Francis Garnier
Marie Joseph François Garnier (born July 25, 1839 near Saint-Étienne , † December 21, 1873 near Hanoi ) was a French naval officer and explorer.
biography
Garnier was born into a royalist family. This moved from Saint-Étienne to Montpellier in 1846 . There he attended high school and entered the École Navale when he was fifteen . As early as 1857 he was a second-class aspirant (candidate for an officer career) and took part in a ship expedition to Brazil and La Plata .
In 1860 he was promoted to ensign and served on the staff of Rear Admiral Charner, who was sent to China and Cochinchina for military intervention . Garnier stayed in Asia and entered the Inspection des affaires indigènes in 1863 , where he published his first little book, la Cochinchine française en 1864 . In 1864 Garnier was commissioned by the Minister for Navy and Colonies, Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat , to plan an exploration of the Mekong , starting from Saigon . This should start in 1866. Another member of this expedition was to be Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre . In 1865 the second publication de la colonization de Cochinchine followed .
The expedition planned by Garnier began in early July 1866. It was led by Ernest Doudart de Lagrée . From Saigon they first drove with two gunboats to their first station in Udong . There they received the necessary papers to carry out the expedition. Since the gunboats were ordered back, the expedition had to be continued with eight barges . The expedition advanced to the Mekong Falls . The expedition returned at the beginning of September and embarked for the Bassac military base .
after Lagrée's death in 1868, further investigation of the Mekong was carried out. Here he penetrated as far as Dali and traveled the Yangtze to Hankou , today's Wuhan . This expedition lasted almost a year and a half.
Garnier's research on Asia was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War . At first he was in command of a gunboat on the Rhine. Then to a sloop on the Seine . There he served himself from the head of first aid to the chief of staff of Rear Admiral Mèquer . During the siege he was stationed in the Paris suburb of Montrouge . This was particularly affected by the Prussian artillery bombardment.
In November 1872 Garnier returned to Shanghai to undertake his third expedition. In January 1873 he reached Hankou . He traveled to Beijing by invitation, which he left shortly afterwards to return to Hankou in May. From there he took a boat across the Dongting Lake up the Yangtze River to Chongqing . Then by land to Guizhou . As a result, he advanced to Tibet. At the direction of Admiral Dupre Garnier had to cancel his expedition. The way back to Saigon, which started in August 1873, should take three months until October.
From Saigon he led a military expedition to Tonkin . He took Hanoi on November 20, 1873 , but fell in the battle against the Black Flags on December 21 .
Several ships of the French Navy were named after Francis Garnier ( see Francis Garnier (ship name) )
Publications
- La Cochinchine française en 1864 (1864)
- De la colonization de Cochinchine (1865)
- Chronique royale du Cambodge (1871)
- Le siège de Paris (1872)
- Voyage d'exploration en Indochine pendant 1866-68 . 2 vols. (1873)
- Posthumous: De Paris au Tibet (1887)
literature
- Albert de Pouvourville : Francis Garnier , Librairie Plon , Paris, 1931
Web links
- Information on Francis Garnier in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Albert de Pouvourville : Francis Garnier , in the national Bibliothèque de France , accessed on 6 October 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Garnier, Francis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Garnier, Marie Joseph François |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French naval officer and explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 25, 1839 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | at Saint-Étienne |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 21, 1873 |
| Place of death | near Hanoi |