The Baudin expedition of 1800 to 1803 was a French expedition to map the coast of New Holland (now Australia). Nicolas Baudin was selected as leader in October 1800. The expedition started with two ships, Géographe, captained by Baudin, and Naturaliste captained by Jacques Hamelin, and was accompanied by nine zoologists and botanists, including Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour, François Péron and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur as well as the geographer Pierre Faure.
Napoléon Bonaparte, as First Consul, formally approved the expedition "to the coasts of New Holland",[1] after receiving a delegation consisting of Baudin and eminent members of the Institut National des Sciences et Arts on 25 March 1800. The explicit purpose of the voyage was to be "observation and research relating to Geography and Natural History."[2]
The Baudin expedition departed Le Havre, France, on 19 October 1800. Because of delays in receiving his instructions and problems encountered in Isle de France (now Mauritius) they did not reach Cape Leeuwin on the south-west corner of the continent until May 1801. Upon rounding Cape Naturaliste, they entered Geographe Bay. During their exploration here they lost a longboat and a sailor, Assistant Helmsman Timothée Vasse. They then sailed north, but the ships became separated and did not meet again until they reached Timor. On their journeys Géographe and Naturaliste surveyed large stretches of the north-western coast. The expedition was severely affected by dysentery and fever, but sailed from Timor on 13 November 1801, back down the north-west and west coast, then across the Great Australian Bight, reaching Tasmania on 13 January 1802. They charted the whole length of Tasmania's east coast and there were extensive interactions with the Indigenous Tasmanians, with whom they had peaceful relationships. They notably produced precious ethnological studies of Indigenous Tasmanians.
The expedition then began surveying the south coast of Australia,[3] but then Captain Jacques Felix Emmanuel Hamelin in Naturaliste decided to make for Port Jackson (Sydney) as he was running short of food and water, and in need of anchors. En route, in April 1802, Hamelin explored the area of Western Port, Victoria, and gave names to places, a number of which have survived, for example, Ile des Français is now called French Island.
Meanwhile, Baudin in Géographe continued westward, and in April 1802 encountered the British ship Investigator commanded by Matthew Flinders, also engaged in charting the coastline, at Encounter Bay in what is now South Australia. Flinders informed Baudin of his discovery of Kangaroo Island, St. Vincent's and Spencer's Gulfs. Baudin sailed on to the Nuyts Archipelago, the point reached by the Dutch ship 't Gulden Zeepaert in 1627, before heading for Port Jackson as well for supplies.
In late 1802 the expedition was at Port Jackson, where the government sold 60 casks of flour and 25 casks of salt meat to Baudin to resupply his two vessels. The supplies permitted Naturaliste to return to France and Géographe to continue her explorations of the Australian coast.[4] The expedition reported on the defences of the town and the disaffection of Irish convicts.[5] Naturaliste took with her the Colony's staff surgeon, Mr. James Thomson, whom Governor Philip Gidley King had given permission to return to England.[6]
Before resuming the voyage Baudin purchased a 30 ton schooner, which he named the, a smaller vessel which could conduct close inshore survey work. He sent the larger Naturaliste under Hamelin back to France with all the specimens that had been collected by Baudin and his crew. As the voyage had progressed Louis de Freycinet, now a Lieutenant, had shown his talents as an officer and a hydrographer and so was given command of Casuarina. The expedition then headed for Tasmania and conducted further charting of Bass Strait before sailing west, following the west coast northward, and after another visit to Timor, undertook further exploration along the north coast of Australia. Plagued by contrary winds, ill health, and because 'the quadrupeds and emus were very sick',[7] it was decided on 7 July 1803 to return to France. On the return voyage, the ships stopped in Mauritius, where Baudin died of tuberculosis on 16 September 1803. The expedition finally reached France on 24 March 1804.
The scientific expedition was considered a great success, with more than 2500 new species discovered.
An inscription on a rock was left by members of Géographe on Kangaroo Island in 1803, which reads, "", i.e. "Expedition of discovery by Captain Baudin in the Géographe, 1803". To protect it from erosion, the original rock is now housed at the Gateway Visitor Information Centre on Howard Drive, Penneshaw, and a fine replica is on open view on the Penneshaw foreshore, beneath a concrete dome which has been a local landmark since 1906.
| Name | Location | K.I. | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -32°N 147°W | Here Baudin left South Australia to return to Port Jackson | |||
| -34.9167°N 172°W | Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, geographer | |||
| -32.1667°N 166°W | perhaps Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme, Duke of Beaufort | |||
| -35.9333°N 172°W | Jacques Bedout, Napoleonic naval hero, rear admiral | |||
| -35.75°N 171°W | Jean-Charles de Borda, recently deceased mathematician and mariner, constructor of the standard metre | |||
| -36.05°N 190°W | Pierre Bouguer, astronomer and mathematician, "the father of naval architecture" | |||
| -37.5667°N 147°W | Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, naturalist | |||
| -34.95°N 173°W | Lazare Carnot, engineer and mathematician, member of the Committee of Public Safety | |||
| -37.9167°N 164°W | named "Les Carpentiers", perhaps for their sawtooth appearance | |||
| -35.6°N 163°W | César-François Cassini de Thury, cartographer (or another of his family) | |||
| -36.0833°N 177°W | schooner Casuarina commanded by Louis de Freycinet | |||
| -32.8333°N 142°W | Jean-Nicolas Corvisart, physician to Napoléon Bonaparte | |||
| -36.0667°N 178°W | Charles Louis Chevalier du Couëdic de Kergoualer (1740–1780), commander of frigate La Surveilante | |||
| -32.2333°N 177°W | Denis Decrès, naval officer, Napoleon's Minister of the Navy | |||
| -37.1667°N 184°W | Joseph Dombey, French naturalist of the Americas whose plant collections are among the treasures of the British Museum after having been seized at sea | |||
| Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing, admiral, executed during the Reign of Terror | ||||
| -35.95°N 172°W | Victor-Marie d'Estrées, admiral who fought in battles of the late 17th century | |||
| -32.2667°N 179°W | (ditto) | |||
| Leonhard Euler, prolific 18th century Swiss mathematician, founder of the Euler diagram (a diagrammatic means of representing sets and their relationships) | ||||
| François Fénelon, novelist, author of The Adventures of Telemachus; archbishop | ||||
| -35.5°N 164°W | Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, Minister of the Navy under Louis XVI, Napoleonic Minister Plenipotentiary and member of the Council of State | |||
| -35.7°N 183°W | Claude de Forbin, late 17th and early 18th century admiral, governor of Bangkok | |||
| -36.0667°N 165°W | Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume, naval officer, president the Navy section of the Council of State | |||
| -37.1167°N 185°W | Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen, French admiral of the American War of Independence | |||
| -36.95°N 179°W | ||||
| Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, botanist | ||||
| -36.0333°N 145°W | Armand de Kersaint, rear admiral during the French Revolution, executed during the purge of the Girondins | |||
| -36.8167°N 187°W | Bernard Germain de Lacépède, naturalist, collaborator of Buffon, author of a Histoire naturelle des poissons | |||
| -37.1833°N 184°W | Jean Lannes, a Marshal of the Empire | |||
| -35.9833°N 174°W | Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois, Napoleonic admiral, defeated the British at the Battle of Algeciras in 1801 | |||
| André Masséna, a Marshal of the Empire | ||||
| Jean Baptiste Massillon, bishop, famous for his funeral oration for Louis XIV and benign temperament | ||||
| -36°N 176°W | Pierre Louis Maupertuis, early 18th century mathematician, credited with having invented the principle of least action, a version known as Maupertuis's principle | |||
| Édouard Thomas Burgues de Missiessy, admiral | ||||
| -32.1167°N 169°W | Joachim Murat, a Marshal of the Empire | |||
| -37.3167°N 190°W | François Rabelais, 15th century author of Gargantua and Pantagruel | |||
| -35.8°N 171°W | casoar = cassowary, here referring to emus | |||
| -37.5167°N 144°W | André Masséna, Duke of Rivoli and Marshal of the Empire | |||
| for red granite found nearby | ||||
| -32.15°N 172°W | Antoine-Jean-Marie Thévenard, admiral | |||
| -34.9167°N 187°W | Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, botanist | |||
| -32.15°N 162°W | Anne Hilarion de Tourville, naval commander victor at the Battle of Lagos (1693) | |||
| -35.9833°N 148°W | Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Maréchal de Vivonne, 17th century military officer | |||
| -32.2°N 174°W | (ditto) |
Many Western Australian places still have French names today from Baudin's expedition: for example, Peron Peninsula, Depuch Island, Cape Levillain, Boullanger Island and Faure Island; and the Australian plant genus Guichenotia honours the name of Antoine Guichenot.
According to researchers from the University of Adelaide, during this expedition Baudin prepared a report for Napoleon on ways to invade and capture the British colony at Sydney Cove.[9] [10] The Baudin expedition was intended to be a voyage of discovery that would further scientific knowledge and perhaps eclipse the achievements of Captain James Cook.
Among those joining the Baudin expedition were Sub-lieutenants Louis-Claude (Louis) de Saulses de Freycinet and his older brother Henri-Louis (Henri). Louis did not initially sail as a 'geographer'. Both were eventually promoted to Lieutenant, and Louis was later given command of the schooner, purchased in Sydney to enable improved inshore surveying. Another member of the expedition, someone who was ultimately to have a highly significant influence on its outcomes, was the 25-year-old assistant zoologist François Péron.
Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754–1803) (Géographe) and Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin (1768–1839) (Naturaliste).
Surgeon-Physician and naturalist: Pierre François Keraudren (1769–1858) (Le Géographe)(Preparations not on board)
Sub-lieutenants Louis de Freycinet and, his older brother, Henri-Louis de Freycinet
Sailors: Hyacinthe de Bougainville, midshipman second-class, and François-Antoine Boniface Heirisson, midshipman; Charles Baudin, midshipman. Jacques-Philippe Mérigon de Montgéry was a 2nd class midshipman aboard Géographe and landed sick at Île-de-France on 25 April 1801.
A total of 24 various scientists and artists including five gardeners accompanied Baudin on the expedition. It was an unprecedented number to be assembled for a voyage at the time. However, after only six months at sea, and before reaching Australia, ten of the group were disembarked at Mauritius mainly due to illness. Subsequently, five others died. In fact, only six of the original group of scientists and artists would complete the journey home.
| Name | Profession | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bailly, Charles | Zoologist | ||
| Bernier, Pierre-François | Astronomer | Died at sea, 6 June 1803 | |
| Bissy, Frédéric | Astronomer | Left ship at Mauritius due to illness, 25 April 1801 | |
| Hydrographer | |||
| Caguet, François | Gardener | Disembarked at Mauritius, 20 April 1801 | |
| Delisse, Jacques | Botanist | Left ship at Mauritius due to illness, 25 April 1801 | |
| Depuch, Louis | Mineralogist | Left ship at Mauritius due to illness, 3 February 1803, where he died some days later | |
| Dumont, Désiré | Zoologist | Left ship at Mauritius due to illness, 25 April 1801 | |
| Geographer | Disembarked at Mauritius, 15 December 1803 | ||
| Garnier, Michel | Painter (de genre) | Left ship at Mauritius due to illness, 25 April 1801 | |
| Guichenot, Antoine | Gardener | ||
| Botanist | Left ship at Timor due to illness, 2 June 1803 | ||
| Lebrun, Louis | Technical draughtsman (Dessinateur-architecte) | Left ship at Mauritius due to illness, 25 April 1801 | |
| Painter (natural history) | |||
| Levillain, Stanislas | Zoologist | Died at sea, 29 December 1801 | |
| Zoologist | Died at Maria Island, 21 February 1802 | ||
| Merlot | Gardener | Disembarked at Mauritius, 20 April 1801 | |
| Botanist | Disembarked at Mauritius, 20 April 1801 | ||
| Milbert, Jacques | Painter (landscape) | Left ship at Mauritius due to illness, 25 April 1801 | |
| Zoologist | |||
| Petit, Nicolas-Martin | Painter (de genre) | ||
| Riedlé, Anselme | Gardener (Chief) | Died at Timor, 21 October 1801 | |
| Zoologist | Left ship at Mauritius due to illness, 25 April 1801 | ||
| Sautier, Antoine | Gardener | Died at sea, 15 November 1801 |
Over 200,000 specimens from the expedition were deposited in Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (zoology) and Jardin des Plantes (botany). Live plants, animals and birds were also sent to Empress Josephine Bonaparte's gardens at Château de Malmaison.