French Navy officer (1779?1841)
Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet
(7 August 1779 ? 18 August 1841) was a French Navy officer. He circumnavigated the Earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of
Australia
.
Biography
[
edit
]
He was born at
Montelimar
,
Drome
. Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet was his full name (many calling him Louis de Freycinet). His mother is
Elisabeth-Antoinette-Catherine Armand
.
[1]
He had three brothers, Louis-Henri de Saulces de Freycinet, Andre-Charles de Saulces de Freycinet and the youngest, Frederic-Casimir de Saulces de Freycinet (father of
Charles de Freycinet
). Louis-Claude was the second oldest.
In 1793 he joined the French Navy as a midshipman, and took in several engagements against the
British
. In 1800, Freycinet was appointed to an exploration expedition to Southern and South-Western coasts of
Australia
under
Nicolas Baudin
, on
Naturaliste
and
Geographe
. Freycinet's brother, Louis-Henri de Freycinet, was also part of the expedition.
Between September 1802 and August 1803, Freycinet captained the schooner
Casuarina
, surveying the Australian coastline. He then transferred to
Naturaliste
, and returned to France in 1804.
Matthew Flinders
was being held captive by the French on
Mauritius
, thus many of his discoveries were revisited and unintendedly claimed by
Francois Peron
, and new names were given by this expedition. In 1824, it was remedied in the second edition of
Voyage decouvertes aux terres australes
.
[3]
In the end, Baudin and Freycinet managed to have their
map of the Australian coastline published in 1811
, three years before Flinders published his.
[4]
An inlet on the coast of
Western Australia
is called
Freycinet Estuary
.
Cape Freycinet
between
Cape Leeuwin
and
Cape Naturaliste
and the
Freycinet Peninsula
with
Freycinet National Park
in
Tasmania
also bear the explorer's name.
[
citation needed
]
In 1805, he returned to Paris, and was entrusted by the government with the work of preparing the maps and plans of the expedition. He also completed the narrative, and the whole work appeared under the title of
Voyage de decouvertes aux terres australes
(Paris, 1807?1816).
The plant genus
Freycinetia
(
Pandanaceae
) was named in his honor,
[5]
as was the
Hawaiian
native tree/shrub
Santalum
freycinetianum
.
[6]
Circumnavigation on
Uranie
[
edit
]
In 1817, he was given command of the corvette
Uranie
, especially reconfigured to a new exploration voyage.
Uranie
carried several members of the Navy scientific staff, notably marine
hydrologist
Louis Isidore Duperrey
, artist
Jacques Arago
, and his junior draughtsman
Adrien Taunay the Younger
.
[
citation needed
]
Uranie
sailed to
Rio de Janeiro
to take a series of pendulum measurements gather information in the fields of
geography
,
ethnology
,
astronomy
, terrestrial magnetism,
meteorology
, and for collecting specimens in natural history. Freycinet also managed to sneak his wife
Rose de Freycinet
aboard.
[7]
For three years, Freycinet cruised about the Pacific, visiting Australia, the
Mariana Islands
,
Hawaiian Islands
, and other
Pacific
islands,
South America
, and other places, and, notwithstanding the loss of
Uranie
on the
Falkland Islands
during the return voyage, returned to France with fine collections in all departments of natural history, and with voluminous notes and drawings of the countries visited.
The results of this voyage were published under Freycinet's supervision, with the title of
Voyage autour du monde fait par ordre du Roi sur les corvettes de S. M. l'Uranie et la Physicienne, pendant les annees 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820
, in 13 quarto volumes and 4 folio volumes of plates and maps.
Freycinet was admitted into the
French Academy of Sciences
in 1825, and was one of the founders of the
Paris Geographical Society
. He died at the family's chateau de Freycinet
[8]
near
Saulce-sur-Rhone
,
Drome
.
Journals of the Voyage 1817-1820
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
Taxa named in his honor
[
edit
]
Notes and references
[
edit
]
Notes
References
Bibliography
- Edward Duyker
Francois Peron: An Impetuous Life: Naturalist and Voyager, Miegunyah/MUP, Melb., 2006,
ISBN
978-0-522-85260-8
,
- Fornasiero, Jean; Monteath, Peter and West-Sooby, John.
Encountering Terra Australis: the Australian voyages of Nicholas Baudin and Matthew Flinders
, Kent Town, South Australia, Wakefield Press, 2004.
ISBN
1-86254-625-8
- Frank Horner, The French Reconnaissance: Baudin in Australia 1801?1803, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1987
ISBN
0-522-84339-5
.
- Marchant, Leslie R.
French Napoleonic Placenames of the South West Coast
, Greenwood, WA. R.I.C. Publications, 2004.
ISBN
1-74126-094-9
- Hordern House,
Captain Louis de Freycinet and his Voyages to the Terres Australes
, Hordern House, Sydney, 2011
ISBN
978-1-875567-62-1
- Rose de Freycinet (patronymic Pinon) and Federico Motta, curator,
Rose de Freycinet. Una viaggiatrice clandestina a bordo dell'Uranie negli anni 1817-20
,
Verona, Giugno 2017. Translation of Rose original Journal, fully annotated with new documents and with a comprehensive revision of Louis de Freycinet travel,
ISBN
9788898023806
- Taillemite, Etienne
(2002).
Dictionnaire des Marins francais
. Tallandier.
ISBN
2-84734-008-4
.
OCLC
606770323
.
- Rare Freycinet map.
Ile Decres
, or Kangaroo Island, 1803, held by the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia
[1]
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