The Italians did participate in the first Antarctic missions mostly as members of expeditions and/or with the support of other Countries.
Giacomo Bove, at the end of 1800, unsuccessfully sought funding for an Italian Antarctic Expedition and then carried out one in the sub-antarctic islands on behalf of Argentina.
Pierre Dayné, an Alpine scout from the Aosta Valley, was the first Italian to spend the winter in Antarctica. It was the 1903-05 expedition of Jean Baptiste Charcot.
Luigi Bernacchi, was a doctor on the Borchgrevinck expedition. He spent the polar night of the year 1900. Bernacchi was not exactly an Italian but a Tasmanian of Italian origins.
Around the 1950s an Italian film expedition, under the direction of Arturo Gemmiti did work for a while at the Chilean bases.
Lieutenant Franco Faggioni carried out seismic measurements at Scott Base during the International Geophysical Year of 1957. (See pic aside)
In the same years, a passionate scholar of the Arctic and Antarctic, Silvio Zavatti, tried to organize a national expedition but the time was not ripe; he managed to visit Bouvet Island anyway. As a scholar and explorer he promoted expeditions to Greenland and Antarctica and in 1958 he developed a program for the construction of a permanent Italian scientific base in the Norwegian Antarctic sector.
We were already in the early 60s when an Italian group of researchers joining the Belgian expedition, performed an ice core drilling in Queen Maud Land.
In 1962, geologist Ardito Desio was able to visit the Dry Valley, near the American McMurdo Base, and also the South Pole Station.
The mountaineer Carlo Mauri also visited Dry Valley a few years later (1967) as a guest of the New Zealand mission.
Between the late 1960s and early 1970s, an enterprising merchant navy officer, Giovanni Ajmone Cat, made two trips from Italy to the Antarctic Peninsula aboard a felucca of which he was the designer and captain, as well as the owner. It was the first time that a vessel flying the Italian flag sailed in Antarctic waters.
Italian sensitivity towards the Antarctic, was therefore maturing in those years and the first institutional interventions began to be recorded: the National Research Council (CNR) organized three interventions, albeit limited in duration and resources, which nevertheless proved to be decisive for the maturation of an Italian government commitment. This would be implemented, with the name of PNRA, in the 1980s. The CNR expeditions, evidently had to rely on the logistics of another country (NZ), they developed in Victoria Land (1968-69, 1972-73 and 1975-76) and had a character that was not only scientific but also mountaineering.
It was the austral summer of 1975-76 when Renato Cepparo, entrepreneur from Milan, conceived and organized a completely self-sufficient private expedition with the aim of carrying out scientific measurements and building a permanent refuge; fifteen men on board a 900-ton Norwegian ship headed for King George Island (Antarctic Peninsula) and the base, named after Giacomo Bove (See pic aside) was built down there. However, it was short-lived, because shortly afterwards an Argentine military group proceeded to demolish it, perhaps not having appreciated that settlement, in an area subject to national claims!
Pierre Dayné
The figure of the Italian, Pierre Dayné, an alpine guide from Valsavarenche Aosta Valley, Italy, has been unjustly forgotten for too many years. Pierre Dayné was the only alpine guide of Jean Baptiste Charcot’s French Antarctic expedition from 1903 to 1905.
The series of five postcards published by “TURIN POLAR” and the related postmark issued for the 120th anniversary (1904-2024) celebrating the first Italian in Antarctica, intend to recall the expedition and its ascents following Jean Baptiste Charcot’s mission 1903-1905.
In 1903, learning that the Nordenskjold expedition was lost in Antarctic waters, Charcot decided to rush to its rescue with the “Francais”, a 32 meter long, 3 masted ship. Its crew was made up of French scientists and sailors with the sole exception of an alpine guide from the Aosta Valley: Pierre Dayné. The ship, having left France on April 31, 1903, docked in Brazil and then reached the mouth of the Rio de la Plata where it underwent repairs from damage suffered during the crossing. Here Charcot learned that the purpose of his voyage was no longer valid since in the meantime, the Nordenskjold expedition had been saved. Charcot nevertheless continued southwards, towards the Strait of Gerlache around which his expedition would take place.
In Dayné’s Alpine Guide booklet we find very interesting attestations issued by Charcot at the end of the 1903-1905 expedition. “The guide Pierre Dayné was part of the French Antarctic expedition that I commanded. I was very satisfied with him from all points of view. Extremely courageous and equipped with exceptional physical strength, he rendered great services on several occasions due to his habit of long marches and glaciers. In particular, 2 beautiful ascents completed in adverse conditions on Wandel Island and Wiencke Island are to be highlighted. We have christened the latter with the name of “Pique Louis de Savoie”. I am very happy to issue him with this certificate. Done in Paris on 18/7/1905
Signed: J.B. Charcot, expedition leader of the French Antarctic expedition “
And about the climb to Louisi Peak made by Dayné with the naturalist Jabel, Charcot wrote in his logbook: “Finally the two of them reach us exhausted by fatigue because they have been marching for over 22 hours. Pierre says that it was one of the hardest and most dangerous climbs he has ever made. We congratulate them and I decide to give this 1500 m high peak the name of the Duke of the Abruzzi to please Pierre Dayné and to pay homage to the great royal explorer.”
The first real mountaineering ascents in Antarctica are therefore due to Pierre Dayné and as such, his name deserves to be remembered in the great book of Antarctic explorers.
Pierre Dayné died on March 23, 1936 in Villeneuve. Aosta Valley, Italy.
TNX Giancarlo Poletto for the 5 post cards with philatelic cancellation, scattered & shown in this article