INDEX

• Introduction
• Maps
• Significant Places in Australia's Maritime History
• Naming Australia
• Naming Australia's Coastal Features

WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?

• The Phoenecians & Egyptians
• The Greeks & Romans
• The Chinese
• The Muslims
• The Portuguese
• The Dutch
• The British
• The French

COLONIAL EXPLORATION

• Index
• The French
• The British
• Other
• Inland explorers

French Exploration: Louis Isidore Duperrey - 1822-25

Shortly after returning to France from a three-year circumnavigation as lieutenant in Louis de Freycinet's L'Uranie, Louis I. Duperrey and his colleague Dumont d'Urville presented a proposal for a new circumnavigation to the Minister of Marine, the Marquis de Clermont Tonnerre. The twin aims were scientific&emdash;including studies of terrestrial magnetism and meteorology&emdash;and geographic, with a view especially to confirming or correcting the position of islands and other landmarks essential to safe navigation.

The vessel chosen was a horse barge named La Coquille (The Shell) which was later refitted and renamed Astrolabe in honor of one of La Pérouse's ships which had disappeared in 1788. Departing Toulon on 11 August, 1822, Coquille sailed via Ascension Island, St. Catherine Island (arriving the week that Brazil declared its independence from Portugal), and the Falklands&emdash;where the shipwrecked L'Uranie still lay&emdash;before rounding Cape Horn. Once in the Pacific, Coquille sailed along the coast of South America as far as Paita, Peru, and then headed west through the Tuamotus to Tahiti, arriving on 3 May. The expedition continued westward through the Society, Friendly (Tonga), and Fiji Islands. Though bound for Australia, horrendous weather forced them to steer northwest, and they passed the Santa Cruz and Solomon Islands before landing at Louis de Bougainville's Port Praslin, New Britain. From there Coquille continued across the top of New Guinea to the Dutch entrepôt at Amboina where the French spent most of October.

Coquille sailed to Port Jackson via the west and south coasts of Australia, and after a two-month layover continued to New Zealand in April 1824. After two weeks visiting with the English missionaries, who had been established there for nine years, the French sailed north through the Ellice and Gilbert Islands and west through the Carolines to New Guinea, where they arrived at the end of July. After a stop at the Dutch settlement of Surabaya, Coquille turned for France via the British island of Mauritius&emdash;formerly the French Ile de France&emdash;and St. Helena, where the British had imprisoned French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte from 1815 to his death in 1821. The ship arrived at Marseilles on March 24, 1825.

"Equisse Du Port De Papeiti d'aprés les reconnaissance de MM.Bérard et De Blossville, Officiers de la Marine. Mai 1823." and "Plan De La Baie et De LEtablissment De Matavie Levé par MM.Bérard et De Blois, Officiers de la Marine. Expedition de la Corvette de S.M. La Coquille. Mai 1823." Paris 1827.
Two fine charts on one sheet showing 1. The harbor of Papeete and 2. the Bay of Matavie on Tahiti's northwest coast. The charts were based on Duperrey's surveys during his voyage to the South Pacific in 1823 and show depth soundings & anchorages; shoreline contours & roads inland around coastal regions.

RELATED WEBSITES

• Ships of the world: L'Astrolabe (2)
• Linda Hall Library History of Science Collection: Duperrey
• Ship model: L'Astrolabe