Rose de Freycinet
(illustration by Jacques Arago)
Rose de Freycinet (born September 29, 1794 in Saint-Julien-du-Sault as Rose Marie Pinon , † May 7, 1832 in Paris ) was the wife of the 15-year-old French explorer Louis de Freycinet , whom she was on a research trip around accompanied the world. She wrote a diary about her experiences and, as far as we know today, was the first woman to circumnavigate the world and write a report about it.
When Louis de Freycinet received a research assignment for a scientific trip around the world in 1816, the couple was not willing to accept the three-year separation. The ship, the Uranie , was secretly rebuilt, Rose de Freycinet cut her hair and slipped on board disguised as a man in Toulon the day before departure . Stops on the trip were Gibraltar , Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Tenerife , Rio de Janeiro , the Cape Colony , Mauritius and Réunion , Shark Bay on the west coast of Australia, Timor , Waigeo in the north of New Guinea , Guam in the Mariana Islands , the Hawaiian Islands, Sydney and the Falkland Islands , where the Uranie shipwrecked in the French Bay. Thus, they established in the colonies of almost all European colonial powers and Rose de Freycinet met many historically important people, including in Rio de Janeiro the Portuguese King João VI , who had ruled his country from the colony of Brazil since the Napoleonic invasion.
When Paris was struck by a cholera epidemic in 1832, Louis de Freycinet fell seriously ill, but was saved thanks to the care of Rose and his friend Joseph Paul Gaimard , the Uranian resident doctor , but Rose became infected during this time and died within a few hours.
The travel diary, written in letter form, was only published in 1927 (by the French historian Charles Duplomb) in an edition of 500 copies, with a foreword by Louis' great-great-nephew, Henri de Freycinet. The volume was illustrated with 26 images, some of them in multicolor collotype and some never published before.
Places, animals, plants named after Rose de Freycinet
- Her husband named a small uninhabited island Île de Rose . Today it belongs to American Samoa .
- The doctor Jean René Constant Quoy named a pigeon from New Guinea Columba Pinon after the maiden name of Rose de Freycinet .
- The botanist Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré named the Hibiscus pinonianus and the fern species Pinonia after her.
- Ensign Louis Isidore Duperrey later named two parts of the Waigeo coastline Pointe and Anse (cape and bay) Rose on his own expedition .
Selected Works
- Rose de Saulces de Freycinet, Campagne de l'Uranie (1817-1820) . Journal d'après le manuscrit original, accompagné de notes par Charles Duplomb. Chartres & Paris, Durand pour les Sociétés d'Éditions Géographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales, 1927.
- Rose de Freycinet, Letters from Urania. Diary of a trip around the world (1817–1820), edited by Michael Uszinski, Berlin: Verlag der Pioniere, 2011, ISBN 978-3-941924-01-7 .
- Rose de Freycinet, Rose des vents - Journal de Madame Rose de Freycinet: voyage de l'Uranie autour du monde (1817-1820) . Texts établi et présenté by Marc Serge Rivière; en annexe Lettres de Rose à sa belle-sœur, Clémentine de Freycinet , Sainte Clotilde (La Réunion): ARS Terres Créoles ; Stanley (Maurice): Ed. de l'océan India, 1996.
- Serge Marc Rivière (Editor), A woman of courage: the journal of Rose de Freycinet on her voyage around the world 1817-1820 , Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1996.
further reading
- Marnie Bassett: Realms and Islands. London 1962.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Freycinet, Rose de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pinon, Rose Marie (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Wife of the French explorer Louis de Freycinet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 29, 1794 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint-Julien-du-Sault |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 7, 1832 |
| Place of death | Paris |