To the Ends of the Earth

A history of Kerguelen

When the first explorers went looking for a land mass in the Southern Hemisphere, they were not looking for Kerguelen. They were searching for something very different – the fabled 'southern continent' that the ancient Greeks believed must exist to balance the lands of the Northern Hemisphere. Those who first went looking for it were to be disappointed.

Yves de Kerguelen-Tremaréc

The Breton captain from whom the island of Kerguelen took its name was commissioned by Louis XV to search for the southern continent and claim it for France. In January 1772, Kerguelen-Tremaréc set sail from Mauritius with two ships: the Fortune and the Gros-Ventre.

A little over a month later, an island was sighted, but due to bad weather, Kerguelen-Tremaréc in the Fortune had to turn back. However, the Gros-Ventre did manage to land and its captain annexed the island in the name of the French king.

Despite never having set foot on the island, Yves de Kerguelen-Tremaréc returned to France claiming that he had discovered a fabulous land, rich in raw materials and inhabited by a noble race. As a result, Louis XV eagerly sent a second expedition to the island. Again, the Breton captain was unable to land, although another of his party, de Rochegude, managed to get ashore in January 1773.

Kerguelen-Tremaréc returned to France, but this time with less favourable news for his king. 'Never was a cold felt so bitter,' he said of the island, now insisting that it was barren, uninhabited and uninhabitable. For his pains, Louis XV had him imprisoned in a castle in the Loire Valley. Fortunately for Kerguelen-Tremaréc, when the revolution came six years later, he was viewed as an enemy of the king and therefore as a friend of the people and so released. He never returned to the island that bears his name.

Desolation Island

Three years after the second failed expedition by Kerguelen-Tremaréc, Captain James Cook arrived at the island, anchoring off it on Christmas Day. It was Cook who gave Kerguelen its other name – Desolation Island – 'to signalise its sterility'. Surprisingly, considering his later dismal description, Cook and his crew spent that Christmas taking advantage of the island's plentiful fresh water, the meat of its sea elephants and penguins, and the invaluable Kerguelen cabbage, which provided them with much-needed vitamin C.

Commercial exploitation

It was not long before whalers and sealers arrived to exploit Kerguelen's abundant wildlife – American sealers in 1791, with British sealers following at the start of the 19th century. Before long, they had wiped out almost all the smaller seals on the island. In 1817, a British ship arrived and was able to locate only four remaining seals. With typical indifference to conservation, the sealers killed them.

Elephant seals, or sea elephants, were next to feel the force of commercialism. By the mid-19th century, thousands of barrels of elephant seal oil were being harvested from Kerguelen, mostly by American traders.

A whaling station was eventually set up at Port Jeanne d'Arc in the early 20th century. This was the first-ever human settlement on Kerguelen, home to around 100 people at the height of the trade. It was abandoned in 1929, but the station remains, an eerie testament to the island's past.

Other human settlements were also short lived. In 1870, a British firm attempted unsuccessfully to set up a coal-mining operation. In the 1920s, a French farming family was persuaded to settle there, with a view to raising sheep. The sheep failed and died. The fate of the farming family is less well known. The ruins of their homes remain on the island, but despite their status as pioneers, they have been all but forgotten.

Exploration

Although there was plenty of commercial activity on Desolation Island in the early 19th century, it was largely neglected by explorers and scientists until an expedition led by James Clark Ross, which arrived at Christmas Harbour – the site of Cook's first landing – in 1840. Kerguelen's highest peak was dubbed Mount Ross in his honour.

In 1874, the island was first circumnavigated, by HMS Challenger. The same year, a fleet carrying explorers from the US, Britain and Germany arrived on Kerguelen – by chance, it was one of the best places on the planet to witness the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun.

During the 20th century, various scientific expeditions to the island were carried out, mostly by the French, but also by the British and Germans.

A permanent meteorological station was set up by the French in 1951 – the first year that humans ever wintered on Desolation Island. Today, the French scientific base remains at Port-aux-Français, where the tracking of satellites is also carried out. It is the only successful human settlement ever to be established on Kerguelen.

Matthew's dream

Kerguelen Island

A history of Kerguelen

Five lonely places

Matthew Parris

Find out more

Home

Access advice
For web users with disabilities.

Graphic version
Includes layout and images.

Top of page