Photo album: "Port Jeanne d'Arc (1)"

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Two days after the first ARAKS launch, on January 28^th 1975, we are finally permitted to take a two-day rest. We are going on a trip inside Golf of Morbihan. We will sail on a barge to Port Jeanne d'Arc, former Norwegian whaling station, where we will stay overnight. On the way to Port Jeanne d'Arc we will stop at Isle Longue and the next day, on the way back, we will make a short stop at Isle Haute.

On January 28th 1975, we are going on a trip, on a barge, inside Golf of Morbihan.

We leave Port-aux-Français (reference mark 1) on January 28th 1975. We stop a first time at Port-Bizet (reference mark 2), on Isle Longue where sheep are bred. We proceed to Port Jeanne d'Arc (reference mark 3) where we stay overnight. The barge will come back to fetch us the next day. On the way back, we stop at Isle Haute (reference mark 4) where mouflons as well as a herd of reindeer have been brought in. It is also possible to see, at the right of the map, at the extremity of peninsula of Prince de Galles, Pointe Suzanne which has been mentioned in former pages.

This plaque is attached to the cabin at Port-Bizet on Isle Longue. Bizet is the name of the breed of sheep that lives on the island. It is a breed that origins from Massif Central, in France. It was chosen because well suited to Kerguelen environment. The flock lives unattended on the island. Once a year, volunteers from the base come for the shearing times, mandatory operation because their very thick fleece would interfere with their breeding. The sheep leave Isle Longue only on their last journey, to supply with meat Port-aux-Français where a small enclosure, near the farm, permits to keep them a few days before they are slaughtered.

The cabin of Port-Bizet, used mainly by the volunteers, at shearing times.

Kerguelen cabbages. In spite of its bitterness, the Kerguelen cabbage is edible and possesses antiscorbutic properties which helped to save many sailors in the ancient times. However, on the contrary to the other varieties of cabbages, it must be eaten uncooked, because cooking gives it a very nasty taste. Kerguelen cabbages were plentiful before the rabbits were brought in the archipelago, it remains a small number of them in the rare isles where these animals are absent or on steep slopes, out of reach of these little herbivore animals.

We can see, here, the enclosure which permits to separate a few sheep from the rest of the flock before embarking them onto the barge that will transport them towards the kitchens of Port-aux-Français.

We are leaving Port-Bizet where a few passengers of the barge are staying for the night. We will meet them again tomorrow when the barge will come back to fetch us.

We have landed at Port Jeanne d'Arc. This is one of the wooden buildings built by the Norwegians in the years 1900. It is in this house, still in good enough state, that we will stay during the night.

We are now in front of the ruins of the plant used by the Norwegians to process the whales. The factory was operative between 1900 and 1930 roughly, with an interruption during the first World War.

Whaleboats, rowing boats which were used to chase the whales and harpoon them.

A winch used to drag the whales along a wooden slope up to the place where they were cut to pieces. We perceive, in background, the vestiges of a wharf which permitted to get onto the ships.

The boilers where the pieces of whales were heated to extract the oil.

Remains of a ruined building.

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