View source for Pourquoi-Pas (1908)

{{Short description|French polar exploration ship}}
{{other ships|French ship Pourquoi Pas?}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=Pourquoi-Pas (1908).jpg
|Ship caption=''Pourquoi-Pas'', the ship which served Dr Charcot on his last expedition in the Antarctic; now belonging to the [[Muséum national d'histoire naturelle|Museum d'Histoire Naturelle]]
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=France
|Ship flag=[[Image:Civil and Naval Ensign of France.svg|border|100x35px|French Navy Ensign]]
|Ship name=''Pourquoi-Pas''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship owner=
|Ship operator=
|Ship registry=
|Ship route=
|Ship ordered=
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=François Gautier, [[Saint Malo]]
|Ship original cost=
|Ship yard number=
|Ship way number=
|Ship laid down=1907
|Ship launched=1908
|Ship sponsor=
|Ship christened=
|Ship completed=
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=
|Ship recommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship maiden voyage=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed=
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship homeport=
|Ship identification=
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honours=
|Ship honors=
|Ship captured=
|Ship fate=Wrecked on 16 September 1936
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class=
|Ship type=
|Ship tonnage=
|Ship displacement=445 tonnes
|Ship length=40 m
|Ship beam=9.2 m
|Ship height=
|Ship draught=4.3 m
|Ship draft=
|Ship depth=
|Ship hold depth=
|Ship decks=
|Ship deck clearance=
|Ship ramps=
|Ship ice class=
|Ship power=
|Ship propulsion=*Sail
*450 HP engine
|Ship sail plan=
|Ship speed=7.5 knots
|Ship range=
|Ship endurance=
|Ship test depth=
|Ship boats=
|Ship capacity=5 scientists
|Ship troops=
|Ship complement=35 men
|Ship crew=
|Ship time to activate=
|Ship sensors=
|Ship EW=
|Ship armament=
|Ship armour=
|Ship armor=
|Ship aircraft=
|Ship aircraft facilities=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}
'''''Pourquoi-Pas''''' (from [[French language|French]] ''pourquoi pas?'' 'why not?') was the fourth ship built for [[Jean-Baptiste Charcot]], which completed the second Charcot expedition of the Antarctic regions from 1908 to 1910. Charcot died aboard when the ship was wrecked on 16 September 1936, off the coast of [[Iceland]]. Of the forty men on board, only one survived.
==History==
In 1907, [[Jean-Baptiste Charcot]] launched a new Antarctic expedition and began work on a new ship, ''Pourquoi-Pas'' (IV), a three-masted [[barque]] designed for polar exploration, equipped with a motor and containing three laboratories and a library.  It was built at [[Saint-Malo]] to plans by Francois Gautier, in his shipyard.
From 1908 to 1910, Charcot set out in ''Pourquoi-Pas'', wintering at [[Petermann Island]], on his second [[Antarctic]] polar expedition. He returned to France in 1910 laden with scientific discoveries; he had finished the mapping of [[Alexander Island]] and discovered a new island, [[Charcot Island|Charcot Land]].
In 1912, ''Pourquoi-Pas'' became the French Navy's first [[school ship]].  From 1918 to 1925, Charcot took ''Pourquoi-Pas'' on various scientific missions in the North Atlantic, the English Channel, the Mediterranean and the [[Faroe Islands]], mainly to study underwater [[lithology]] and [[geology]] by means of drag nets, to whose material and use Charcot made major improvements.
From 1925 onwards, limited by age, Charcot lost command of the ship (though he remained on board as head of the expedition) for her many voyages around the Arctic glaciers. In 1926, Charcot and ''Pourquoi-Pas'' explored the eastern coast of [[Greenland]] and brought back many fossils and samples of insects and flora.
In 1928, ''Pourquoi-Pas'' set out to investigate the disappearance of the large French [[seaplane]] ''[[Latham 47]]'' with the Norwegian explorer [[Roald Amundsen]] on board, which had itself been looking for the Italian general [[Umberto Nobile]], who had set out to cross the North Pole in the dirigible ''Italia'' and not been heard from since.
In 1934, Charcot and ''Pourquoi-Pas'' set up an ethnographic mission in Greenland headed by [[Paul-Émile Victor]], who spent a year in [[Tasiilaq|Angmagssalik]] living amid the [[Eskimo]] population.  In 1935, Charcot and ''Pourquoi-Pas'' returned there to look for Victor and his three companions (Gessain, Pérez et Matter) and began the mapping of these regions. On 16 September that year, the ship managed to reach a small port to escape a [[cyclone]] which ravaged the coasts of Iceland.
In September 1936, returning from the mission to Greenland to deliver scientific material to Victor's mission (which had just traversed the [[ice sheet]]s in 50 days) and after carrying out a survey mission, ''Pourquoi-Pas'' stopped at [[Reykjavík]] to re-provision with fuel on 13 September. They set out for [[Saint-Malo]] two days later, on 15 September, but on 16 September the ship was caught in a violent cyclonic storm and lost on the reefs of [[Álftanes]] at [[Mýrar]]. 23 of the crew were lost in the wreck and 17 survivors died before rescue came, leaving only one survivor, Eugène Gonidec, master steersman. [[Jean-Baptiste Charcot]] was one of the dead, aged 69. [[Pourquoi Pas Point]] and [[Pourquoi Pas Island]] were later named after it.
==See also==
* [[List of Antarctic exploration ships from the Heroic Age, 1897–1922]]
==Specifications==
Ship type: barque
Expeditions:
* Antarctic: 1908 to 1910
* Arctic: 1921, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1931–1933, 1934, 1935, 1936
Oceanographic equipment: trawling and drag nets, screws, sounding equipment, water bottles and thermometers
==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Maquette du Pourquoi-Pas IV.jpg|Scale model at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, made for the "Voyages en Océanographie" exhibition (24 July 2003 - 30 April 2006).
Image:Itinéraire du Pourquoi-pas.svg|Route of ''Pourquoi-Pas'' in the Antarctic (second French Antarctic expedition, led by Charcot)
</gallery>
== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110720221422/http://gabierschimeriques.free.fr/pourquoi-pas.charcot/ gabierschimeriques.free.fr]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070921165126/http://www.pourquoipaslantarctique.com/Charcot/voyagePPA.asp  Le Pourquoi-Pas? en Antarctique]
* [http://www.pourquoi-pas.ch/carnet/pages_auxiliaires/rapport.html Text of the report on its shipwreck by Eugène Gonidec, sole survivor]
{{Polar exploration|state=collapsed}}
[[Category:Exploration ships]]
[[Category:Ships of France]]
[[Category:1908 ships]]
[[is:Pourquoi-Pas ?]]