Australian National University anthropologist Garrick Hitchcock has stumbled across a clue to resolving one of the most enduring mysteries of Pacific history — the fate of Jean François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse, a French naval officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in 1788. Dr. Hitchcock believes the last survivors of La Pérouse’s voyage were shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef near Murray Island.
The French Frigates from Voyage de La Pérouse, by Louis Antoine Milet-Mureau. Image credit: State Library of New South Wales.
La Pérouse (23 August 1741 — 1788?) was instructed by King Louis XVI to undertake a major voyage of exploration in the Pacific to emulate the feats of Captain James Cook.
The expedition consisted of two ships: La Boussole and L’Astrolabe. They carried a total of 225 crew, officers and scientists.
The ships left France in August 1785 and sailed south around Cape Horn. The voyage was expected to last four years.
Louis XVI giving Jean François La Perouse his instructions on 29 June 1785, by Nicolas-André Monsiau, 1817.
“La Pérouse’s voyage of discovery in the Pacific is recognized as one of the most important of its era, rivalled only by the work of Cook. He remains a very well-known and respected figure in eighteenth century scientific exploration,” Dr. Hitchcock said.
What is known is that La Boussole and L’Astrolabe were wrecked in 1788 on Vanikoro, a small island in the Santa Cruz Group of the Solomon Islands.
The survivors made it to shore and spent several months constructing a small two-masted craft, using timber salvaged from the wreck of L’Astrolabe. Once completed, they launched the vessel in a bid to return to France.
“What became of this ship and its crew, desperate to return to France, has been an ongoing mystery,” Dr. Hitchcock said.
Jean François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse by Thomas Woolnoth.
While researching a project on the history of Torres Strait, Dr. Hitchcock came across an article published in an 1818 Indian newspaper, The Madras Courier. He is confident the article reveals what became of the survivors.
“The article reported how, in September 1818, the ships Claudine (Captain Welsh) and Mary (Captain Orman) had rescued a shipwrecked lascar named Shaik Jumaul while off Murray Island (Mer), in northeast Torres Strait,” Dr. Hitchcock explained.
“It transpired that he was a survivor from the brig Morning Star, wrecked near Quoin Island, north Queensland in mid-1814 en route from Port Jackson to Calcutta. Most of the crew drowned, but the master and several others made it to the refuge of Booby Island in southwest Torres Strait, with some later recovered there by a passing vessel.”
“Somehow, Shaik Jumaul landed on Mer, where he was cared for by the local people, and subsequently acquired fluency in the local language, Meriam Mir.”
“A boat from the Claudine retrieved the castaway, who was later transferred to the Mary, which unlike the Claudine had lascars amongst its crew. Whilst on board, a Calcutta merchant, Alexander Macdonald Ritchie, took the opportunity to record Shaik Jumaul’s recollections of his time on Murray Island.”
“This account was published after their arrival in Calcutta in the November 1818 issue of The Asiatic Mirror and Commercial Advertiser, and re-published together with a letter from the master of the Claudine detailing the rescue, in the 29 December issue of The Madras Courier.”
Excerpt from The Madras Courier, 29 December 1818. Image credit: Garrick Hitchcock / The British Library.
“Jumaul informed his rescuers that he had seen cutlasses and muskets on the islands which he recognized as not being of English make, as well as a compass and a gold watch,” Dr. Hitchcock added.
“When he asked the Islanders where they obtained these things, they related how approximately thirty years earlier, a ship had been wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef to the east, in sight of the island.”
“Boats with crew had come ashore, but in the fighting that followed, all were eventually killed, except a boy, who was saved and brought up as one of their own, later marrying a local woman.”
The La Pérouse expedition crew list includes a ship’s boy (mousse), François Mordelle, from the port town of Tréguier in Brittany, northwestern France.
Dr. Hitchcock wonders if Mordelle could be the last survivor of the La Pérouse expedition.
“The Indian newspaper article featuring the castaway’s account was later reproduced in several other newspapers and periodicals of the day, in Australia, Britain, France and other countries, and observers noted that this might refer to the La Pérouse expedition,” Dr. Hitchcock said.
“Somehow, Shaik Jamaul’s story was subsequently largely forgotten.”
This is a map of the proposed final fate of La Perouse. Image credit: Australian National University.
While a French book published in 2012 refers briefly to this newspaper article and discounts it as unreliable account, Dr Hitchcock believes otherwise.
“The chronology is spot on, for it was thirty years earlier, in late 1788 or early 1789, that the La Pérouse survivors left Vanikoro in their small vessel,” he said.
“Furthermore, historians and maritime archaeologists are not aware of any other European ship being in that region at that time. This means that this is the earliest known shipwreck in Torres Strait, and indeed, eastern Australia.”
“It could well be that the final phase of the La Pérouse expedition ended in tragedy in northern Australia. Future recovery of artifacts from the wreck site on the Great Barrier Reef — yet to be discovered — or the islands, will hopefully provide final confirmation.”
A paper by Dr. Hitchcock was published this week in the Journal of Pacific History.
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Garrick Hitchcock. Manuscript XXXII The Final Fate of the La Pérouse Expedition? The 1818 Account of Shaik Jumaul, a Lascar Castaway in Torres Strait. Journal of Pacific History, published online August 29, 2017; doi: 10.1080/00223344.2017.1335370
Source link: https://www.sci.news/archaeology/clue-fate-famous-french-explorer-jean-francois-la-perouse-05179.html
