''Astrolabe'' was a converted
flûte of the
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
, famous for her travels with
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse
Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (; variant spelling: ''La Pérouse''; 23 August 17411788?), often called simply Lapérouse, was a French naval officer and explorer. Having enlisted at the age of 15, he had a successful naval caree ...
.
She was built in 1781 at
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
as the flûte ''Autruche'' for the French Navy. In May 1785 she and her sistership
''Boussole'' (previously ''Portefaix'') were renamed and rerated as frigates, and fitted for round-the-world scientific exploration. The two ships departed from
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
*Br ...
on 1 August 1785, ''Boussole'' commanded by Lapérouse and ''Astrolabe'' under
Paul Antoine Fleuriot de Langle
Paul Antoine Fleuriot de Langle (1 August 1744, château de Kerlouët at Quemper-Guézennec, Côtes-d'Armor – 11 December 1787, Maouna, Samoa) was a French vicomte, académicien de marine, naval commander and explorer. He was second in c ...
.
Disappearance
The expedition vanished mysteriously in 1788 after leaving
Botany Bay
Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...
on 10 March 1788. Captain
Peter Dillon
Peter Dillon (15 June 1788 – 9 February 1847) was a ship's captain engaged in the merchant trade, explorer and writer. Dillon discovered in 1826–27 the fate of the La Pérouse expedition.
Early career
Peter Dillon was born in Martinique, the ...
in solved the mystery in 1827 when he found remnants of the ships ''Astrolabe'' and ''Boussole'' at
Vanikoro
Vanikoro (sometimes wrongly named ''Vanikolo'') is an island in the Santa Cruz group, located to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It is part of the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands.
The name ''Vanikoro'' is always used as thoug ...
Island in the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
. Local inhabitants reported that the ships had been wrecked in a storm.
Survivors from one ship had been massacred, while survivors from the other ship had constructed their own small boat and sailed off the island, never to be heard from again.
Legacy
The fate of Lapérouse, his ships and crew was a subject of mystery for some years.
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
reportedly often inquired whether any news had come from the expedition, up to shortly before his execution. It is also notably the subject of a chapter from ''
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Ju ...
'' by
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
.
Objects recovered from the wreck are part of the collection of the
Maritime Museum of New Caledonia
Maritime Museum of New Caledonia, also Musée Maritime de Nouvelle Caledonie, is a maritime museum in New Caledonia. It is largely dedicated to the history of French colonial exploration in the Pacific and the collection includes objects retrieved ...
.
See also
*
European and American voyages of scientific exploration
The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were ...
Note
Its crew included French priest
Louis Receveur
Claude-Francois Joseph Louis Receveur Conventual Franciscans, O.F.M. Conv., (1757 – 17 February 1788) was a French friar Priesthood (Catholic Church), priest, naturalist and astronomer who sailed with Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérous ...
the first
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and second non-indigenous person to be buried in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
References
Exploration ships
1781 ships
Maritime incidents in 1788
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