Baudin expedition

The inscription of the expedition on Kangaroo Island

The Baudin Expedition , led by Nicolas Baudin , was a French expedition to explore the coast of Australia .

Expedition course

Model of the Le Géographe

The expedition started on October 19, 1800 with two ships, the Corvette Géographe , led by Baudin, and the Naturaliste , led by Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin , in Le Havre and was accompanied by nine zoologists and botanists , including Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la tour .

The expedition reached Australia in May 1801. When the British learned that a French expedition was in the vicinity of their colony Port Jackson (Sydney), the English also sent an expedition under the command of Matthew Flinders to map the coasts of Australia. The French expedition met Flinders on April 8, 1802 in Encounter Bay . The scientists met peacefully, although the two countries were at war with each other.

The two naturalists Charles Alexandre Lesueur and François Péron also contributed to the success of the Baudin expedition. After the death of the zoologist René Maugé , who died in 1802 on Maria Island off the east coast of Australia, they documented over 100,000 species , 2,500 of which were unknown and contributed so significantly to the study of the Australian fauna.

The expedition later stopped in Port Jackson to pick up supplies. Baudin acquired a new ship, the Casuarina , which is named after the wood from which it was made. From there he sent the naturalist back to France with all the species that the expedition had collected up to that point.

Le Géographe and Le Naturaliste

From Sydney , the ships went to Tasmania before sailing on to Timor . On their way back they stopped in Mauritius , where Baudin died of tuberculosis on the Ile de France.

Inscription of the Baudin expedition at Franchman's Rock , on the right Governor General Tennyson and family (1902)

The members of the ship Géographe left an inscription on their voyage on Kangaroo Island , Australia in 1803. The text that was stamped on Franchman's Rock reads: EXPEDITION OF DISCOVERY BY COMMANDER BAUDIN ON THE GEOGRAPHE 1803

Baudin is not mentioned by the authors of the official travelogue, François Péron and Louis de Freycinet . The maps published in the atlas of this travelogue are partly based on the images confiscated in Mauritius by the English competitor Flinders. Baudin's own ship's log of the Australian voyage wasn't published until 1974.

team

According to the statements of Bory de Saint-Vincent , the naval officers were extremely suitable to lead the expedition of the naturalists in a civilized form

"(..) les officiers de marine destinés à conduire les naturalistes étaient d'un choix excellent, et, ce qu'on ne trouve pas chez toutes les personnes de leur état, d'une amabilité et d'une urbanité parfaites"

- Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent : Voyage dans les quatre principales îles des mers d'Afrique. Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent

At the beginning of the voyage, 118 men were on board the Géographe , 120 on board the Naturaliste : In addition to the captains, the scientists Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour (1773-1826), René Maugé , Stanislas Levillain (1774-1801), François were on board Péron , Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (who left the expedition to Mauritius ) and Désiré Dumont , the artist Charles-Alexandre Lesueur , who was assisted by Nicolas-Martin Petit (1777-1804), the astronomers Pierre-François Bernier and Frédéric de Bissy (1768–1803), the cartographer Charles-Pierre Boullanger , the mineralogists Louis Depuch and Joseph Charles Bailly (1777–1844) and the seaman Hyacinthe de Bougainville.

Participants on board Le Géographe

Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent

Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet

Jacques-Gérard Milbert

Leschenault de La Tour

• Nicolas Baudin was an officer in the merchant navy for a long time, was a captain, geographer and the commander of the expedition, commandant de l'expédition .
• Alexandre Le Bas de Sainte-Croix (1759–1828) Capitaine de frégate was the second officer on board the Le Géographe .
• Pierre Guillaume Gicquel des Touches (1770-1824) was a lieutenant at sea, lieutenant de vaisseau .
• Charles Baudin was another lieutenant in the sea, lieutenant de vaisseau .
• Louis Henri de Saulces de Freycinet (1777-1840) was the helmsman .
• François-Michel Ronsard (1766–1840) was the engineer on board, engineer constructeur , of Le Géographe
• Charles-Pierre Boullanger (1772–1813), geographer .
• Jacques-Gérard Milbert (1766–1840) chief draftsman on board the Le Géographe
• Louis Lebrun draftsman on the Le Géographe
• Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent staff officer, chief zoologist.
• François-Étienne L'Haridon de Créménec (1768–1807) ship's doctor.
• Hubert Jules Taillefer (1779–1866) also a doctor on Le Géographe
• Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour naturalist and botanist.
• René Maugé de Cely (1757–1802) naturalist.
• Stanislas Levillain (1774-1801) zoologist.
• François Péron zoologist.
• Anselm Riedle (1765–1801), chief gardener.

Participants on board Le Naturaliste

François Péron

• Captain of the frigate, Capitaine de frégate Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin est le commandant du Naturaliste et le second officier de l'expédition5.
• Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, lieutenant de vaisseau et marin
• Pierre Bernard Milius (1773–1829) another lieutenant in the sea; after Baudin's death, he was in command of Le Géographe for the rest of the voyage back to France.
• Furcy Picquet (1777–1831) an ensign, enseigne on the Le Naturaliste and then on the Le Géographe .
• Louis Henri de Saulces de Freycinet another ensign.
• François Heirisson (1776–1834) an ensign.
• Jacques de Saint-Cricq (1781-1819) an ensign.
• Hyacinthe Yves Philippe Florentin de Bougainville (1781–1846) Ensign.
• Charles Moreau († 1808) a midshipman.
• Étienne Stanislas Giraud (1778–1804) officer.
• Thomas Timothée Vasse (* 1774) second officer.
• Jacques Delisse (1773-1856), botanist
• André Michaux , botanist

literature

• Louis Pierre Vieillot (1748-1830): Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle . 1816-1819.

further reading

• Margaret Sankey: Writing the Voyage of Scientific Exploration: The Logbooks, Journals and Notes of the Baudin Expedition (1800-1804) . In: Intellectual History Review . Volume 20, number 3, 2010, pp. 401-413 ( DOI: 10.1080 / 17496977.2010.492618 ).
• Jan Altmann: Drawing as observing: The sculptures of the Baudin expedition (1800-1804). Berlin 2012.

Web links

• François Péron, Voyage de découverte aux terres Australes (3 volumes, Paris, 1807-1816)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Western Australian Museum: Rediscovering Baudin in: InterSector , Issue 7 Number 18 of September 19, 2001, Pages 3–5 ( Memento of the original of June 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English; PDF; 1.6 MB), accessed on October 18, 2010  
2. ^ The University of Sidney (Baudin Project): Members of the Crew
3. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/lebasenglish.pdf
4. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/ronsardenglish.pdf
5. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/boullangerenglish.pdf
6. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/milbertenglish.pdf
7. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/lebrunenglish.pdf
8. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/lharidonenglish.pdf
9. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/tailleferenglish.pdf
10. ^ Pierre Bernard Milius - short biography
11. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/picquetenglish.pdf
12. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/heirissonenglish.pdf
13. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/saintcricqenglish.pdf
14. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/moreauenglish.pdf
15. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/giraudenglish.pdf
16. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/research/baudin/pdfs/herbarium/H0-Introduction-Baudin%20herbarium.pdf