Kerguelen Islands

Kerguelen (France)
Îles Kerguelen

Basic data
Administrative status:	district
Country:	French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Capital:	Port-aux-Français
Population:	Winter: ca. 70, Summer: ca. 110
Coordinates:	49°20′S 69°20′E
Area:	7,215 km²
Coastline:	2,800 km
highest peak:	Mont Ross (1,850 m)
longest Fjord:	Baie de Recques (21 km)
largest lake:	Lac Marville (25 km²)
largest islands:	Île Kerguelen / Grande Terre (6,675 km²)
largest glacier:	Cook-Gletscher Cook Glacier/ Calotte Glaciaire Cook (500 km²)
discovery:	12 February 1772, by Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec
Homepage:	www.taaf.fr

The Kerguelen Islands or the Kerguelen Archipelago (French: commonly Îles Kerguelen or Archipel de Kerguelen but officially Archipel des Kerguelen or Archipel Kerguelen), also known asDesolation Island, is a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean. It is a territory of France.

The Kerguelen Islands are located at 49°15′S 69°35′E. The main island, Grande Terre, is 6,675 km² and it is surrounded by another 300 smaller islands and islets, forming an archipelago of 7,215 km². The climate is cold and very windy and the seas are usually rough.

History

The islands are one of five districts in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands and were discovered by Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec in February 1772.

The archipelago was exploited for its seal population until their destruction, including fur seals in the 18th century and elephant seals in the 19th century. A number of expeditions have briefly visited the islands, including that of James Cook in 1776.

During Christmas 1940, the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis was at Kerguelen Island. During their stay they did maintenance and replenished their water supplies. The crew suffered its first fatality when a sailor fell while painting the funnel. He was buried in what is sometimes referred to as "the most southerly German soldier's grave".

Kerguelen has been used by a small number of science teams since 1949, with a population of fifty to one hundred always present. There is also a satellite tracking station. The main island is home to a well-established feral cat population descended from ships' cats. They survive on sea birds and non-indigenous rabbits introduced to the islands. The islands are also known for the indigenous, edible Kerguelen cabbage.

The main base, the "capital" of the district, is located at the eastern end of the Golfe du Morbihan on Grande Terre at 49°21′S 70°13′E and is known as Port-aux-Français. Facilities include a bar, gym, hospital, library, and the chapel of Notre-dame des Vents.

Grande Terre

Peninsulas
as numbered in the text.

Grande Terre, the main island, measures 150 km east to west and 120 km north to south. The highest peak is Mont Ross, which is on the west side of the island and has an elevation of 1850 m. It is covered by Cook Glacier. The island has numerous peninsulas. The most important ones are listed below and indicated on the map by numbers:

1. Péninsule Courbet
2. Péninsule Rallier du Baty
3. Péninsule Gallieni
4. Péninsule Loranchet
5. Presqu'île Jeanne d'Arc
6. Presqu'île Ronarc'h
7. Presqu'île de la Société de Géographie
8. Presqu'île Joffre
9. Presqu'île du Prince de Galles
10. Presqu'île du Gauss
11. Presqu'île Bouquet de la Grye
12. Presqu'île d'Entrecasteaux
13. Presqu'île du Bougainville
14. Presqu'île Hoche

Kerguelen Islands

Location of Kerguelen Islands

Port Aux Français

Cook Glacier

Historic localities

There are also a number of historic localities, all on Grande Terre (see also the main map):

• Anse Betsy (historic geomagnetic station at 49°10′S 70°13′E), on Baie Accessible, on the north coast of Péninsule Courbet. At this site, an astronomic and geomagnetic observatory was erected on October 26, 1874 by a German research expedition led by Georg Gustav Freiherr von Schleinitz.
• Armor (Base Armor)
• Baie de l'Observatoire (historic geomagnetic station at 49°21′S 70°12′E), just west of Port-Aux-Français, also at the south coast of Péninsule Courbet, northern shore of Golfe du Morbihan. A station was erected at this site by the German Antarctic Expedition led by Erich Dagobert von Drygalski (1902 to 1903).
• Cabane Port-Raymond (scientific camp at 49°20′S 69°49′E), at the head of a fjord cutting off Péninsule Courbet from the south
• Cap Ratmanoff (geomagnetic station at 49°14′S 70°34′E, the easternmost point of Kerguelen)
• La Montjoie (scientific camp at 48°59′S 68°50′E), on the south of Baie Rocheuse, northern west coast
• Molloy (Pointe Molloy), former observatory 10 km west of later Port-Aux-Français, at the south coast of Péninsule Courbet, northern shore of Golfe du Morbihan. An American expedition led by G. P. Ryan erected a station at this site on September 7, 1874.
• Port Bizet (seismographic station at 49°31′12″S 69°54′36″E), on the north coast of Île Longue)
• Port Christmas (historic geomagnetic station at 48°41′S 69°03′E), on Baie de l'Oiseau, Péninsule Loranchet, extreme northwest. The place was named by James Cook, who discovered the islands and who anchored there on Christmas Day, 1797.
• Port Couvreux (formerly a whaling station, an experimental sheep farm and a geomagnetic station, at 49°17′S 69°42′E), on Baie du Hillsborough, on the southeast coast of Presqu'île Bouquet de la Grye. From 1912 sheep were bred to create an economic basis for settlement, but the attempt had to be abandoned in 1931.
• Port Curieuse (harbor on the West coast at 49°22′S 68°48′E), on the west coast across Île du l'Ouest. The site was named after ship Curieuse used by Raymond Rallier du Baty on his second visit the islands in 1913 to 1914.
• Port Douzième (literally Twelfth Port, hut and geomagnetic station at 49°31′S 70°09′E), on the north coast of Presqu'île Ronarch, southern shore of Golfe du Morbihan
• Port Jeanne d'Arc (former whaling station founded by Norwegian whalers in 1908, and historic geomagnetic station at 49°33′S 69°49′E), in the northwestern corner of Presqu'île Jeanne d'Arc, looking across Passe de Buenos Aires to Île Longue (4 km northeast). The derelict settlement consists of four residential buildings with wooden walls and tin roofs and a barn. One of the buildings was restored in 1977.

Since 1963, 49°22′S 70°14′E just east of Port-aux-Français is a launch site for sounding rockets (mainly Arcas, Dragon and Eridan).

The islands

Following is a list of the most important of the satellite islands:

• Île Foch in the north is the largest, with an area of 206.2 km². The highest point is 687 m at Pyramide Mexicaine.
• Île Saint-Lanne Gramont, also in the north, is the second largest, with an area of 45.8 km². It is 480 m at the highest point and is located at 48°55′S 69°12′E).
• Île du Port, also in the north in the Golfe des Baliniers, is the third largest with an area of 43.0 km², with a highest altitude of 340 m.
• Île de l'Ouest (west, about 40 km²)
• Île Longue (southeast, about 40 km²)
• Îles Nuageuses (northwest)
• Île de Castries 48°41′S 69°29′E
• Île Leygues (north)
• Île Howe (north) 48°50′S 69°25′E
• Île Violette 49°07′S 69°40′E
• Île aux Rennes (southeast, area 36.7 km², altitude 199 m, 49°32′S 69°54′E)

Economy

The main activity on Kerguelen Islands is scientific research, mostly earth science and biology.

Since 1992, the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) operates a satellite tracking station located 4km away from Port-aux-Français.

Agriculture is limited to raising some 3500 sheep for local consumption.

The Kerguelen Islands in fiction

• In the seafaring novel Desolation Island, one of the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, the crew repairs their disabled ship on an island that strongly resembles Kerguelen, although a later book in the series asserts that it is a different Desolation Island.
• In The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe's only complete novel, the crew of the Jane Guy alights at Kerguelen Island before eventually pushing on towards the South Pole.
• In Biggles' Second Case by W. E. Johns, Biggles searches for Nazi Gold during World War II on and around Kerguelen.
• Warbots (no. 5) Operation High Dragon involves a secret Chinese military base located on Kerguelen Island. ISBN 1-55817-159-2
• In Gundam: 08th MS Team, the Zeon Zanzibar-class cruiser used to evacuate Ginias Sakhalin's forces from their base is named Kerguelen.
• In the Danish graphic novel Mikkeline på skattejagt (Mikkeline's treasure hunt) by draftsman and cartoonist Claus Deleuran, Desolation Island plays a major role in the plot. In the humorous story the active volcano Mont Ross serves as a back entrance to hell as described in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. ISBN 87-7378-244-0
• The novel The Lost Flying Boat by Alan Sillitoe is situated around Kerguelen, though the islands' geography are not accurately described.
• The Swedish comic James Hund by Jonas Darnell & Patrik Norrmann has set at least one episode on Kerguelen, where a satanic Nazi conspiracy against the world's leaders has its seat.
• The first chapter of Jules Verne's "An Antarctic Mystery" is called "Chapter 1 - The Kerguelen Islands".
• In the book Kilo Class by Patrick Robinson ISBN 0-06-109685-7 naval confrontations arise in the Kerguelen Islands between the Americans, the Chinese, and the Taiwanese.

See also

• French overseas departments and territories
• Administrative divisions of France
• Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans
• Sub-antarctic islands

External links

• Official site In French
• Official site In French
• Kerguelen Archipelago
• Southern & Antarctic Territories
• Columns about Kerguelen from The Times
• Personal site with a lot of pictures
• Rocket launches on the Kerguelen Islands
• South Atlantic & Subantarctic Islands site, Kerguelen Archipelago page