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Who is this sailor who was dedicated the first italian antarctic
base? Why a lot of historical texts do not speak about him or settle
him in few lines? And yet we can meet Giacomo Bove reading Stanley
and his african explorations, or reading about the journey of Nordenskjold
in search of the passage to North-East between Atlantic and Pacific
and, we learn as Bove had studied the crossing through the Antarctic
continent quite 30 years before Shackleton!
Today a glacier, a mountain and a river of the Fire Land carry
his name, as well as the north-western point of Dickson’s island,
in the archipelago of Vega.
The Italian text that gives back merit to Bove and illustrates
in detail his explorations, is of Sergio Zavatti: "ITALY and the
polar regions" Ed. Bagaloni, Ancona 1981.
Giacomo Bove was born in Maranzana d’Acqui in 1853, not on
the sea, but he graduated at the Naval School of Genoa in 1872.
He participates in the naval shipping with the "Governalo", sailing
towards the Eastern India, the Korea, the Japan and the Borneo.
He dies in Verona in 1887, at the age of just 34 years, after having
sailed with Nordenkjold, having organize an exploration in the Fire
Land and after having gone back up to the Congo river until the
Stanley waterfall…
Ludovico Incisa di Camerana introduces him in the chapter of the
"Italians: grate explorers, sailors, admirals of the oceans but
also captains of fortune" :
"The decline of the sail navigation will mark the end of the brave
captains, of the author navy. It is not time of discoveries anymore
or, at least, it remains little to discover: between that little,
at the end of the past century, there is the exploration of channels
of the Land of the Fire by a tenant of vessel of the Italian Navy,
Giacomo Bove.
Praised from everybody, but not too much, he will be sent to explore
the large African rivers. As many other italians, he will be victim
of the Africa desease, and not sentimentally. Hit from a malicious
illness in Congo, Bove will die suicidal"
Ludovico Incisa di Camerana: The grate exodus. Corbaccio 2002.
(Pag. 79)
Bove participates to the expedition like hydrographer and mapper.
He winters in the Siberian sea, near the promontory Cape Celiuskin,
he follows Nordeskjold in the return to Europe, across the Indian
Sea, the Suez Strait and the halt to Naples, his last stage. In
this shipping he is appreciete for his professional ability as hydrographer
and mapper.
We have to remember as the Nordeskjold’s expedition was the
first one having reached the Pacific Ocean from the Scandinavia,
traveling through the long North-East passage for the Indians…
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The
deepening on Adolf Erik Nordenskjol and its shipping is restored at the page:
deepening »
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A swedish site restores the experience of the ship VEGA with
a biography of the greater protagonists:
www.etnografiska.se/NORDWEB/vegabess.htm
Giacomo Bove, strong of the experience acquired with Nordeskjold,
submits to the Italian Geographic Society a crossing of the Antarctic
from the Sea of Weddel to the Sea of Ross, but the scarcity of support
by the Italian authority and the insufficient collection of funds,
compelled Bove to change the objective and to aim to the exploration
of the Patagonia, the Land of the Fire until the island of the States.
With the ship "Cabo De Hornos" he leaves from Buenos Ayres in december
25th 1880 and he reaches Ushuaia in the April of 1881.
The shipping takes almost three weeks to explore the field of Santa
Cruz in Patagonia. He carries out the journey from the island of
the States to Point Arenas t with a smaller boat, the schooner San
Josè, but the ship sinks during the journey and Bove with
his men reach Ushuaia with a rowing boat.
In the September 1881, Bove return to Buonos Ayres and therefore
in Italy. Together with the hydrographer Giovanni Roncagli, he public
the scientific results of the coastal relief from Point Arenas to
Santa Cruz.
The journey allow Giacomo Bove to publish a book: "Journey to the
Land of the Fire".
A copy of this book, published by ECIG in 1992 , is available at
the Polar Circle Association.
Bove goes back up the Paranà to look for the "missions "
situated inside, until Ituzaingò, exploring the territory
between the Iguassù and the large Guayra waterfall; the shipping
allow him to explore and to point out the immense water field that
breed the majestic waterfalls.
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Italian base "Giacomo Bove": the first italian base in Antartic:
deepening »
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The explorer participates in the large international motion of
the discovery of the Africa in view of its colonization by the greater
nations of the North Europe. He climb up the Congo river from the
mouth to Matadi, therefore he reaches the Stanley’s waterfalls.
Went back to Italy, Bove, in his relport, excludes any suitability
in the colonization of the Congo by means of the unhealthy climate.
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