Lapérouse Expedition (1785–1788)

Objectives

Lapérouse was appointed in 1785 by Louis XVI and by the Secretary of State of the Navy, the Marquis de Castries, to lead an expedition around the world. Many countries were initiating voyages of scientific explorations at that time.

The expedition's aims were to complete the Pacific discoveries of James Cook (whom Lapérouse greatly admired), and like Cook with botanist Joseph Banks, his over aim was to enrich French science and scientific collections. However the French governments main aim was to correct and complete Cook's maps of the area, establish trade contacts, open new maritime routes and discover whether or not the British intention to establish a colony at Botany Bay was a genuine form of settlement, or intended to create a British Admiralty Pacific Fleet and so squeeze the French and Spanish out of extensive areas of the Pacific not yet explored.

Background and planning

However the scientific aspects of these voyages were often added to camouflage the political and commercial motivations, especially following the French defeat by the British following the Seven Years' War and France's loss of influence in the American Revolutionary states and Canada. Initially Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1764) had been sent out by the French to colonise the Falkland Islands and also in 1766 to explore the Pacific seeking commercial and colonial potential.

Louis XVI and his court had been stimulated by a proposal from the Dutch-born merchant adventurer William Bolts, who had earlier tried unsuccessfully to interest Louis's brother-in-law, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (brother of Queen Marie Antoinette), in a similar voyage. The French court adopted the concept (though not its author, Bolts), leading to the dispatch of the Lapérouse expedition. Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, Director of Ports and Arsenals, stated in the draft memorandum on the expedition that he submitted to the Louis XVI: "the utility which may result from a voyage of discovery... has made me receptive to the views put to me by Mr. Bolts relative to this enterprise".

Preparation and organization

His ships were L'Astrolabe (under Fleuriot de Langle) and La Boussole, both 500 tons. They were storeships reclassified as frigates for the occasion. Their overt objectives were geographic, scientific, ethnological, economic (looking for opportunities for whaling or fur trading), and political (the eventual establishment of French bases or colonial cooperation with their Spanish allies in the Philippines). They were to explore both the north and south Pacific, including the coasts of the Far East and of Australia, and send back reports through existing European outposts in the Pacific.

Lapérouse was well liked by his men. Among his crew there were ten scientists: Joseph Lepaute Dagelet (1751–1788), an astronomer and mathematician; Robert de Lamanon, a geologist; La Martinière, a botanist; a physicist; three naturalists; and three illustrators, Gaspard Duché de Vancy and an uncle and nephew named Prévost. Another of the scientists was Jean-André Mongez. Even both chaplains were scientifically schooled.

One of the young men who applied for the voyage was a 16-year-old Corsican named Napoléon Bonaparte.

British rivalry and Botany Bay

This was a period of extensive espionage conducted between Britain and France, seeking maritime commercial and naval dominance. A French spy in London discovered that a First Fleet of 11 ships including convict transporters and store ships was being sent out to Botany Bay. There is no suggestion in Arthur Phillip's nor James Cook's nor Banks' journals and actions that Port Jackson was or could be the preferred site for the new colony. Phillip was dissatisfied with the poor water supply at Botany Bay. Aware of Cook's reports of potential harbours just north of Botany Bay at Port Jackson and Broken Bay, Phillip conducted an exploratory trip to visit both ports while the First Fleet made early preparations to settle in Botany Bay. He cut short his exploration upon discovering one of the finest harbours in the world and had already prepared to move the fleet to Port Jackson when sails were seen approaching Botany Bay. Greetings and hurried departure (indeed scramble in adverse weather) to Port Jackson ensued. The Lapérouse expedition rested and carried out repairs in Botany Bay.

Lapérouse had learned of the First Fleet by dispatch sent over the Great Siberian Trek.

Voyage itinerary

Lapérouse and his 220 men left Brest on 1 August 1785, rounded Cape Horn, and investigated the Spanish colonial government in the Captaincy General of Chile. He arrived on 9 April 1786 at Easter Island.

Lapérouse sailed between 10 and 30 August all the way south to the Spanish Las Californias Province, present-day California.

Lapérouse again crossed the Pacific Ocean in 100 days, arriving at Macau, where he sold the furs acquired in Alaska, dividing the profits among his men.

Lapérouse next stopped in the Navigator Islands (Samoa), on 6 December 1787. Just before he left, the Samoans attacked a group of his men at Massacre Bay, killing twelve, among whom were Lamanon and de Langle, commander of L'Astrolabe.

Rescue mission of d'Entrecasteaux

On 25 September 1791, Rear Admiral Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux departed Brest in search of Lapérouse. His expedition followed Lapérouse's proposed path through the islands northwest of Australia while at the same time making scientific and geographic discoveries. The expedition consisted of two ships, Recherche and Espérance.

In May 1793, Entrecasteaux sighted Santa Cruz, now part of the Solomon Islands, and another, uncharted, island to the southeast; this island was Vanikoro. The French did not approach Vanikoro, only recording it on their charts before sailing away to explore the Solomon Islands further. Two months later, Entrecasteaux died of scurvy. The botanist Jacques Labillardière, attached to the expedition, eventually returned to France and published his account, Relation du voyage à la recherche de La Pérouse, in 1800.

Franco-British relations deteriorated during the French Revolution, and unfounded rumours spread in France blaming the British for the tragedy which had occurred in the vicinity of the new colony. Before the mystery was solved, the French government had published the records of the voyage as far as Kamchatka: Voyage de La Pérouse autour du monde, 1–4 (Paris, 1797).

Discovery of the expedition

In 1825 Royal Navy Captain Thomas Manby brought a report, supported by presumptive evidence, that the spot where Lapérouse and his crew had perished was now ascertained.

It was not until 1826 that an Irish sea captain, Peter Dillon, found enough evidence to piece together the events of the tragedy. In Tikopia (one of the islands of Santa Cruz), he bought some swords that he had reason to believe had belonged to Lapérouse or his officers.

In May 2005, the shipwreck examined in 1964 was formally identified as that of Boussole. The 2005 expedition had embarked aboard Jacques Cartier, a ship of the French Navy. The ship supported a multi-discipline scientific team assembled to investigate the "Mystery of Lapérouse".

The 2008 expedition showed the commitment of France, in conjunction with the New Caledonian Association Salomon, to seek further answers about Lapérouse's mysterious fate.

Fate

Both ships had been wrecked on Vanikoro's reefs, Boussole first. Astrolabe was unloaded and taken apart. A group of men, probably the survivors of Boussole, were massacred by the local inhabitants. According to the islanders, some surviving sailors built a two-masted craft from the wreckage of Astrolabe and left in a westward direction about nine months later, but what happened to them is unknown. Also, two men, one a "chief" and the other his servant, had remained behind, but had left Vanikoro a few years before Dillon arrived.

Sven Wahlroos, in his 1989 book, Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas, suggests that there was a narrowly missed chance to rescue one or more of the survivors in 1791. In November 1790, Captain Edward Edwards—in command of HMS Pandora—had sailed from England with orders to comb the Pacific for the mutineers of HMS Bounty. In March of the following year, Pandora arrived at Tahiti and picked up 14 Bounty crewmen who had stayed on that island. Although some of the 14 had not joined the mutiny, all were imprisoned and shackled in a cramped "cage" built on the deck, which the men grimly nicknamed "Pandora's Box". Pandora then left Tahiti in search of Bounty and the leader of the mutiny, Fletcher Christian.