Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery (French pronunciation: ​[adʁijɛ̃ viktɔʁ ʒozɛf də ʒɛʁlaʃ də ɡɔmʁi]; 2 August 1866 – 4 December 1934) was a Belgian officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99. Early years Born in Hasselt in eastern Belgium as the son of an army officer, de Gerlache was educated in Brussels. From a young age he was deeply attracted by the sea, and made three voyages in 1883 and 1884 to the United States as a cabin boy on an ocean liner. He studied Engineering at the Free University of Brussels. After finishing his third year in 1885, he quit the university and joined the Belgian Navy on 19 January 1886. After graduating from the nautical college of Ostend he worked on fishery protection vessels as second and third lieutenant. In October 1887 he signed on as seaman on the Craigie Burn, an English ship, for a voyage to San Francisco, but the ship failed to round Cape Horn and was sold for scrap...