Anthony de la Roché

Anthony de la Roché ( * before 1674 in London, † after 1675, also known as Antoine de la Roché, Antonio de la Roché or Antonio de la Roca ) was an English merchant, who was born in London. His father was a French Huguenot, and his mother was English. On a business trip between Europe and South America, he came through a storm off course, came to South Georgia, making it the first discovery of land south of the Antarctic Convergence.

Discovery of South Georgia

After La Roché had purchased a 350- ton ship in Hamburg and received from the Spanish authorities for permission to trade in Spanish America, he reached in May 1674 Canary Islands and in October the port of Callao, at the Viceroyalty of Peru, by the Le Maire Strait and sailed around Cape Horn. On his way back from Chiloé to Salvador da Bahia in April 1675 he rounded Cape Horn again and was then surprised in the difficult waters at the Isla de los Estados by a storm. He was unable, as required, to achieve the Le Maire Strait, even circumnavigating the eastern extremity of Isla de los Estados, instead it was driven off in the far east. Finally, he found shelter in one of the southern bays of South Georgia - possibly Drygalski Fjord, according to some experts - where the ship lay at anchor for two weeks.

According to the story published shortly after the event took La Roché " a bay where they anchored near a promontory that (...) extends to the southeast ." The surrounding glaciated area was described as " snow mountains near the coast, with a lot of bad weather ." As the weather improved, put the ship sails, and while we rounded the southern extremity of South Georgia, they sighted the Clerke Rocks further to the southeast. La Roché reached the Brazilian port Salvador and finally came on September 29, 1675 in La Rochelle, France, on.

Captain James Cook was the discovery of La Roche's known, he mentioned it in his ship Journal while South Georgia in January 1775 was approached to make first landings to take this for the United Kingdom in possession and to create a first map of the island.

Early landing on Gough Island

A few days after his departure from South Georgia sailed La Roché and his team to another uninhabited island, " where they found water, wood and fish " and six days spent, " without seeing any human being ," which, according to some historians the first landing was made on the South Atlantic Gough island, which had been discovered in 1505 or 1506 by the Portuguese navigator Gonçalo Alvarez and then still called Diego Alvarez (up to 1731).

Maps showing the La Roches discovery

Shortly after the trip began cartographers, " Roché Iceland " and " Straits de la Roche " that separated the island from an unknown land in the southeast to plot and thus to honor the discoverer. Especially the newly discovered land appeared on the following maps of the 17th century:

  • L' Isle, Guillaume de; J. Covens & C. Mortier. (1700 /20). L' Amerique Meridional. Paris.
  • Chatelain, Henry A. (1705 /19). Nouvelle Carte de Geographie de la game Meridional de la Amerique. Amsterdam.
  • L' Isle, Guillaume de & Henry A. Chatelain. (1705 /19). Carte du Paraguay, du Chili, du Detroit de Magellan. Paris.
  • Lens, Bernard & George Vertue. (ca. 1710). Map of South America. London.
  • Price, Charles. (ca. 1713). South America corrected from the observations Communicated to the Royal Society of London and Paris. London.
  • De Fer, Nicolas. ( 1720). Game of La Plus Meridional de L' Amerique, ou se trouve Le Chili, Le Paraguay, Les Terres et avec les Magellaniques Fameux Detroit de Magellan and de le Maire. Paris.
  • Homann Heirs. ( 1733). Type Geographicus Chili a Paraguay Freti magellanici. Nuremberg.
  • Moll, Herman. ( 1736). A map of Chili, Patagonia, La Plata and ye South Part of Brasil. London.
  • L' Isle, Guillaume de Girolamo & Albrizzi. ( 1740). Carta della Geografica America Meridional. Venice.
  • Seale, Richard W. (ca. 1745). A Map of South America. With all the European Settlements & whatever else is remarkable from the latest & best observations. London.
  • Cowley. (ca. 1745). A Map of South America. London.
  • Gibson, John. (1753 ). South America. London.
  • Jefferys, Thomas. ( 1768). South America. London.

The second ever created map of South Georgia was drawn in 1802 by Captain Isaac Pendleton of the U.S. seal hunting vessel Union and reproduced by the Italian Polarkartographen Arnaldo Faustini 1906. It was entitled Georgia: Discovered by the French La Roché in 1675 (Pendleton erred with respect to La Roche's nationality, probably due to his French last name. ).

Honors

Roché Peak, the highest point on Bird Iceland is named after Anthony de la Roché.

England Hispanic America Salvador (Bahia)
68902
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