#french exploration

[loynosca]

Illustrations from the book Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde (1842-1843) by French explorer, naval officer, botanist and cartographer Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d'Urville. 

[clio-muse-of-history]

March 19

In 1687, the crew of French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murdered him while he was searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. You might think that murder is a bad thing, and I'd be inclined to agree with you most of the time.  But YOU try dicking around in a late-17th century tub in the swamps, dealing with mosquitoes and alligators and all kind of snakes and bullshit, and listening to some dickhead officer tell you about how important the quest for knowledge is, and see how you would feel after a few months.  Now, I'm not saying that violence is always the answer, but sometimes, well, it's a pretty good one.

[statelibrarynsw]

On this day, 7th August 1779,  Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet, the French naval officer and cartographer who explored parts of Australia and islands in the Pacific Ocean, was born..

In 1800 he joined Captain Nicholas Baudin on a voyage of exploration to Australia and Tasmania. After his return to Paris in 1804, he completed an account of this expedition, Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes (1807; “Voyage of Discovery to Southern Lands”), for which he also drew maps.

In 1817 he took command of l’Uranie to conduct magnetic and oceanographic research in the Pacific. His wife, Rose, disguised as a sailor, was smuggled aboard and accompanied the voyage, which she described in a journal published in 1827. (Original held in the State Library of New South Wales)

On the return voyage from Sydney to France, via Cape Horn, l’Uranie was wrecked in the Falkland Islands, but the scientific data and specimens aboard were saved. Freycinet purchased an American whaler, renamed la Physicienne, and in it returned to France.

The State Library of NSW has recently acquired - Louis de Freycinet - papers relating to measurement of longitude, with particular reference to Joseph de Mendoza y Rios, ca. 1795-ca. 1820.  This collection was probably compiled between these two voyages, while Freycinet was working in Paris on an account of the Baudin expedition and involved at the Ministry of Marine. It is possible this group of manuscripts travelled with Freycinet on the Uranie voyage, along with the astronomical instruments he references. Accurately measuring longitude was vital for navigation on extended ocean voyages and these papers focus on improvements made in measuring longitude at sea, including Freycinet's own translation from English to French of an essay by the Spanish astronomer Joseph de Mendoza y Rios, published in London in 1801.

The State Library of New South Wales holds editions of Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes : fait par ordre du  gouvernement, sur les corvettes le Géographe, le Naturaliste, et la goëlette le  Casuarina, pendant les années 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, et 1804 : historique /  rédigé par Péron et continué par M. Louis de Freycinet.

These images have been digitised from the 2nd edition, provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the State Library of NSW.

[kerathink]

In 1686, the French ship La Belle sunk in Matagorda Bay, where it sat for more than 300 years. The Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin is now home to numerous artifacts recovered from the shipwreck, including the actual hull of the ship. ‘Think’ speaks with Peter Fix, one of the archaeologists who oversaw the ship’s reconstruction for the exhibit, today at 12 p.m. CT. 

[jugglingimpressions]

Voyage de la Corvette (atlas) 1833 159 by peacay on Flickr.