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Sealers Graves on Kerguelen |
British sealers soon followed the Americans and soon decimated the fur seal colonies: by 1817, the Eagle found just four seals. I leave the reader to imagine their fate.
One such sealer was Peter Kemp, who sailed the Magnet from London to Kerguelen nonstop in July 1833. Using Kerguelen as a base, he sailed south to the whaling grounds of the Southern Ocean, and 180 miles south of Kerguelen claims to have seen Heard Island.
Elephant Seals replaced Fur seals as the quarry of the sealer: they were clubbed to death on the beaches, and their chief value was in their blubber, which was rendered down into oil in trypots. Penguin bodies and feathers were used to fuel the fires. The elephant seal oil trade was a lucrative one and, with for example, the British sealing ship George Howe taking 3,000 barrels of oil between 1838-40.
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The Southern Fur Seal |
James Clark Ross commanding Erebus and Terror visited Kerguelen in 1840. He landed at Christmas Harbour on Kerguelen on 5th May 1840 and stayed until until 29th July
Commander Francis Crozier, Captain of the Terror, made magnetic observations while Ross carried out astronomical observations.
H.M.S. Challenger, under G.S. Nares, circumnavigated Kerguelen after visiting Marion Island performing pioneering oceanographic research and scientific observations at Kerguelen between 7th and 31st January 1874.
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HMS Challenger with the famous Arched Rock |
During 1874 and 1875 vessels of several nationalities visited to Kerguelen in connection with observation of a Transit of Venus across the face of the Sun on December 9th, 1874
- An American expedition, under Commander G.P. Ryan arrived on the U.S.S. Swatara on the 7th September 1874 and installed an observatory at Pointe Molloy.
- The German expedition of 1874 to 1876 commanded by Commander Baron von Schleinitz arrived at Anse Betsy on 26th October 1874 in the Gazelle, building astronomical and magnetic observatories while T.Studer made a geological reconnaissance of the Courbet Peninsula.
- The British expedition, lead by S.J. Perry, arrived at Baie de l'Observatoire in the Volage on 5th November 1874, establishing two magnetic and astronomical stations at Observatory Bay and at Thumbed Peak.
The Transit allowed astronomers to accurately calculate the distance of the earth from the sun.
An 1877 attempt to develop a coal mining industry on Kerguelen was a failure, as the coal proved to be of poor quality. France sent the Eure to reaffirm French sovereignty in 1893, but there were few significant events in the remainder of the 19th Century.
