The Wreck of the "Pourquoi Pas?"

[igenlode]

A strange coincidence of fact and fiction: the French research vessel "Pourquoi Pas?" was wrecked on an Arctic voyage in 1936. The initial collision with the reef brought about a boiler explosion: A 5 h 15, le 16, le Pourquoi-Pas? touche brutalement à deux reprises sur un seuil rocheux et se couche sur tribord. La machine explose et s'arrête. (http://transpolair.free.fr/explorateurs/charcot/naufrage.htm)

Bientôt le navire talonne à deux reprises: par le choc, la vapeur fuse de la chaudière, rendant la machine inutilisable.
Charcot et son œuvre. Ciel et Terre, Vol.52, p. 243

Edit: she had two boilers (so my guess on that was correct - presumably a port and starboard boiler. I couldn't find an actual plan illustrating how many boilers any of these auxiliary-powered ships had!) and carried a crew of 34 sailors plus 5 scientists, similar to the other fairly small crews of exploration ships I was looking at. I'm still sticking by my head-canon that the "Requin", as part of the French naval establishment, was crewed at warship levels :-p https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pourquoi-Pas_%3F_IV

Comments

[betweensunandmoon]

Seriously? They named the ship the "Why Not?"

[igenlode]

Allegedly that was Charcot's standard response to those who asked why he wanted to be a Polar explorer:

Le curieux nom de ce navire d'explorations polaires vient de ce que, dans son enfance, le commandant Jean-Baptiste Charcot répondait "pourquoi pas?" à ceux qui doutaient de sa volonté de devenir marin et explorateur des terres polaires.

https://www.herodote.net/16_septembre_1936-evenement-19360916.php