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Article: The sailor's eye.(Gaston Liebert)
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- September 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On a pleasant day in May 1888, Midshipman Gaston Liebert sat on the deck of the French steam sloop of war the Vire, then at anchor in Tubua Bay, Raiatea, in the French Polynesian archipelago. Looking north, he drew a panorama of the harbor, including the coasting schooner tied up to a ramshackle wharf, the nestled buildings of a research station, other vessels moored nearby, and the island of Tahaa on the horizon (Fig. 3). During the previous three years, Liebert had served as a cadet aboard the naval school frigate Iphigenie before being assigned as a midshipman to the Vire. These two vessels had taken him from the Mediterranean to the French Antilles (see Fig. 2), to the ...