"Louis XVI had been so enthralled reading Cook's <i>Voyages</i> that he sent out a French expedition to explore the Pacific.... Headed by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, the expedition of 220 men set sail in two ships in 1785. More comprehensive than other expeditions, the proposed circumnavigation of the globe began with stops in Easter Island, Hawaii (the first European visit to Maui), then sailed to Alaska, down the coast of California, and across the Pacific Ocean to Macau, where the French sold the furs they had collected in Alaska. From there Lapérouse took his ship to the Kamchatka peninsula, where he received instructions to visit the new British settlement in Australia.
"Nothing further was heard from any member of the Lapérouse expedition after its stop at the British colony at New South Wales in January 1788. A rescue was set in motion in 1791, although France was in the middle of a revolution. Not until thirty-five years later did an Irish sea captain sailing in the Solomon Islands find remains of the ships between some coral reefs. Subsequent investigative voyages involving dozens of scientists in 1964, 2005, and 2008 were able to identify Lapérouse's ships. The ill-fated voyage also contains a fascinating 'what might have been.' A sixteen-year-old Corsican cadet named Napoleon Bonaparte applied to join the trip, but failed to make the last cut when the crew was chosen."
--Joyce Appleby, Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013), p. 200-201
chained_bear commented on the word Lapérouse
"Louis XVI had been so enthralled reading Cook's <i>Voyages</i> that he sent out a French expedition to explore the Pacific.... Headed by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, the expedition of 220 men set sail in two ships in 1785. More comprehensive than other expeditions, the proposed circumnavigation of the globe began with stops in Easter Island, Hawaii (the first European visit to Maui), then sailed to Alaska, down the coast of California, and across the Pacific Ocean to Macau, where the French sold the furs they had collected in Alaska. From there Lapérouse took his ship to the Kamchatka peninsula, where he received instructions to visit the new British settlement in Australia.
"Nothing further was heard from any member of the Lapérouse expedition after its stop at the British colony at New South Wales in January 1788. A rescue was set in motion in 1791, although France was in the middle of a revolution. Not until thirty-five years later did an Irish sea captain sailing in the Solomon Islands find remains of the ships between some coral reefs. Subsequent investigative voyages involving dozens of scientists in 1964, 2005, and 2008 were able to identify Lapérouse's ships. The ill-fated voyage also contains a fascinating 'what might have been.' A sixteen-year-old Corsican cadet named Napoleon Bonaparte applied to join the trip, but failed to make the last cut when the crew was chosen."
--Joyce Appleby, Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013), p. 200-201
December 28, 2016