2017-10-16 Mon

Iceland released a special souvenir sheet ion 14th September to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Tremarec’s 1767 expedition to Iceland.

Kerguelen de Tremarec was a French naval officer who was ordered by Louis XV in January 1767 to sail to Iceland and analyze the needs of French fishermen at the Icelandic waters. He was also asked to look into matters of health and welfare.

Kerguelen went there for the second time in 1768. He also published a book named Relation d'un voyage dans la mer du Nord (Account of a journey on the North Sea) in 1771 describing these expeditions in detail.

The sheet features a group of men and women cooking in the open. A geyser is featured at the center and smoke comes out from a volcano in the background. The Land of Fire and Ice - Iceland has more than 200 volcanoes and many geysers. The most famous one is called Geysir, but it rarely erupts.