ISBN: 9781156891513

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: … More...

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (23 May 1790 8 May 1842) was a French explorer, naval officer and rear admiral, who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Dumont was born at Condé-sur-Noireau. His father, Gabriel Charles François Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (23 May 1790 8 May 1842) was a French explorer, naval officer and rear admiral, who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Dumont was born at Condé-sur-Noireau. His father, Gabriel Charles François Dumont dUrville and Bailiff of Condé-sur-Noireau (1728 - 1796) was, like his ancestors, responsible for the court of Condé. His mother Jeanne Françoise Victoire Julie (1754 - 1832) came from Croisilles, Calvados and was a rigid and formal woman coming from an ancient family of the rural nobility of Basse-Normandie. He was weak and often sickly. After the death of his father when he was six, his mothers brother, the Abbot of Croisilles, played the part of his father and from 1798 was in charge of his education. The Abbot taught him Latin, Greek, rhetoric and philosophy. From 1804 Dumont studied at the lycée Impérial in Caen. In Caens library he began to read the encyclopédists and the reports of travel of Bougainville, Cook and Anson, and he became deeply passionate about these matters. At the age of 17 years he failed the physical tests of the entrance exam to the École Polytechnique and he therefore decided to enlist in the navy. In 1807 Dumont was admitted to the Naval Academy at Brest where he presented himself as a timid young man, very serious and studious, little interested in amusements and much more interested in studies than in military matters. In 1808, he obtained the grade of first class candidate. At the time the French navy was only a neglected "cousin", of a much lower quality than Napoleon's army and its ships were blockaded in their ports by the absolute domination of the Royal Navy. Dumont was confined to land Books, , Railway-Accident-Deaths-in-France~~Books-LLC, , , , , , , , , , General Books LLC<