The Travel Memoir Review

French sea-dogs set sail for the sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Islands on a seal-slaughtering adventure

Review by Sam Baldwin

• Author: R. R. Du Baty
• Book First Published: 1922
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd
• Rating: ★★☆

How our ratings work:

★★★ – Loved it. Highly recommended. Transcends interest in the location alone
★★☆ – Liked it. Recommended, especially if you’re interested in the location
★☆☆ – Didn’t like it. But may still appeal to those interested in the location

The Gist

In 1907, two French brothers, both captains in the French merchant navy, conceived a sub-Antarctic adventure. Setting their sights on Kerguelen – a group of extremely isolated islands – they set sail on a tiny ketch with a crew of just four others.

Their plan? To chart unexplored areas of the islands and fund the trip by harvesting the oil of elephant seals, which live in their thousands upon these barren islands. 15,000 miles in a Ketch is Baty’s account of the two-year adventure spent hunting seals, rendering their blubber, and exploring Kerguelen’s gale-blasted “bays and channels and its chaos of peaks.”

I’d never heard of the Kerguelen Islands before reading this book. But Baty’s account confirms that their moniker – The Desolation Islands – is well earned. Positioned 3000km from any inhabited territory, this “land of grim and barren rocks” is no desert island paradise.

The Guts

In the very first chapter, Baty states that his account is “a straight, simple truth of the things that I have seen” and that he writes “without pretence of literary art and grace”.

It’s true that Baty’s prose is practical in style. Yet he’s a warm, and at times humorous, narrator. Crammed into their tiny ketch, we learn of daily life onboard, crossing great oceans, surviving tempestuous seas, then arriving at the loneliest islands on earth, many parts of which were uncharted at that time. It makes for interesting reading, though the accounts of seal slaughter are not suitable for vegetarians:

“We were but pigmies against those herds of grotesque and gargantuan creatures… Blood bespattered the rocks, and we fought ankle deep in puddles of gore, and red streams trickled over the ledges and stained the sea. Butchers’ work! Filthy, horrible, and brutal work.”

Baty was just twenty-five when he set sail, and the youngest crew member was a mere sixteen. The gumption and level of self-suffiiciency required to make the journey and survive on these desolate islands for 18 months is impressive.

Aside from the seals, who don’t take kindly to the French invaders, the weather is the crew’s greatest adversary. The islands are constantly assaulted by gales, which on several occasions threaten to destroy their boat, and sink their journey.

Why read 15,000 Miles in a Ketch?

15,000 miles in a Ketch pre-dates The Kon-Tiki Expedition by 40 years, but fans of Thor Heyerdahl’s balsa raft classic will find something familiar here. This book comes from the epoch of explorers; the idea that you could just pick an island, sail to it and harvest the wildlife is (thankfully) a long-dead concept. It’s a world alien to our time.

Although Baty was a Frenchman, the book was first published in English. It wasn’t until 1991 that a French version was released. The English edition is now out of print; perhaps a publisher will re-release it as a vintage classic one day.

There are few larger themes here: no love story, no inner journey. It’s a no-nonsense account of sailing a long way in a little boat, with an old-school explorer flavour, and will appeal to those who enjoy a good salty sea-dog tale and all who are curious about these lonely, wind-lashed islands.