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 First French circumnavigation of the world.

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PaulRyckier
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PaulRyckier

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First French circumnavigation of the world. Empty
PostSubject: First French circumnavigation of the world.   First French circumnavigation of the world. EmptyThu 10 Oct 2019, 23:31

SUBTITLE (I didn't find a word in English for the Dutch term: ondertitel (bijtitel) https://www.encyclo.nl/begrip/ondertitel one of the meanings:nadere toelichting op hoofdtitel (further clarification of the main term)

WHERE we speak about the first French circumnavigation by Bougainville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Antoine_de_Bougainville
and a second attempt by Lapérouse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_de_Galaup,_comte_de_Lap%C3%A9rouse


From my childhood on I read stories about great discovery travels. We had a series of children books about those great diccovery journeys as Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Marco Polo and all those others. One that I recall the best  is about Bontekoe...only one voyage and he settled in Holland for the rest of his life...but what a life...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Bontekoe
"Bontekoe might have been forgotten had he not written his journal (see above). This book is about his voyage with the Nieuw Hoorn, the shipwreck, the adventurous voyage to Java in lifeboats, and his subsequent years of service in East Asia. It was first printed by Hoorn printer Jan Deutel, a Protestant rederijker who heavily edited Bontekoe's prose; Bontekoe is described as a "writer of little talent". The book is illustrated with etchings and was a bestseller in the 17th and 18th centuries: before 1800, sixty editions and many translations had been published, and it was republished a number of times in the 19th and 20th centuries. Deutel had molded Bontekoe's journal into a highly fashionable form that combined adventure, disaster, and religion to make a book with educational and literary appeal."
And there is a book and a film on a related subject of the journey: the young deckhands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B500yS8IlCM

But yes it was about the first French circumnavigation by Bougainville...
To be honest my interest was again sparked by the documentary about the journey
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/084675-000-A/bougainville-le-voyage-a-tahiti/

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/2673/
"Following France’s defeat in the Seven Years' War (1756-63), Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), a soldier with a distinguished military record in Canada, received permission from King Louis XV to undertake France’s first major geographical exploration of the Pacific. In 1766-69 Bougainville became the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe. His voyage, meticulously recounted in this book, resulted in several significant scientific contributions, including establishing the precise location of a number of Pacific islands and determining the width of the Pacific Ocean. However, it was Bougainville’s observations of people and cultures, especially the people of Tahiti, that made his voyage and subsequent account famous."

And now I see: "distinguished military record in Canada". And suddenly I recalled all the mayhem of a French Canadian, who I met on our ex-BBC forum and on a French forum: hadn't it been that Bougainville hadn't done his work as he had to do, Canada would now be French Wink....the Plains of Abraham and all that...

But seemingly Bougainville (and the crew!) wasn't the first. Perhaps the first of renown, but according to this book there is mentioned a Sebastien Dufresne between 1709 and 1711
http://tiny.cc/1atbez
And according to google he is mentioned also in this book.
http://doczz.fr/doc/3394719/voyages-franais-destination-de-la-mer-du-sud-avant-bougai...

And there was a woman on board of one of Bougainville's ships. And I guess by the modern attitudes she is now more put in the spotlights
And there is even a book about her and she seems indeed to have been the first woman, who circumnavigated the world
https://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Jeanne-Baret-Science-Circumnavigate/dp/0307463524
And an interview with the author of the book:
https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=132265308&t=1570616102591
And further:
https://passionpassport.com/jeanne-baret-female-circumnavigator/
"Although few people know her name, Jeanne Baret deserves a place on the list of history’s most badass explorers. At a time when the French Navy forbade women from setting foot on their ships, Jeanne disguised herself as a man, joined an expedition, helped a botanist collect samples all over the world, and became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.It was a journey that kept Jeanne away from France for about eight years, but when she finally returned home, she did so under her own name and identity. Only a few ship logs and journals describe the expedition, and although the sources provide differing accounts about certain events, historians have been able to piece together most of Jeanne’s story."

About the second attempt from Lapérouse, which ended in disaster I will add a second message.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_de_Galaup,_comte_de_Lap%C3%A9rouse
I recall that I had an exchange with Caro on the ex-BBC forum about the shipswreck when it was official indentified as La Boussole in 2005 near Vanikoro.

Kind regards from Paul.
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PaulRyckier
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PostSubject: Re: First French circumnavigation of the world.   First French circumnavigation of the world. EmptyFri 11 Oct 2019, 21:44

About the second attempt to make a circumnavigation by the French especially for Caro.
And I was really surprised when I saw on wiki the many circumnavigations before 1900.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_circumnavigations

As said yesterday about Lapérouse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_de_Galaup,_comte_de_Lap%C3%A9rouse
"Lapérouse was appointed in 1785 by Louis XVI and by the Secretary of State of the Navy, the Marquis de Castries, to lead an expedition around the world. Many countries were initiating voyages of scientific explorations at that time."

Although this voyage was of high scientific value, most attention is nowadays paid at the disaster that ended the journey:
but lucky for the science that just before the tragic end:
"The French were received courteously and spent six weeks at the British colony (their last recorded landfall). While Lapérouse and Phillip did not meet, French and British officers visited each other formally on at least 11 occasions,[36] and offered each other assistance and supplies.[34] During their stay, the French established an observatory and a garden, held masses, and made geological observations.[37] 
that "Lapérouse also took the opportunity to send journals, charts and letters back to Europe, with the British merchant ship Alexander.[38]

And about the wrecking of the two ships and the fate of the crews...
"Both ships had been wrecked on Vanikoro's reefs, La Boussole first. L'Astrolabe was unloaded and taken apart. A group of men, probably the survivors of La Boussole, were massacred by the local inhabitants.[57] According to the islanders, some surviving sailors built a two-masted craft from the wreckage of L'Astrolabe and left in a westward direction about nine months later; but what happened to them is unknown. Also, two men, one a "chief" and the other his servant, had remained behind, but had left Vanikoro a few years before Dillon arrived.[58]Sven Wahlroos, in his 1989 book, Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas, suggests that there was a narrowly missed chance to rescue one or more of the survivors in 1791.[59]In November 1790, Captain Edward Edwards – in command of HMS Pandora – had sailed from England with orders to comb the Pacific for the mutineers of HMS Bounty. In March of the following year, Pandora arrived at Tahiti and picked up 14 Bounty men who had stayed on that island. Although some of the 14 had not joined the mutiny, all were imprisoned and shackled in a cramped "cage" built on the deck, which the men grimly nicknamed "Pandora's Box". Pandora then left Tahiti in search of Bounty and the leader of the mutiny, Fletcher Christian.Captain Edwards' search for the remaining mutineers ultimately proved fruitless. However, when passing Vanikoro on 13 August 1791, smoke signals were observed rising from the island. Edwards, single-minded in his search for Bounty and convinced that mutineers fearful of discovery would not be advertising their whereabouts, ignored the smoke signals and sailed on.Wahlroos argues that the smoke signals were almost certainly a distress message sent by survivors of the Lapérouse expedition, which later evidence indicated were still alive on Vanikoro at that time—three years after La Boussole and L'Astrolabe had foundered. Wahlroos is "virtually certain" that Captain Edwards, whom he characterizes as one of England's most "ruthless," "inhuman," "callous" and "incompetent" naval captains, missed his chance to become "one of the heroes of maritime history" by solving the mystery of the lost Lapérouse expedition."       
And see how the Lapérouse expedition comes in connection with the mutiny on the Bounty...

And also:
https://blog.catherinedelors.com/laperouse-travels-and-mystery/

A lot of suppositions about the survival of the crew are made:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba038fc7e3c3a7612e7b49f/t/5bbaf21e7817f7ebddc00d8e/1538978340378/2018+History+Week+Lecture+By+Dr+Geoffrey+Lewis.pdf
https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/technology/mystery-shipwreck-set-to-reveal-its-secrets-53927

As I did further research about what I said yesterday about a predecessor of Bougainville namely Sébastien Dufresne des Saudrais I will comment that in another message.

Kind regards, Paul.
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PaulRyckier
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First French circumnavigation of the world. Empty
PostSubject: Re: First French circumnavigation of the world.   First French circumnavigation of the world. EmptyFri 11 Oct 2019, 22:21

As I yesterday said there seems to have been a lot of presence of French privateers, some who would also circumnavigate the world even before Bougainville.
"But seemingly Bougainville (and the crew!) wasn't the first. Perhaps the first of renown, but according to this book there is mentioned a Sebastien Dufresne between 1709 and 1711
http://tiny.cc/1atbez
And according to google he is mentioned also in this book.
http://doczz.fr/doc/3394719/voyages-franais-destination-de-la-mer-du-sud-avant-bougai...
I read today the French book and although it is mentioned by Google the name of Sébastien Dufresne must be there, but I didn't encounter it. But what I read was about lots of gold and other stuff that was brought to France for the better of the French finances.
 
But as I got confused by another explorer du Fresne and thinking it was perhaps family
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc-Joseph_Marion_du_Fresne

At the end I found out it was not family. And via somewhere the addition that I found of "de Saudrais" I discovered at least were it was all about (and I am a bit proud of it Wink )
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_crewman&id=27149
NationalityFrench 
RolesPrivateer, Merchant Sailor 
Date of Birth1683 - St Maloref:1009
First Known Service1711ref:692
Last Known Service25.8.1712ref:692
Date of Death25.8.1712 - Cantonref:1009
15.1.1710/11

ref:1009
IDDescriptionAuthorType
ref:1009Un Voyage autour du MondeGeneviève Le MotheuxWeb Site
ref:692Base de donnés sur les capitaines corsaires , les navires et les armateursJJ Salein

15.1.1710/11 - 25.8.1712Corsaire CaptainSébastien Dufresne des Saudrais (1683-1712)ref:100925.8.1712 - 29.7.1713Corsaire CaptainMichel Collet du Portail (1682-?)ref:1009

And as you can see it was only the ship and Michel Collet du Portail who made the circumnavigation as Sébastien Dufresne died in Canton...

Kind regards, Paul.
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