Adrien de Gerlache was born on 2nd August 1866 in Hasselt, Belgium, and he died on 4th December 1934 (aged 67 years) in Brussels, Belgium. Adrien was a Belgian naval officer who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897-99. He decided to voyage to Antarctica for which he purchased his own ship. After sailing through, charting and naming a string of Islands they crossed the Antarctic Circle. They got stranded in the Bellinghausen Sea getting trapped in ice and had to spend over seven months trying to get it out. He also sailed to the Persian Gulf, Greenland Sea and a few other expeditions over the years.
Do you know: Adrien de Gerlache wrote a book about the expedition and was awarded a prize by the Academie Francaise.
