Rivage du port Saint-Nicolas.

Exquisite contemporary colored lithograph of Port Saint-Nicolmas Bay in most southern part of South America, with Dumont D'Urville's officers making landfall. Drawn by E.Goupil, lithographed by Emile Lassalle and Bayot. From the "Atlas Pittoresque" that accompanied the massive volumes Voyage au pole sud et dans l'Oceanie, published by Gide from 1841-1854 about Dumont d'Urville's voyage to the South Pole and the South Pacific.

On the voyage of 1837, Dumont d'Urville was asked by King Louis-Philippe to explore the South Pole. The main focus of the voyage was to reach Antarctica "towards the Pole as far as the polar ice will permit" (Rosenman, 1992, p. 110).
He sailed into the South Atlantic, to the Straits of Magellan, then further south to the Antarctic, reaching 63° latitude south until the ice, fog and snow prevented them from going any further. Valuable data was obtained on these unknown regions, but at the cost of an outbreak of scurvy. Of the 183 men on board the two ships, 22 did not make it back alive.

Dumont d'Urville then sailed to Chile to refresh supplies and allow the men the chance to recover. From Chile he sailed across the Pacific, visiting the Marquesas, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon's, the Carolines and New Guinea. The expedition then did a circuit around Indonesia and South East Asia before sailing down the west coast of Australia to Hobart, Tasmania.
Once summer returned, Dumont d'Urville decided to make another push for the Antarctic. On 19 January 1840, land was sighted and Dumont d'Urville named it Terre Adélie, after his wife.
Samples of rock were taken to prove that it was a continent, and the French flag was flown. Discovering and claiming Terre Adélie in Antarctica for the French was strategically and politically Dumont d'Urville's most significant achievement.