The official acknowledgement...

29 December 1874

The 3rd Naval and Colonies Ministry, Fleet Personnel Office (Paris), asks the Armaments Commissioner (Lorient) for the personal details (name, first name, rank, etc....) of Duris, a mechanic crew member of a vessel who had attended a mission to witness the transit of the planet Venus at Campbell Island.

31 December 1874

The Armaments Commissioner answers: Paul DURIS, mechanic, third class rank, registered under the number 33398/2 in Brest division.

7 January 1875

Paris asks the Divisional Commander for Fleet Personnel in Brest to inform Duris's family of his death.

8 January 1875

The Divisional Commander answers that he has written this very day to the Mayor of Châteauroux so that he can report to the family.
(On this letter, the birth date has been added with a pencil (in the "Réponse" cell, left column))

Mid-June 1875

Duris's mother, who was widowed, files a claim for her son's official death certificate. Without it she could not cash the money order (319F,92c) she had been granted.

There are notes on this letter that refer to other letters written subsequently :
19 June - to Lieutenant Courrejolles
25 June - to Lorient
30 June - to New Caledonia
30 June - to Châteauroux Préfet.

19 June 1875

Paris, asks Courrejolles if a standard death certificate was provided for Duris.

(No answer from Courrejolles.)

25 June 1875

Paris asks Lorient if they have received Duris's death certificate and to where else this might have been sent.

26 June 1875

Lorient answers: They have still not received the death certificate requested from the Vire's officers on 25 January 1875.

30 June 1875

Paris requests the Governor of New Caledonia to ask the Vire's Commandant to inform them of to where the death certificate might have been sent.

11 August 1875

Duris's mother files another claim for her son's official death certificate.

There are notes on this letter referring to another letter written subsequently:

6 October 1875

From Noumea, the Commissioner for the New Caledonia Naval Division informs Paris that he has passed their demand to the Vire Commandant for further action.

23 December 1875

Paris asks Lorient if they have received Duris's death certificate.

27 December 1875

Lorient answers: They had received excerpts from the Vire's wages book and a copy of Duris's death certificate was made from the transcription of Duris's death in the Vires nominal roll.
A copy of the certificate had been sent to Mayor of Châteauroux who acknowledged its receipt.

4 March 1876

From Papeete, Rivière (Chief of Vire's administration board) replies that on 15 January 1875, within 24 hours of the Vire berthing in Auckland, New Zealand, Duris's death certificate had been given to the Consul de France in Auckland.
He adds that Duris's death certificate had been confirmed by an entry in the crew book. The wages and crew books were sent to Lorient by Le Calvados shipping out from Tahiti on 20 April 1875. Vire had actually left Campbell Island on 19 October 1874, to visit various New Zealand harbours and the Captain, not knowing that there was a Consul of France in Wellington, travelled on to Auckland.
The Campbell Island crew book remained with the leader of the scientific expedition until Vire arrived in Auckland where Duris's death certificate was passed to M. Cruikshank, Consul of France in Auckland. Cruikshank was supposed to have sent the certificate on to Paris.