Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (7 August 1779 – 18 August 1841) was a French Navy officer. He circumnavigated the earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of

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 ...

Biography

He was born at

Montélimar Montélimar (; Vivaro-Alpine: ''Montelaimar'' ; la, Acumum) is a town in the Drôme department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in north Provence, Southeastern France. It is the second-largest city in the department after Valence. In 2018, ...

Drôme Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.

. Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet was his full name (many calling him Louis de Freycinet). He had three brothers, Louis-Henri de Saulces de Freycinet, André-Charles de Saulces de Freycinet and the youngest, Frédéric-Casimir de Saulces de Freycinet (father of

Charles de Freycinet Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet (; 14 November 1828 – 14 May 1923) was a French statesman and four times Prime Minister during the Third Republic. He also served an important term as Minister of War (1888–1893). He belonged to the Opp ...

). Louis-Claude was the second oldest. In 1793 he joined the French Navy as a midshipman, and took in several engagements against the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

. In 1800, Freycinet was appointed to an exploration expedition to Southern and South-Western coasts of

under

Nicolas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. Biography Early career Born a comm ...

, on ''Naturaliste'' and ''Géographe''. Freycinet's brother, Louis-Henri de Freycinet, was also part of the expedition. Between September 1802 and August 1803, Freycinet captained the schooner ''Casuarina'', surveying the Australian coastline. He then transferred to ''Naturaliste'', and returned to France in 1804. Because

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

was being held captive by the French on

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

, many of his discoveries were revisited and unintendedly claimed by

François Péron François Auguste Péron (22 August 1775 – 14 December 1810) was a French naturalist and explorer. Life Péron was born in Cérilly, Allier, in 1775, the son of a tailor (not a harness maker as is frequently asserted). Although intended for ...

, and new names were given by this expedition; in 1824 it was remedied in the second edition of '' Voyage découvertes aux terres australes''. In the end, Baudin and Freycinet managed to have their map of the Australian coastline published in 1811, three years before Flinders published his. An inlet on the coast of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

is called Freycinet Estuary.

Cape Freycinet Cape Freycinet is a point on the coast between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste in the south west of Western Australia. It is within the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River local government area, and the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. It is n ...

between

Cape Leeuwin Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia. Description A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders Ba ...

and

Cape Naturaliste Cape Naturaliste is a headland in the south western region of Western Australia at the western edge of the Geographe Bay. It is the northernmost point of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge which was named after the cape. Also the Leeuwin-Naturaliste ...

and the

Freycinet Peninsula The Freycinet Peninsula is a large peninsula located on the eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The peninsula is located north of Schouten Island and is contained within the Freycinet National Park. The locality of Freycinet is in the local go ...

with

Freycinet National Park Freycinet National Park is a national park on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia, 125 km northeast of Hobart. It occupies a large part of the Freycinet Peninsula, named after French navigator Louis de Freycinet, and Schouten Island. Foun ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

also bear the explorer's name. Voyage of Freycinet-P5260010

In 1805, he returned to Paris, and was entrusted by the government with the work of preparing the maps and plans of the expedition. He also completed the narrative, and the whole work appeared under the title of ''Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes'' (Paris, 1807–1816). The plant genus ''

Freycinetia ''Freycinetia'' is one of the five extant genera in the flowering plant family Pandanaceae. The genus comprises approximately 180–200 species, most of them climbers. The species are distributed through the tropics and subtropics of South As ...

'' (

Pandanaceae Pandanaceae is a family of flowering plants native to the tropics and subtropics of the Old World, from West Africa through the Pacific. It contains 982 known species in five genera, of which the type genus, ''Pandanus'', is the most important, wi ...

) was named in his honor, as was the Hawaiian native tree/shrub ''

Santalum ''Santalum'' is a genus of woody flowering plants in the Santalaceae family, the best known and commercially valuable of which is the Indian sandalwood tree, '' S. album''. Members of the genus are trees or shrubs. Most are root parasites wh ...

freycinetianum''.

Circumnavigation on ''Uranie''

In 1817, he was given command of the corvette ''Uranie'', especially reconfigured to a new exploration voyage. ''Uranie'' carried several members of the Navy scientific staff, notably marine

hydrologist Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

Louis Isidore Duperrey Louis-Isidore Duperrey (21 October 1786 – 25 August 1865) was a French naval officer and explorer. Biography Early life Louis-Isidore Duperrey was born in 1786. Career He joined the navy in 1802, and served as marine hydrologist to Louis Cl ...

, artist

Jacques Arago Jacques Étienne Victor Arago (6 March 1790 – 27 November 1855) was a French writer, artist and explorer, author of a ''Voyage Round the World''. Biography Jacques was born in Estagel, Pyrénées-Orientales. He was the brother of François Ara ...

, and his junior draughtsman

Adrien Taunay the Younger Adrien Taunay the Younger (1803 – 5 January 1828) was a French painter and draftsman. He was born in Paris in 1803, the son of history and genre painter Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755–1830). Adrien moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1816, accompanyi ...

. ''Uranie'' sailed to

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 ...

to take a series of pendulum measurements gather information in the fields of

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

, terrestrial magnetism,

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

, and for collecting specimens in natural history. Freycinet also managed to sneak his wife

Rose de Freycinet Rose de Freycinet, born Rose Pinon, (1794 – 7 May 1832) was a Frenchwoman who, in the company of her husband, Louis de Freycinet, sailed around the world between 1817 and 1820 on a French scientific expedition on a military ship, initially disgu ...

aboard. For three years, Freycinet cruised about the Pacific, visiting Australia, 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 ...

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

, and other

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

islands,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, and other places, and, notwithstanding the loss of ''Uranie'' on the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

during the return voyage, returned to France with fine collections in all departments of natural history, and with voluminous notes and drawings of the countries visited. The results of this voyage were published under Freycinet's supervision, with the title of ''Voyage autour du monde fait par ordre du Roi sur les corvettes de S. M. l'Uranie et la Physicienne, pendant les années 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820'', in 13 quarto volumes and 4 folio volumes of plates and maps. Freycinet was admitted into the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

in 1825, and was one of the founders of the

Paris Geographical Society Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

. He died at the family's château de FreycinetChâteau de Freycinet
near

Saulce-sur-Rhône Saulce-sur-Rhône (, literally ''Saulce on Rhône''; oc, Saussa) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Drôme department The following is a list of the 363 communes of the Drôme ...

Journals of the Voyage 1817-1820

Vol. 1 Part 1: Book I France to Brazil. pub.1827.Vol. 1 Part 2: Book II Brazil to Timor. pub.1828.Vol. 2 Part 1: Book III Timor to the Marianas. pub.1829.Vol. 2 Part 2: Book IV Guam to Hawaii; Book V Hawaii to Port Jackson 1819. pub.1829.Vol. 2 Part 3: Book V Hawaii to Port Jackson; Book VI Port Jackson to France 1820. pub.1839.Zoology. pub.1824.Zoology Plates. pub.1824.Botany. pub.1826.Botany Plates. pub.1826.Navigation and Hydrography, Part 1. pub.1826.Navigation and Hydrography, Part 2. pub.1826.Pendulum Observations. pub.1826.Terrestrial Magnetism. pub.1842.Meteorology. pub.1844.

Taxon named in his honor

*The

Indonesian speckled carpetshark The Indonesian speckled carpetshark, ''Hemiscyllium freycineti'', is a species of bamboo shark in the family Hemiscylliidae. It is found in the shallow ocean around the Raja Ampat Islands in West Papua, Indonesia, but was formerly believed to be ...

, ''Hemiscyllium freycineti'' is named after him.

Notes and references

Notes References Bibliography *

Edward Duyker Edward Duyker (born 21 March 1955) is an Australian historian, biographer and author born in Melbourne. Edward Duyker's books include several ethno-histories – ''Tribal Guerrillas'' (1987), ''The Dutch in Australia'' (1987) and ''Of the Star ...

François Péron: An Impetuous Life: Naturalist and Voyager, Miegunyah/MUP, Melb., 2006, , * Fornasiero, Jean; Monteath, Peter and West-Sooby, John. ''Encountering Terra Australis: the Australian voyages of Nicholas Baudin and Matthew Flinders'', Kent Town, South Australia, Wakefield Press, 2004. *Frank Horner, The French Reconnaissance: Baudin in Australia 1801–1803, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1987 . * Marchant, Leslie R. ''French Napoleonic Placenames of the South West Coast'', Greenwood, WA. R.I.C. Publications, 2004. * Hordern House, ''Captain Louis de Freycinet and his Voyages to the Terres Australes'', Hordern House, Sydney, 2011 * Rose de Freycinet (patronymic Pinon) and Federico Motta, curator,
Rose de Freycinet. Una viaggiatrice clandestina a bordo dell'Uranie negli anni 1817-20
'' Verona, Giugno 2017. Translation of Rose original Journal, fully annotated with new documents and with a comprehensive revision of Louis de Freycinet travel, * * Rare Freycinet map. ''Ile Decrès'', or Kangaroo Island, 1803, held by the Royal Geographical Society of South Australi

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freycinet, Louis de 1779 births 1841 deaths People from Montélimar French explorers French explorers of the Pacific Explorers of Western Australia Members of the French Academy of Sciences French military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars