Esperance Bay is a bay

Bay

A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...

 on the south coast of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. Nominally located at 33°51′25"S 121°55′13"E, it is the site of the town of Esperance

Esperance, Western Australia

Esperance is a large town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located on the Southern Ocean coastline approximately east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. The shire of Esperance is home to 9,536 people as of the 2006 census, its major industries are tourism, agriculture,...

.

The bay was discovered on 9 December 1792 by a French expedition under Bruni d'Entrecasteaux

Bruni d'Entrecasteaux

Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was a French navigator who explored the Australian coast in 1792 while seeking traces of the lost expedition of La Pérouse....

, which sailed in search of the lost expedition of Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse. Stormy weather had blown the ships into hazardous waters surrounded by islands, but acting ensign

Ensign

An ensign is a national flag when used at sea, in vexillology, or a distinguishing token, emblem, or badge, such as a symbol of office in heraldry...

 Jacques-Bertrand Le Grand sighted a navigable passage and a somewhat sheltered anchorage, providing what d'Entrecasteaux regarded as a "miraculous" escape from being wrecked. Ship botanist Jacques Labillardière

Jacques Labillardière

Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière was a French naturalist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the La Pérouse expedition...

 was in favour of naming the bay after Le Grand, and indeed he refers to the bay on his specimen slips as "Baie Le Grand", but in the end d'Entrecasteaux decided to name the bay after one of his ships, the Espérance

French ship Espérance (1781)

The Espérance was a Rhône class scow of the French Navy, later reclassified as a frigate. She earned fame as one of the ships of Bruni d'Entrecasteaux' expedition, along with Recherche...

. The cape on the eastern side of the bay was named Cape Le Grand in Le Grand's honour.