Editing Jules Dumont d'Urville (section)

==== Pacific ====
During months of exploration in the Pacific, the ship visited many islands in Polynesia. On their arrival in the [[Marquesas Islands]], the crews found ways "to socialise" with the islanders. Dumont's moral conduct was irreproachable, but he provided a highly summarised description of some incidents of their stay in [[Nuku Hiva]] in his reports. During the voyage from the [[East Indies]] to [[Tasmania]] some of the crew were lost to tropical fevers and [[dysentery]] (14 men and 3 officials); but for Dumont the worst moment during the expedition was at [[Valparaíso]], where he received a letter from his wife that informed him of the death of his second son from cholera.  Adélie's sorrowful demand that he return home coincided with a deterioration in his health: Dumont was more and more often hit by attacks of gout and stomach pains.

On 12 December 1839 the two corvettes landed at [[Hobart]], where the sick and the dying were treated. Dumont was received by [[John Franklin]], [[Governor of Tasmania]] and an [[Arctic]] explorer who later perished on the infamous [[Franklin's lost expedition|Franklin Expedition]], from whom he learned that the ships of the American expedition led by [[Charles Wilkes]] were berthed in Sydney waiting to sail south.

Seeing the consistent reduction of the crews, decimated by misfortunes, Dumont expressed his intention to leave this time for the Antarctic with ''Astrolabe'' only, in order to attempt to reach the South Magnetic Pole around longitude 140°. A deeply wounded Captain Jacquinot urged the hiring of a number of replacements (generally deserters from a French [[whaler]] anchored in Hobart) and convinced him to reconsider his intentions; ''Astrolabe'' and ''Zelée'' both left Hobart on 1 January 1840.  Dumont's plan was very simple: to head south, wind conditions permitting.