Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec
Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec ( September 12, 1748 - May 6, 1793 ) was a French navigator and explorer in the 18th century . Huon de Kermadec came from Brittany .
In 1791 he commanded the ship L'Esperance on the Joseph Bruny d'Entrecasteaux expedition , which had set out on behalf of the French government to look for the missing adventurer and circumnavigator Jean-François de La Pérouse .
On September 28, 1791, d'Entrecasteaux, who commanded La Recherche , and Kermadec set sail from Brest . The hopeful search for the missing La Pérouse, however, turned into a catastrophe: The officers and crew were politically divided into royalists and republicans and fought bitterly. In addition to the officers, there were a number of researchers on board who often represented their own interests. It is only thanks to the hydrographer Charles Beautemps-Beaupre , who created excellent nautical maps of large areas that are still valid today, and the botanist Jacques Julien Houton de Labillardière that the expedition was a scientific success.
The two ships crossed the whole of the South Seas and followed different tracks, but found neither La Pérouse nor his ship. (It was not until Jules Dumont d'Urville found the wreck of the La Boussole 35 years later.)
After all, d'Entrecasteaux and Kermadec explored and discovered many previously little-known areas during their search. Several geographical objects, including the Trobriand Islands (after Lieutenant Denis de Trobriand from l'Esperance), Cape Cretin (after Lieutenant Lionel Cretin from La Recherche), the D'Entrecasteaux Islands (all in Papua New Guinea ) , the D'Entrecasteaux Canal and Bruny Island near Tasmania as well as the New Zealand Kermadec Islands were named after the two captains, their officers and the ships. According to Huon Kermadec, in addition to the Kermadec Islands he discovered, there is the Kermadec-Tonga Trench (or the Kermadec Trench ), the Huon (a river in Tasmania ), the city of Huonville on the river of the same name, the Huon Atoll near New Caledonia , the Huon -Golf at Lae and the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea.
After almost two years of searching, the two captains died in quick succession without having found La Pérouse. Huon Kermadec died of consumption in the port of Balade in northern New Caledonia, d'Entrecasteaux of scurvy on July 20, 1793 at sea off the Hermit Islands in northern New Guinea .
Individual evidence
- ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography Huon De Kermadec, Jean-Michel (1748–1793)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kermadec, Jean-Michel Huon de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French navigator and explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 12, 1748 |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 6, 1793 |