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Admiral Kerguelen |
In the belief that a massive southern continent must exist to "balance" those of the northern hemisphere, King Louis XV of France commissioned Yves de Kerguelen-Trémarec, a Breton Captain, to discover the continent for France. Commanding the Fortune and the Gros-Ventre, Kerguelen left Mauritius on January 16th, and sailed through mist, fog and storms to dicover the islands on February 12th, 1772.
Kerguelen was unable to anchor and lost contact with the Gros-Ventre, so he returned to Mauritius in the Fortune to make repairs to his damaged ship. He never landed on the islands bearing his name.
de Boiguehenneuc, Captain of the Gros-Ventre landed at Gros-Ventre Cove and annexed the island in the name of King Louis. On his return to France, Kerguelen gave a much exaggerated account of the island's potential, calling it La France Australe.
As a result of his fertile imagination, he was commissioned to mount another expedition, and on October 29th, 1772, set out once more with three ships, Le Roland, L'Oiseau and Le Dauphine. They arrived on December 14th 1772: again Kerguelen (aboard Le Roland) failed to land. However, de Rochegude aboard L'Oiseau managed to get ashore on January 6th 1773, again claiming the islands for France. Two days later, a disillusioned Kerguelen put about and returned to France, with his crews ravaged by scurvy.
I have surveyed some 20 leagues of these coasts and have reason to believe that the whole circumference of the coasts measures 200 leagues. It seems quite clear that this region is as barren as Iceland, and even more uninhabitable and uninhabited
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Captain James Cook, R.N. |
King Louis was naturally somewhat disappointed: Kerguelen was condemned to prison in a chateau near Saumur in the Loire Valley. As he was viewed as a victim of the monarchy, he was released during the French Revolution. He was promoted, and appointed to be the manager of the port at Brest, and he remained there until his death in 1797.
Captain James Cook called at Kerguelen on his third journey around the world in the Resolution and Discovery. Sailing East from the Cape of Good Hope, Cook discovered or rediscovered Prince Edward Island, Marion and the Crozet Islands. On Christmas Day, 1776 Resolution and Discovery anchored in Oiseau Bay, which he named Christmas Harbour. Cook's men discovered a bottle containing a message in Latin left by Kerguelen's men. He wrote in his log:
I could have very properly called the island Desolation Island to signalise its sterility, but in order not to deprive M. de Kerguelen of the glory of having discovered it, I have called it Kerguelen Land
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Cook's landing at Christmas Harbour |
Kerguelen was not short of water
(every gully afforded a large stream")
and Cook's crew were soon able to replenish their stocks of water and fresh meat by taking penguins and other birds. Numerous seals gave blubber, which was rendered down into oil for the ships lamps. Green vegetables were less abundant, but the sailors soon discovered the Kerguelen cabbage, (Pringlea antiscorbutica) which helped ward off scurvy.
The main purpose of Cook's visit was scientific, and they identified 20 plants endemic to the island and mapped parts of the island. In 1799 Captain Robert Rhodes aboard the whaler Hillsborough spent eight months charting the east coast of Kerguelen.
Kerguelen's next visitors were the sealers of the late 18th and early 18th centuries. American sealers arrived in 1791 and 1792 in the Alliance, Asia and Hunter, staying for about 15 months to exploit the numerous fur seals. Some sealers (such as Captain Bartlett Coffin) never left the inhospitable island and were buried there.
