French ship Astrolabe (1811)
History | |
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France | |
Namesake | French ship Astrolabe |
Builder | Toulon shipyard |
Launched | 1811 |
Christened | Coquille, 9 July 1814 |
Renamed | Astrolabe in 1826 |
Fate | Scrapped in 1851 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Fluyt |
Displacement | 380 tonnes |
Length | 31.57 m (103.6 ft) |
Beam | 18.48 m (60.6 ft) |
Draught | 4.25 m (13.9 ft) |
Propulsion | Sail |
Crew | 11 officers & 72 men (1827) |
Armament | 12 guns (1827) |
Astrolabe was originally a horse-transport barge converted into an exploration ship of the French Navy. Originally named Coquille, she is famous for her travels with Jules Dumont d'Urville. The name derives from an early navigational instrument, the astrolabe, a precursor to the sextant.
Career
Voyage under the command of Louis Isidore Duperrey
During the voyage the ship spent two weeks in the Bay of Islands in the north of New Zealand in 1824.[2] The vessel arrived in Kosrae where Duperrey and his crew visited for ten days. On the return voyage to France the ship sailed through the Ellice Islands (now known as Tuvalu).[1]
First Voyage under the command of Jules Dumont d'Urville
Coquille was renamed Astrolabe in honour of one of the ships of
Astrolabe explored parts of
On 19 December 1827 Astrolabe came into Hobart to repair, refresh, and seek out information relative to the wreck and remains of La Pérouse's shipwreck.
Astrolabe then visited
Second Voyage under the command of Jules Dumont d'Urville
Dumont wanted to do further exploration of the Pacific Ocean, however King
After reaching the South Orkney Islands, the expedition headed directly to the South Shetland Islands and the Bransfield Strait. In spite of thick fog they located some land only sketched on the maps, which Dumont named Terre de Louis-Philippe (now called Graham Land), the Joinville Island group, and Rosamel Island (now called Andersson Island). As most of the crew had obvious symptoms of scurvy, at the end of February 1838, Dumont accepted that he was not able to continue further south, and he continued to doubt the actual latitude reached by Weddell. He therefore directed the two ships towards Talcahuano, in Chile, where he established a temporary hospital for the crew members affected by scurvy.
The ships then sailed to the Marquesas Islands then to Hobart in Australia on the way south. The expedition followed the coast of Antarctica then carried out experiments to determine the approximate position of the South magnetic pole.
They sighted the schooner USS Porpoise of the United States Exploring Expedition commanded by Charles Wilkes, but due to poor communication, contact was not made.[5]
On 1 February 1840, Dumont decided to turn to the north heading for Hobart, which the two ships reached 17 days later. They were present for the arrival of the two ships of James Ross’s expedition to Antarctica.
On 25 February 1840, the ships sailed towards the Auckland Islands, where they carried out magnetic measurements. The expedition returned via New Zealand, the Torres Strait, Timor, Réunion, Saint Helena and finally Toulon, returning on 6 November 1840.
Legacy
The Astrolabe Subglacial Basin in Antarctica bears her name, as do the Astrolabe Glacier, the Astrolabe Needle, Astrolabe Island, Great Astrolabe Reef (off Kadavu island, Fiji) and Astrolabe Reef (New Zealand).
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Astrolabe and Zélée an anchor in Anna-Maria Bay (Louis Lebreton
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Astrolabemaking water on a floe, 6 February 1838.
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Astrolabe and Zélée stranded in the Austral Ocean. Painting byLouis Lebreton
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Astrolabe and Zélée caught in ice while discovering Adélie Land, by Louis Cauvin
Citations
- ^ a b Chambers, Keith S.; Munro, Doug (1980). "The Mystery of Gran Cocal: European Discovery and Mis-Discovery in Tuvalu". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 89 (2): 167–198.
- ^ "Coquille". Early shipping in New Zealand waters. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
- ^ "D'Urville's Tasman Bay Odyssey".
- ^ "Astrolabe". Early shipping in New Zealand waters. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
- ISBN 0520025571.
References
- Guillon, Jacques (1986). Dumont d'Urville. Paris: France-Empire. (in French)
- Gurney, Alan (2000). The race to the white continent. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 320. ISBN 0-393-05004-1.
- Lesson, René-Primevère Alan (1845). Notice historique sur l'amiral Dumont d'Urville. Rochefort: Imprimerie de Henry Loustau. (in French)
- Vergniol, Camille (1930). Dumont d'Urville. La grande légende de la mer. (in French)
- "Jules-Sebastien-Cesar Dumont d'Urville". South-Pole.com. Retrieved 5 January 2007.
- L'Astrolabe et la Zélée