Auguste-Nicolas Vaillant (2 July 1793 – 1 November 1858) was a French sailor who worked his way up through the ranks from common seaman to rear-admiral. In 1836–37 he captained a 21-month voyage round the globe in which the scientists made many useful botanical and zoological observations, later described in an 11-volume illustrated account. He was briefly Minister of Navy and Colonies in 1851 during the
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic (french: Deuxième République Française or ), officially the French Republic (), was the republican government of France that existed between 1848 and 1852. It was established in February 1848, with the February Revo ...
.
Early years
Auguste-Nicolas Vaillant was born in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France, on 2 July 1793.
He joined the navy as a simple apprentice sailor. He sailed on the coast of
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
and in the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
, which was blockaded by the English fleet during the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
He was promoted to 2nd class cadet on 1 December 1810 and served on coastal vessels and on river and canal boats. He was promoted to 1st class cadet on 29 March 1813 and soon after was given command of the ''Texel''. He vigorously suppressed a revolt of the Dutch crew. This brought him to the attention of Admiral
Carel Hendrik Ver Huell
Carel Hendrik Ver Huell (4 February 1764 – 25 October 1845) was a Dutch naval officer and statesman. He married Maria Johanna de Bruyn on 22 February 1789 at Hummelo, and had three sons with her.
Career
Ver Huell had a checkered career in w ...
, who made him first an infantry lieutenant then an artillery lieutenant in the forts of la Salle and l'Ecluse.
Vaillant fought in the Channel and on the coast of Flanders on the brig ''Génie'' and the frigate ''Hermione''.
After the end of the wars, on 20 June 1816 he was discharged on suspicion of
Bonapartism
Bonapartism (french: Bonapartisme) is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In thi ...
.
Naval officer
Vaillant was restored to his rank of sub-lieutenant (''Enseigne de vaisseau'') on 1 July 1818.
That year he was sent on an exploratory expedition to
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
to investigate how it should be colonized.
He explored the
Maroni River
The Maroni or Marowijne (french: link=no, Maroni, nl, Marowijne, Sranan Tongo: ''Marwina-Liba'') is a river in South America that forms the border between French Guiana and Suriname.
Course
The Maroni runs through the Guianan moist forest ...
, at that time virtually unknown to Europeans, and made a detailed map and description.
He was made Lieutenant on 4 August 1824, and the next year was given command of the ''Estafette'', which was employed in turn in the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
, at
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
, and on the coasts of
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
and
Romagna
Romagna ( rgn, Rumâgna) is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to t ...
. For his conduct in a storm in the Hellenic archipelago, and for a courageous expedition against the pirates of
Andros
Andros ( el, Άνδρος, ) is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, about southeast of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . It is for the most part mountainous, with many fr ...
, on 3 November 1827 he was awarded the cross of the
Order of Saint Louis
The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis (french: Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis) is a dynastic order of chivalry founded 5 April 1693 by King Louis XIV, named after Saint Louis (King Louis IX of France). It was intended as a rewar ...
.
![Atlanta-anatomy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Atlanta-anatomy.jpg)
In 1828 Vaillant participated in the
Morea expedition
The Morea expedition (french: link=no, Expédition de Morée) is the name given to the land intervention of the French Army in the PeloponneseMorea is the name of the Peloponnese region in Greece, which was mainly used from the medieval peri ...
during the
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...
. In November 1828 he became chief of staff of Admiral
Henri de Rigny
Marie Henri Daniel Gauthier, comte de Rigny (; 2 February 1782 – 6 November 1835) was the commander of the French squadron at the Battle of Navarino in the Greek War of Independence.
Biography
Family
He was a nephew of Baron Joseph Domini ...
.
When the admiral was named Minister of the Navy, M. Lalonde took command of the Levant station. Vaillant served under him as commander of the ''Actéon''.
He was named Commander (''Capitaine de frégate'') on 1 March 1831, and became aide-de-camp to the Naval Minister Henri de Rigny.
He continued in this role under Commodore
Louis Léon Jacob and Admiral
Guy-Victor Duperré
Guy-Victor Duperré (20 February 1775 – 2 November 1846) was a French naval officer and Admiral of France.
He is known for commanding French naval forces in the Mauritius campaign of 1809–11 and was victorious in the Battle of Grand Port ...
.
In February 1836 Vaillant was given command of the ''Bonite'' for a voyage of circumnavigation of the globe.
The primary purpose of Vaillant's journey was to take several consular agents to various remote posts, but the staff also made many valuable scientific observations.
''La Bonite'' left
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...
on 6 February 1836 carrying the artist and botanist
Benôit-Henri Darondeau
Stanislas-Henri-Benoit Darondeau (4 April 1807 – 12 July 1842) was a French painter, draftsman and engineer who was born in Paris in 1807. The musician Henry Darondeau was his father and Benoît Darondeau one of his brothers.
He exhibited i ...
and others. They passed the
Strait of Gibraltar
The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...
, crossed the Atlantic and reached
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
in Brazil in March 1836. The vessel rounded
Cape Horn
Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...
and reached
Valparaíso
Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
in Chile on 17 June 1836. They sailed via Peru to
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
, Hawaii, where they stayed from 28 September to 11 October 1836. The return journey took ''La Bonite'' via the
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...
,
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
in the Philippines,
Canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative division terminology
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and ent ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
,
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
,
Pondicherry
Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...
,
Réunion
Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...
, the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
and
Saint Helena
Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
to
Brest
Brest may refer to:
Places
*Brest, Belarus
**Brest Region
**Brest Airport
**Brest Fortress
*Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria
*Břest, Czech Republic
*Brest, France
**Arrondissement of Brest
**Brest Bretagne Airport
** Château de Brest
*Brest, ...
, which was reached on 6 November 1837. No crew members were lost in the 21-month voyage.
![Plan du fort de Saint Jean d'Ulloa et vue panoramique 1838](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Plan_du_fort_de_Saint_Jean_d%27Ulloa_et_vue_panoramique_1838.jpg)
Vaillant was promoted to captain (''capitaine de vaisseau'') in 1838, and joined the
expedition to Mexico later that year.
After the stronghold of
San Juan de Ulúa
San Juan de Ulúa, also known as Castle of San Juan de Ulúa, is a large complex of fortresses, prisons and one former palace on an island of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico overlooking the seaport of Veracruz, Mexico. Juan de Grijalva's ...
had been captured he was made its commander and was placed in command of the Vera Cruz station.
He then joined the
French blockade of the Río de la Plata
The French blockade of the Río de la Plata was a two-year-long naval blockade imposed by France on the Argentine Confederation ruled by Juan Manuel de Rosas. It closed Buenos Aires to naval commerce. It was imposed in 1838 to support the Peru ...
, during which he occupied
Montevideo
Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
.
In May 1840 the explorer and botanist
Aimé Bonpland
Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (; 22 August 1773 – 11 May 1858) was a French explorer and botanist who traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. He co-authored volumes of the scientific results of their ex ...
met Vaillant, captain of the frigate ''Atalante'' in the Plata. He found Vaillant "polite but affected."
At lunch on the ship Bonpland noticed evident hostility between Vaillant and Commodore
Jean Dupotet
Jean Henri Joseph Dupotet (17 December 1777, in Chaugey – 9 January 1852, in Paris) was a French navy commander known for the Battle of Trafalgar.
Career
Dupotet was born the first son of a 10-sibling family. He joined the Navy as a sail ...
.
Vaillant returned to France at his request due to disagreement with the Commodore and was given command of the ''Santi-Petri'' in the Levant station.
On 17 April 1843 Vaillant married Zilia, sister of Baron André de Neuflize.
After the
February Revolution
The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...
of 1848 he was appointed
Maritime Prefect
A maritime prefect ( French: ''Préfet maritime'') is a servant of the French State who exercises authority over the sea in a particular region under French jurisdiction, known as a maritime arrondissement (''Arrondissement maritime''). His admini ...
of the 4th maritime arrondissement, where he helped restore the peace. He then became ''premier conseil'' at the admiralty. On 1 May 1849 Vaillant was promoted to commodore (''contre-amiral''), and on 6 August 1849 was made second in command of the 2nd Mediterranean squadron, under
Alexandre Ferdinand Parseval-Deschenes
Alexandre Ferdinand Parseval-Deschenes (27 November 1790 – 10 June 1860) was a French admiral and senator.
Life
Born in Paris to an aristocratic family, Alexandre was the nephew of the mathematician Marc-Antoine Parseval and the Académicien ...
.
Administrator
On 24 January 1851 Vaillant was appointed minister of marine.
On 10 April 1851 he was replaced by
Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat
Justin Napoléon Samuel Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat, 4th Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat (29 May 1805, Alessandria, Department of Marengo, French Empire – 29 March 1873, Paris, France) was a French aristocrat and politician who became Minister ...
.
Later in 1851 Vaillant was made governor-general of the
French West Indies
The French West Indies or French Antilles (french: Antilles françaises, ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy fwansez) are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean:
* The two overseas departments of:
** Guadeloupe, ...
and commander of the naval stations in the Antilles and the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
.
He then became governor of
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
before having to return to France in 1853 due to poor health.
He was promoted to rear-admiral (''vice-amiral'') in 1854.
Auguste-Nicolas Vaillant died on 1 November 1858, aged 65.
Work
*''Voyage autour du monde execute sur la corvette la Bonite'' (11 vols., Paris, 1840–48).
File:Voyage de la Bonite.jpg, Cover page of account of the voyage of the ''Bonite''
File:Boa constrictor eques Bonte pl04.jpg, Boa constrictor
The boa constrictor (scientific name also ''Boa constrictor''), also called the red-tailed boa, is a species of large, non-venomous, heavy-bodied snake that is frequently kept and bred in captivity. The boa constrictor is a member of the family B ...
File:Bonite-mollusques-pl27.jpg, Molluscs
File:Glaucus atlanticus dissected.png, Dissected nudibranch Glaucus atlanticus
''Glaucus atlanticus'' (common names include the blue sea dragon, sea swallow, blue angel, blue glaucus, dragon slug, blue dragon, blue sea slug and blue ocean slug) is a species of small, blue sea slug, a pelagic (open-ocean) aeolid nudibran ...
File:Bonite-poissons-pl10.jpg, Arothron immaculatus
''Arothron immaculatus'', the immaculate puffer or yellow-eyed puffer, is a pale greyish to brownish pufferfish from the Indo-West Pacific. It is a species of marine fish in the family Tetraodontidae.
Description
The immaculate puffer is a puff ...
, Arothron stellatus
''Arothron stellatus'', also known as the stellate puffer, starry puffer, starry pufferfish, or starry toadfish, is a demersal marine fish belonging to the family Tetraodontidae. It is found in shallow water in the Indo-Pacific region.
Descrip ...
& Takifugu pardalis
File:Pitta elegans - La Bonite02 improved.jpg, Elegant pitta
The elegant pitta (''Pitta elegans'') is a species of passerine bird in the pitta family Pittidae. It is endemic to Indonesia, where it is found in the Lesser Sunda Islands and Moluccas.
Taxonomy and subspecies distribution
The elegant pitta was ...
File:Bonite-mammifères-pl02.jpg, Red-Gold macaque
The macaques () constitute a genus (''Macaca'') of gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and (in one instance) Gibraltar. Macaques are principally ...
References
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaillant, Auguste-Nicolas
1793 births
1858 deaths
French sailors
French Governors of Martinique