The first French naval voyage round the world

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville · 1766 CE – 1769 CE · Earth

The first French naval voyage round the world — Louis-Antoine de Bougainville · 1766 CE – 1769 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Hand the French settlement in the Falklands to Spain, then cross the Pacific between the tropics to the East Indies and carry the French flag round the world.

Historical context

France had just lost Canada in the Seven Years’ War, and Bougainville, who had fought there, had tried to make up for it with a colony on the Malouines that he now had to give to Spain. His two ships carried a botanist, an astronomer and an engineer as well as guns, and the stop at Tahiti inspired many works holding up “savage” society as better than “civilised” Europe.

The voyage, step by step

  1. The Boudeuse sails

    November 1766

    On 15 November 1766 the Boudeuse, a new frigate, sails from the mouth of the Loire below Nantes; a storm sends her into Brest, and she leaves again on 5 December, to be joined later by the storeship Étoile.

  2. Giving back the Malouines

    1767 CE

    At Port Louis on 1 April 1767, in the colony he had founded at his own expense, Bougainville hands the settlement to Spain, whose colours are raised and saluted from the shore and the ships.

  3. Fifty-two days in the strait

    1767 CE

    The two ships take almost two months to work through the Strait of Magellan against williwaws and tide.

  4. Nine days at Nouvelle-Cythère

    April 1768

    In April 1768 the ships anchor off Hitiaa; Bougainville names the island New Cythera and stays nine crowded days.

  5. Turned back by the breakers

    June 1768

    On the night of 4 June 1768 the lookouts see breakers and a low sandbank by moonlight; after two more days among reefs Bougainville turns north without sighting the east coast of New Holland.

  6. Hunger in the Louisiade

    1768 CE

    From 10 June 1768 the ships beat for a fortnight along the coasts of a great gulf, in fog and heavy seas among reefs, until on 26 June they double a cape Bougainville names Deliverance; he calls the gulf the Louisiade.

  7. An island and a strait

    1768 CE

    On 1 July 1768 the ships pass a strait between Choiseul and a great mountainous island to the west; the strait and the island carry Bougainville’s name today.

  8. Home to Saint-Malo

    March 1769

    On 16 March 1769 the Boudeuse, her foremast failing, runs into Saint-Malo, the nearest refuge, completing the first voyage round the world by an officer of the French navy.

Outcome

Completed in twenty-eight months, with the loss of seven men, the first voyage round the world by an officer of the French navy, and brought back Ahutoru and a book that made Tahiti famous in Europe.

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville

French officer and mathematician who led the first voyage round the world by an officer of the French navy and whose account of Tahiti shaped European ideas of the Pacific.

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Sources

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