While Nansen was returning from the ice of the Arctic Ocean, his countryman Roald Amundsen set off to the Antarctic. Aboard the "Belgica" Amundsen accompanied the Belgian Antarctic Expedition as a steersman. For this adventure Adrien de Gerlache purchased the whale catcher "Patria" for 70,000 francs, overhauled the engine, arranged additional cabins, installed a laboratory and renamed the ship "Belgica". Between 1887 and 1899, biological and physical observations were carried out to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula and to the south of Peter I Island. The "Belgica" was the first ship that overwintered in the Antarctic. An international research team was aboard; later at the evaluation over 80 scientists participated. In 1895 Georg Neumayer, director of the Hamburg naval observatory, launched the slogan "off to the South Pole" at the sixth international geographic congress. Last but not least, motivated by reports of the Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink, who was the first person on the new continent, the congress declared the exploration of the Antarctica the urgent task for the following years.