. He was decorated with the British Distinguished Service Cross.

Dr. Jean Baptiste Etienne Charcot was born in 1867, and commanded the French Antarctic Expeditions of 1903-5 and 1908-10. The latter expedition sailed in the Pourquois-pas and mapped a new coastline at 70 degrees south, I also Graham Land, Adelaide Island, Alexander Land, and Deception Island. Much work was also done in oceanography, temperatures being investigated and the sea bottom explored. The expedition returned to Rouen in June, 1910. Dr. Charcot was an accomplished yachtsman as well as a man of science, and in 1904 he investigated the Antarctic seas in the Francais, the expedition, being equipped at his own instance. He cruised along the western side of Graham Land, but suffered a mishap to his ship and had to return after reaching 67 degrees south. It was to complete his unfinished work that he went back in the Pourquois-pas. President of the French Yacht Club, Dr. Charcot commanded the auxiliary cruiser Meg (a British ship) during the World War, and later had command of a French phantom boat. He won the D.S.C. and the French Croix de Guerre with palms. He took up the study of navigation, bacteriology, and oceanography as I hobbies, and after the war commanded the ship on cruises almost every year. Various Ministries or learned societies sponsored these cruises, which took place in the summer, and were to the northern polar regions, the Atlantic, or the Mediterranean. The ship, a barque of immense strength, was specially built at Dr. Charcot's design in 1908 by Gautier at Saint Malo. She was fitted with laboratories of all kinds, and carried strange and powerful drags. Moreover, she had a scientific and technical library of about 1500 books. She was of 449 tons, 139 ft long, 31ft broad, and had a4O h.p. auxiliary engine. Her crew usually consisted of about 25 men, including six officers, who were gener-! ally scientists. I