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.

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.

On 22 September one of the technicians, Paul Duris, died of typhoid fever and was buried on the point opposite Venus Bay.

Although observations and measurements of the transit had been unsuccessful, Filhol published a comprehensive account of his examination of the natural history of the island, while the chart produced by the naval officers subsequently formed the basis of maps of the island and British Admiralty charts for several decades.

Many geographic features were named by the expedition after its own personnel and members of the transit committee in Paris, as well as for other expedition-related objects, including:[2]