Louis de Freycinet
Encyclopedia
Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (August 7, 1779 – August 18, 1841) was a French
navigator. He circumnavigated the earth, and was one of the first to produce a comprehensive map of the coastline of Australia
.
, Drôme
. 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, Andre Charles de Saulces de Freycinet and the youngest, Frederic-Casimir de saulces de Freycinet (Louis-Claude was the second oldest). In 1793 he entered the French navy. After taking part in several engagements against the British
, he joined in 1800, along with his brother (Louis-Henri de Freycinet (1777–1840), who afterwards rose to the rank of admiral), an expedition to explore the south and south-west coasts of Australia
. It set out under Nicolas Baudin
in the ships Naturaliste
and Géographe
. Much of the ground already gone over by Matthew Flinders
was revisited, and new names imposed by this expedition, which claimed credit for discoveries really made by the English navigator. 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
is called Freycinet Estuary. Cape Freycinet
between Cape Leeuwin
and Cape Naturaliste
and the Freycinet Peninsula
with Freycinet National Park
in Tasmania
also bear the explorer's name.
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).
, Jacques Arago
, Adrien Taunay the Younger
and others went to Rio de Janeiro
, to take a series of pendulum measurements as well as a larger scheme for obtaining observations, not only in geography
and ethnology
, but in astronomy
, terrestrial magnetism, and meteorology
, and for the collection of specimens in natural history. Freycinet also managed to sneak his wife Rose de Freycinet
aboard, with a guard of 17 officers.
For three years, Freycinet cruised about, visiting Australia, the Mariana Islands
, Hawaiian Islands
, and other Pacific islands, South America
, and other places, and, notwithstanding the loss of the Uranie on the Falkland Islands
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 sur les corvettes Uranie et la Physicienne en 1824–1844, in 13 quarto volumes and 4 folio volumes of plates and maps.
Freycinet was admitted into the French Academy of Sciences
in 1825, and was one of the founders of the Paris Geographical Society. He died at Freycinet
, Drôme
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
navigator. He circumnavigated the earth, and was one of the first to produce a comprehensive map of the coastline of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Biography
He was born at MontélimarMontélimar
Montélimar is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. It is the second-largest town in the department after Valence.-History:...
, Drôme
Drôme
Drôme , a department in southeastern France, takes its name from the Drôme River.-History:The French National Constituent Assembly set up Drôme as one of the original 83 departments of France on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution...
. 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, Andre Charles de Saulces de Freycinet and the youngest, Frederic-Casimir de saulces de Freycinet (Louis-Claude was the second oldest). In 1793 he entered the French navy. After taking part in several engagements against the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, he joined in 1800, along with his brother (Louis-Henri de Freycinet (1777–1840), who afterwards rose to the rank of admiral), an expedition to explore the south and south-west coasts of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It set out under Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...
in the ships Naturaliste
French corvette Naturaliste
The Naturaliste was a Salamandre class bomb-corvette of the French Navy.She was launched in 1795 as La Menaçante. She was renamed to La Naturaliste in June 1800 and under Jacques Hamelin, she took part in the exploration of Australia of Nicolas Baudin.Following her return in 1802, she saw service...
and Géographe
French corvette Géographe
The Géographe was a 20-gun Serpente class corvette of the French Navy.She was named Uranie in 1797, and renamed Galatée in 1799, still on her building site, as her builder refused to launched her, as he had not been paid...
. Much of the ground already gone over by Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
was revisited, and new names imposed by this expedition, which claimed credit for discoveries really made by the English navigator. 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
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...
is called Freycinet Estuary. Cape Freycinet
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 Augusta-Margaret Local Government Area, and the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park....
between Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia.A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south. The nearest settlement, north of the cape, is Augusta. South-east of Cape Leeuwin, the coast...
and Cape Naturaliste
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...
and the Freycinet Peninsula
Freycinet Peninsula
Freycinet Peninsula is a large peninsula in eastern Tasmania, Australia. It is located north of Schouten Island, at . It is the site of Freycinet National Park....
with Freycinet National Park
Freycinet National Park
Freycinet 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....
in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
also bear the explorer's name.
In 1805, he returned to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 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).
Circumnavigation in the Uranie
In 1817, he commanded the Uranie, in which Louis Isidore DuperreyLouis Isidore Duperrey
Louis Isidore Duperrey was a French sailor and explorer.Duperrey joined the navy in 1800, and served as marine hydrologist to Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet aboard the Uranie...
, Jacques Arago
Jacques Arago
Jacques Étienne Victor Arago was a French writer, artist and explorer, author of a Voyage Round the World.-Biography:...
, Adrien Taunay the Younger
Adrien Taunay the Younger
Adrien Taunay the Younger was a French painter and draftsman.He was born in Paris in 1803, the son of history and genre painter Nicolas-Antoine Taunay . Adrien moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1816, accompanying his father, who was a member of the French Artistic Mission...
and others went to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, to take a series of pendulum measurements as well as a larger scheme for obtaining observations, not only in geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
, but in astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, terrestrial magnetism, and meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
, and for the collection of specimens in natural history. Freycinet also managed to sneak his wife Rose de Freycinet
Rose de Freycinet
Rose de Freycinet, born Rose Pinon, 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 disguised as a man. While not the first woman to circumnavigate the world, she...
aboard, with a guard of 17 officers.
For three years, Freycinet cruised about, visiting Australia, the Mariana Islands
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
, Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
, and other Pacific islands, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and other places, and, notwithstanding the loss of the Uranie on the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
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 sur les corvettes Uranie et la Physicienne en 1824–1844, in 13 quarto volumes and 4 folio volumes of plates and maps.
Freycinet was admitted into the French Academy of Sciences
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
in 1825, and was one of the founders of the Paris Geographical Society. He died at Freycinet
Freycinet
Freycinet may refer to:People*Charles de Freycinet , French prime minister*Louis de Freycinet , French navigatorPlaces*Cape Freycinet, Western Australia*Henri Freycinet Harbour, Western Australia*Freycinet Island, Western Australia...
, Drôme
Drôme
Drôme , a department in southeastern France, takes its name from the Drôme River.-History:The French National Constituent Assembly set up Drôme as one of the original 83 departments of France on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution...
.