Adéliepinguin | Adelie penguin | Manchot adélie

benannt nach der Frau des französischen Polarforschers
named after the wife (Adèle) of the French polar explorer

Jules Dumont d’Urville

On 1 November 1839, prompted no doubt by the deadly onslaught of the dysentery epidemic that was to decimate the crews of both corvettes, and well aware that he himself, already in bad physical shape from almost unremitting attacks of gout and renal colic, could easily succumb, d’Urville made his will, leaving most of his property to his son, and a loving tribute as well as a bequest to his wife: "All the ready cash I own will go to my beloved wife, Adèle-Dorothée Pépin, as a small token of my tender love and deep gratitude for the happiness she has given me during the more than twenty years of our union …"

The rest of the will contained some bouquets and brickbats for the officers of Astrolabe and Zélée, and a couple of quite startling special clauses: "Para 5 - There remains in my store about three hundred and fifty litres of wine and twenty-five litres of arrack; all of it is to be distributed in double rations to the crewmen (only) of Astrolabe on the day of the week and the hour that correspond to me drawing my last breath, for as long as the supply lasts."

In: Two Voyages to the South Seas, Captain Jules S.-C. Dumont d’Urville. Volume 2, Astrolabe and Zélée 1837–1840, translated from the French and retold by Helen Rosenman