Yves-Joseph De Kerguelen-Trémarec

Rear-Admiral Yves Joseph Marie de Kerguelen-Trémarec (13 February 1734 – 3 March 1797) was a French Navy officer. He discovered the Kerguelen Islands in 1772 during his first expedition to the southern Indian Ocean. Welcomed as a hero after his voyage and first discovery, Kerguelen fell out of favour after his second voyage and was cashiered in 1775 for violating Navy regulations. He was rehabilitated during the French Revolution. Kerguelen authored books about expeditions and about French naval battles of the American Revolutionary War.

Biography

Early life

He was born in Landudal, Brittany. During the Seven Years' War, Kerguelen-Trémarec was a privateer, but without much success.

Rockall

In 1767 he sailed near Rockall, or ''Rokol''. Although he may not have approached within sight of it, or even within 150 miles, he appears to have had good information regarding it. His charted position for it was only 16 miles north of its actual position and he accurately described its appearance and the nearby Helen's Reef: "East of Rokol, ¼ league away, there is a submerged rock over which the water breaks". In 1771, he published a map of the area.

Discovery of the Kerguelen Islands

In early 1772, he was assigned command of the third French expedition sent in search of the fabled Terra Australis with the fluyts ''Fortune'' and ''Gros Ventre''. The expedition discovered the isolated Kerguelen Islands north of Antarctica in the southern Indian Ocean and claimed the archipelago for France before returning to Mauritius. He was accompanied by the naturalist Jean Guillaume Bruguière. On a follow-up expedition to the Kerguelen Islands in 1773, he was accompanied by the astronomer Joseph Lepaute Dagelet. Kerguelen, a supporter of slavery, used "Blacks in difficult moments in order to preserve his white crew".

In his report to Louis XV, he greatly overestimated the value of the Kerguelen Islands; consequently, the King sent him on a second expedition with the 64-gun ''Roland'' and the 32-gun frigate ''Oiseau'', but was again unsuccessful in finding Terra Australis. By now, it had become clear that the Kerguelen Islands were desolate and quite useless, and certainly not Terra Australis. Upon his return, Kerguelen was court-martialled in Brest on 15 May 1775 by a council of war presided over by Vice-Admiral Anne Antoine, Comte d'Aché for transporting 200 slaves on ''Roland'' from Madagascar to sell in French colonies in defiance of Louis XV, who had issued regulations ordering French Navy officers not to trade in slaves. At the court-martial, his defence lawyer minimised Kerguelen's slave-trading activities by stating that it was only "Eight or nine negroes that the pilot’s assistant bought on Kerguelen’s behalf". Although several other naval officers, many of whom were stationed at Rochefort, had traded in slaves, he was found guilty on 25 May 1776 and sentenced to six years imprisonment. Juges, Esclaves et Négriers en Basse-Bretagne

French Revolution

During the French Revolution, he was seen as a victim of the Ancien Régime and restored to his position, taking part in the Battle of Groix. He died in 1797 as a Rear Admiral and commander of Brest.

Works

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Notes, citations, and references

Notes

Citations

References
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* Lyubomir Ivanov and Nusha Ivanova. Bouvet and Kerguelen. In
''The World of Antarctica''.
Generis Publishing, 2022. pp. 70–72.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerguelen-Tremarec, Yves-Joseph de
1734 births
1797 deaths
18th-century Breton people
People from Finistère
Explorers of Antarctica
18th-century French explorers
French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars
French slave traders