French frigate Boudeuse (1766)
Boudeuse arriving in Matavai in 1767.
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| History | |
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.svg){kind=small}   France
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| Name: | Boudeuse |
| Namesake: | "Sulky (Girl)" |
| Builder: | Indret shipyard, near Nantes |
| Laid down: | May 1765 |
| Launched: | 25 March 1766 |
| Completed: | September 1766 |
| Out of service: | 1800 |
| Fate: | Broken up for firewood in 1800 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Frigate |
| Displacement: | 1,030 tons (French) |
| Tons burthen: | 580 (French; "of the port") |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 10.61 m (34.8 ft) |
| Draft: | 5.36 m (17.6 ft) |
| Depth of hold: |
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| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Complement: | 214 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: | timber |
Boudeuse was a 26-gun, 12-pounder-armed sailing frigates named La Boudeuse on 6 June 1765. She is most famous for being the exploration ship of Louis Antoine de Bougainville between 1766 and 1769. She also served in the American and French Revolutionary Wars, during which she captured two enemy vessels. She was broken up for firewood at Malta in early 1800.
Boudeuse, under Antoine de Bougainville, departed from Nantes on 15 November 1766 for the first French circumnavigation of the globe, along with the Étoile. On board was the botanist Philibert Commerçon and his valet, later unmasked by the ship's surgeon as Jeanne Baré, Commerçon's mistress; she would become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.
The expedition saw islands of the Tuamotu group on the 22 March. On 2 April they saw the peak of Mehetia and famously visited the island of Otaheite shortly after. de Bougainville narrowly missed becoming their discoverer, unaware of a previous visit, and claim, by Samuel Wallis in HMS Dolphin less than a year previously. Bougainville claimed the island for France and named it New Cythera.
They left Tahiti and sailed westward to southern Samoa and the New Hebrides, then on sighting Espiritu Santo turned west still looking for the "Southern Continent". On June 4 he almost ran into heavy breakers and had to change course to the north and east. He had almost found the Great Barrier Reef. He sailed through what is now known as the Solomon Islands that, due of the hostility of the people there, he avoided. Bougainville named them Bougainville Island for himself. The expedition was attacked by people from New Ireland so they made for the Moluccas. At Batavia they received news of Wallis and Carteret who had preceded Bougainville.
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Wikipedia