In 1916, she was sold and converted to a passenger and cargo ship, serving Spitsbergen from the Norwegian mainland under the name Isfjord.

Requisitioned by the British in April 1940, she was used as a depôt ship, being scuttled when the Franco-British Expeditionary Force evacuated Harstad in northern Norway.

Loaded with 40 tons of food in 10,000 tins, on 16 August 1897, Belgica departed Antwerp, Belgium for the Antarctic,[5] with a crew of 23.

Other members of the expedition included Roald Amundsen, Henryk Arctowski, Antoni Dobrowolski and Emil Racoviţă.

On 14 February 1899, Belgica was finally freed from the ice, although it was another month before she was able to set sail for Punta Arenas, where she arrived on 28 March.

Leaving Buenos Aires on 14 August 1899, she sailed for home, arriving at Boulogne-sur-Mer on 30 October and Antwerp on 5 November, sparking national celebrations in Belgium.

Captain Johan Bryde was to lay supply caches in northeastern Greenland, where the expedition hoped to return from the pole.

On Shannon Island and Bass Rock, Bryde erected prefabricated houses made by Swedish company F O Peterson [sv] and stocked them with coal, tins of food, kayaks, balloons and a hydrogen generator.

[9] In 1905, she was used in an expedition to chart the north east coast of Greenland,[10] Svalbard and Franz Josef Land,[11] de Gerlache again being involved.

[3] In April 1940, Belgica was requisitioned by the Franco-British Expeditionary Force for use as a depôt ship storing high explosives.

[9] The Allied evacuation of Harstad took place on 7 and 8 June 1940, and several British ships were also scuttled in order to avoid having them fall into German hands.

The project was officially launched on 9 September 2007 at De Steenschuit's yard in Boom, Antwerp by Kris Peeters, Minister-President of the Belgian region of Flanders.

[14] It is planned to raise the wreck of Belgica and to put it on display at the Belgian National Maritime Museum, Antwerp.

[14] A 425 km-long (264 mi) scarp on Mercury has been named Belgica Rupes by the International Astronomical Union based on a suggestion by the MESSENGER team.