Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse

Jean -François de La Pérouse de Galaup ( Lapérouse; born August 23, 1741 La Gua in Albi, † 1788 in Vanicoro, Solomon Islands) was a French navigator, circumnavigator and geographer in the Age of Enlightenment.

Life

La Pérouse was born into a patrician family of ancient southwestern French city of Albi in the Languedoc. At the age of 15 years, La Pérouse went to Brest and pursue a career in the French Navy. The officers were ' Blue and civil ' split into nobles, Red. In order to make better career, La Pérouse added the name of his family, " de Galaup " ', a title of nobility in addition, for a small family farm outside of Albi, whose name was La Peyrouse.

The straight broken Seven Years' War led La Pérouse, among others, to Quebec. The Return of the circumnavigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville to France in 1769 inspired La Pérouse to similar deeds.

From 1772 to 1776 La Pérouse sailed on behalf of the French governor in the Indian Ocean between the French- dominated colonies Mauritius, Réunion, Pondicherry in South India and Madagascar, where he completed his geographical knowledge.

Because of special merits La Pérouse was knighted and promoted on his return. When France wanted to take a similarly prestigious trip to the discoveries of the British James Cook, was the election of King Louis XVI. 1785 La Pérouse.

Two ships - the Astrolabe and the Boussole - have been equipped and put together a high-profile cast of scientists from the fields of astronomy, mathematics, geology, mineralogy and botany for the trip. Their mission was the exact exploration of the geography of the Pacific and the local trade opportunities, from the far north to Australia, from Asia to America.

On August 1, 1785 two ships from Brest stood out to sea. The first stop was Tenerife. In January 1786 Patagonia has been reached. About Cape Horn and Easter Island we went to Hawaii and on to Alaska. La Pérouse, who counted himself among the philosophers of the Enlightenment, waived the first Europeans aware of the seizure of unexplored islands. In Alaska, he made important contacts with Indians before he explored the coast of California and praised because of their wealth.

The winter was used for the crossing of the Pacific Ocean. In January 1787 two ships landed in Macao. Now, the little- known East Asian seas addition, the China Sea and the Sea of ​​Japan, have been systematically explored and mapped, as well as the large Siberian Kamchatka Peninsula, which was interesting because of the fur wealth.

In Petropavlovsk (now Petropavlovsk -Kamchatsky ) went on 29 September 1787 interpreter Jean Baptiste Barthélemy de Lesseps of board. He crossed Siberia and Kamchatka and Okhotsk came about, Irkutsk and St. Petersburg, after over a year of travel, in October 1788 in Paris. He brought there the first reports of the trip around the world at a time when La Pérouse and his men were probably no longer alive.

After Sakhalin and Kuril Islands, the Japanese were explored the South Pacific was driven. In Samoa, was born on December 11, 1787, the second captain and close friend La Perouse, the scientist Paul Fleuriot de Langle ( 1744-1787 ), killed by locals. From now on, the trip was ill-fated.

La Pérouse sailed to Australia. In the Botany Bay the British justified just Sydney. In February 1788 La Pérouse sent a message with the further planned route in the home: about Tonga, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, it should go to New Guinea.

But La Pérouse reached, none of these goals. Both ships plus crew disappeared without a trace. One speculates that the ships were caught in a tropical cyclone. The expedition was followed passionately in France, and in spite of the 1789 French Revolution beginning in 1791 two ships were equipped to search for La Pérouse. But the bailout was not happy. The captains d' Entrecasteaux and Houn Kermadec died in 1793 on the trip and the crew returned no result.

It was not until a second expedition on the trail of the missing La Pérouse was 35 years later to find any. Jules Dumont d' Urville, whose ship was renamed before driving to the name of La Pérouse's ship Astrolabe, found in 1828 parts of the wreck of La Pérouse's ships before, now part of the Solomon Islands islet Vanicoro. The native population was still in possession of many items of the two ships which had suffered shipwreck there.

Honors

La Pérouse is revered in France and the Pacific today. According to him not only several ships of the French Navy have been named, but also