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Grand Luxury Hotels - Following in the footsteps of James Cook

Born in August 1741 in Albi, France, Jean-François de Galaup, Count of La Pérouse, was a naval officer who served in the American War of Independence in 1778. His bravery caught the attention of Louis XVI, who commissioned him in 1785 to lead a voyag

By: Easy Branches Team

  • Apr 09 2020
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Grand Luxury Hotels - Following in the footsteps of James Cook
Grand Luxury Hotels - Following in the footsteps of James Cook


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Count of La Pérouse
Following in the footsteps of James Cook
The Story
Who was he?
Who was he?
Born in August 1741 in Albi, France, Jean-François de Galaup, Count of La Pérouse, was a naval officer who served in the American War of Independence in 1778. His bravery caught the attention of Louis XVI, who commissioned him in 1785 to lead a voyage of scientific discovery around the globe, following in the footsteps of British explorer James Cook. His expedition mysteriously disappeared in Vanuatu in 1788.
His time in the navy
His time in the navy
Upon the recommendation of the Marquis de La Jonquière, a family member, Jean-François de Galaup moved from southern France to Brest at age 15. He joined the naval academy in 1756, at a time when the Seven Years' War was just beginning. Like James Cook, the war took him to Canada, around Newfoundland, to defend France’s interests against the open hostilities of the British. In November 1759, La Pérouse was wounded in the Battle of Quiberon Bay, and he was captured and briefly imprisoned before being paroled back to France and formally exchanged. In 1764, he was again posted to sea duties, where he perfected his techniques as a navigator before leaving for the Isle de France, now Mauritius, in 1772. He stayed there for 5 years, accompanying Charles-Henri-Louis d'Arsac, chevalier de Ternay, who was appointed Governor. The American War of Independence put an end to his stay in the Indian Ocean and led him to the West Indies and North America, in a war where France sided with the American colonies against Great Britain. He was promoted to the rank of commodore when he defeated the English frigate Ariel in the Naval battle of Louisbourg in 1781, before making his name by capturing two English forts on the coast of Hudson Bay in 1782. This campaign led Louis XVI to commission him to lead a voyage around the globe just a few years later.
His voyage around the world
His voyage around the world
On the recommendation of the marquis de Castries, lieutenant du Roi, Louis XVI tasked La Pérouse to prepare an expedition to the Pacific and complete James Cook's unfinished work, and in particular, establish French bases in Alaska and the Philippines. In command of two ships, La Boussole and L'Astrolabe, La Pérouse left Brest on August 1, 1785, sailing west with a team of astronomers, cartographers, naturalists and other scientists. This voyage took the navigators to Brazil, then Chile before rounding Cape Horn in February 1786 and reaching Easter Island in April that year. The expedition then ascended towards Alaska and La Pérouse established numerous hydrographic surveys of the west coast of present-day United States. He modified the nautical charts of the time, removing non-existent land and changing the position of some islands, like the Marianas. He left the Monterey area in September 1786 and sailed across the Pacific, discovering uncharted islands, and visiting Macao and Manila. The expedition reached China in January 1787. He then began several months of discoveries of the Asian coast and updated nautical charts. He crossed the strait separating the islands of Sakhalin and Hokkaido, a waterway between Japan and Russia that now bears his name. On January 26, 1788, La Boussole and L'Astrolabe reached Botany Bay in Australia, the same place where James Cook landed some 10 years earlier. The expedition ended a few months later, in June 1788, when the two ships, with more than 200 men aboard, disappeared. With no news, the expedition was officially declared lost in February 1791. History records that Louis XVI asked, on the morning of his execution in January 1793, "Any news of La Pérouse?".
Searching for La Pérouse
Searching for La Pérouse
Many years later, during a stop on Tikopia in the Solomon Islands, Irish captain Peter Dillon heard a story of two ships that had been wrecked years earlier off the neighbouring island of Vanikoro. He collected numerous artefacts of French origin that could have come from the La Pérouse expedition, so a search began under the command of explorer Dumont d'Urville, who set sail from the port of Toulon in 1826. Captain Dillon also returned to the area, and in September 1827, he discovered the wreck of L'Astrolabe at Vanikoro. As for the shipwreck of La Boussole, no trace of it was found. From the information Vanikoro inhabitants gave Dillon, a storm was at the root of the disaster that struck La Pérouse. The islanders also related how survivors from La Pérouse’s expedition had built a stockade, and spent several months constructing a small two-masted vessel using timber. Once the vessel was completed, the survivors launched it and sailed away. Numerous expeditions were organized in the second half of the 20th century, allowing a large number of objects from the expedition to be recovered: anchors, cannons, stones, bronze bells... A museum in Albi now houses many of these artefacts. In 2005, the shipwreck of La Boussole was identified. Étienne Taillemite, inspector general of the Archives of France sums up the character of the Count of La Pérouse in these few words: "La Pérouse is representative of the most accomplished of the 18th-century sailors. An excellent navigator, a brilliant combatant, a humane leader with a mind open to all the sciences of his time, he was always able to combine to advantage prudence and audacity, experience and theory. As resourceful as he was indefatigable, as amiable as he was firm, he had a talent for making everyone like him.”
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