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I am looking for any information about the Belgian ship Mercator
I know there is a kit at scale 1/120 but that' s way to small to go into detail.
My dream is the ship as it was loaded for his return voyage from Easter island to Antwerp in 1935
on board were two statues, better known as moaï, one for a French National museum and one for the Belgian museum of natural history.
As they were big and heavy they must have been loaded on the deck(s) and in plain sight.
I visited the ship with my grandfather when it was in Antwerp some 50 years ago.
This impressive, imaginative ship has been moored in Ostend's marina since 1960. The Mercator was built in Scotland and was commissioned in 1932. It is a protected monument and perhaps Belgium's most famous ship, with many thousands of visitors each year.
De barkentijn Mercator werd in 1932 als opleidingsschip voor de Belgische mercantiele vloot gebouwd. In 1961 werd de Mercator als museumschip ingericht. De Mercator ligt sinds 1965 vrijwel onafgebroken in Oostende afgemeerd.
Der Polarreisende Adrien de Gerlache entwarf diesen Dreimaster, der in Schottland gebaut wurde. Die Mercator hatte zwei Kommandanten und machte 41 Reisen. 1936 holte die Mercator die sterblichen Überreste von Pater Damiaan nach Hause zurück. 1960 lief die Mercator in den Hafen von Antwerpen ein...
Nicolas Cauwe, conservateur auprès des Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, retrace brièvement les motivations ayant mené Henry Lavachery à se joindre à l’expédition archéologique menée par Charles Watelin et Alfred Métraux à l’Île de Pâques en 1934-1935. Il détaille ensuite l’embarquement sur le...
Indeed that's the one
And also the only picture I have found concerning the loading/rigging of one of the statues on board. This statue was The one meant for the Belgian museum by the way.
I hope there are more pictures
Thanks
It seems, that the fotographer and also film-maker John Fernout with Henri Stock made a documentary film with 23min length about the visit to the easter island
DARUM GEHT'S:
The first Easter Island documentary, filmed in 1935 when the Belgian naval ship Mercator came to collect Drs. Henri Lavacherry and Alfred Métraux, who had arrived six months before to carry out archaeological and ethnological work
This film could be very interesting for additional information - I could not find it until now
The first Easter Island documentary, filmed in 1935 when the Belgian naval ship Mercator came to collect Drs. Henri Lavacherry and Alfred Métraux, who had arrived six months before to carry out archaeological and ethnological work.
mubi.com
This is an account of a Franco-Belgian scientific mission on board the training ship Mercator.
The narrative has a very classical structure. Against the backdrop of a map of the world a very simple commentary describes the island and gives a brief account of its geographical and historical situation. Then, from the arrival to the departure of the archaeological explorers, the film is composed of a series of sequential blocks organised for maximum dramatic effect. The first shows the famous statues and their mystery, the graffiti, inscriptions on the rocks, the discovery of caves. The second is devoted to the island as it is now: the poverty of the inhabitants, their fervent Catholicism, the presence of leprosy and the lepers’ house, the portrait of a sculptor who carries on the tradition of the statues and his mother, mineralised by age, more wrinkled than all the Hercynian folds in the rocks, a celebration and its traditional dances. Finally, the third part shows how, after receiving one of the colossal heads as a gift from the Chilean government, the crew carts it to the seashore then hoists it on board the ship. This part has the epic pace of collective effort, which puts one in mind of Eisenstein’s style. Between the famous past and the miserable present, the film draws the portrait of an island where sensationalism gives way to humanity.
Reporting and camera : John Fernhout
Commentary text : Henry Lavachery (head curator of the Musées d’art et d’histoire de Belgique, Belgian representative to the Franco-Belgian archaeological expedition to Easter Island) and Alfred Métraux.
Editing : Henri Storck
Music : Maurice Jaubert
Voice : Maurice Jaubertµ
Pathé recording in Joinville-le-Pont. Marconi system
Production : CEP under the direction of Henri Storck
