In 1856, Prince Napoleon, the French Emperor's cousin, carried out a four-month expedition in the North Sea. He was accompanied by a scientific committee as well as a group of painters, photographers and writers. Among the participants was Polish novelist, playwright, poet and journalist Karol Edmund Choiecki (1822 99). In 1844, he had fled Russian persecution in Poland, having been in jeopardy due to his activism and patriotic writings. He found refuge in France and befriended such members of the intellectual elite as Gustave Flaubert and George Sand. In 1857, Choiecki published a...