1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Campbell Island

The expedition was conducted under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences which established a committee to plan the operation. A year before the transit was due, the French naval frigate FRWS Vire, based at Nouméa and commanded by Captain J. Jacquemart, visited the island from 28 November to 25 December 1873. The officers and crew of the ship made a thorough survey of the coastline and set up a platform for astronomical equipment on the headland between Camp Cove and Garden Cove in Perseverance Harbour and cleared a path to the beach. They also planted a garden with potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables. The leader of the main expedition was A. Bouquet de la Grye, a naval hydrographer, assisted by hydrographer P. Hatt and naval officer Th. Courrejolles who was in charge of the photographic equipment. The fourth scientist was naturalist and expedition doctor Henri Filhol. They were accompanied by a support staff which included technicians, carpenters and mechanics. The expedition departed Marseille in June 1874. They reached Sydney on 21 August and joined the Vire which had brought equipment from Nouméa. They left Sydney on 2 September and arrived at Campbell Island on 9 September. ==Campbell Island==

After briefly checking North East Harbour and rejecting it as a venue for their work, they continued to Perseverance Harbour and Garden Cove. There, finding that there was insufficient space for their encampment and equipment and that nothing had survived in the vegetable garden except for a few cabbages, they set up their camp in Venus Bay instead. • Courrejolles Point • De la Vire Point • Filhol Peak • Garden Cove • Jacquemart Island • Mount Azimuth • Mount Dumas • Mount Faye • Mount Fizeau • Mount Paris • Puiseux Peak • Venus Bay • Yvon Villarceau Peak ==Other expeditions==

The Campbell Island expedition was one of six French expeditions sent to observe the 1874 transit. The other two sites in the southern hemisphere were Île Saint-Paul in the Indian Ocean and Nouméa in New Caledonia, while in the northern hemisphere French astronomers visited Nagasaki in Japan, Beijing in China, and Saigon in Vietnam. Other countries which sent similar expeditions were the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. ==References==