Le Géographe
Géographe and Naturaliste
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| History | |
|---|---|
 France
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| Name: | Géographe |
| Namesake: | Geography |
| Builder: | Originally Deros, Havre, and at his death, Latch (October 1794), Honfleur |
| Laid down: | September 1794 |
| Launched: | 8 June 1800 |
| Acquired: | August 1800 |
| In service: | September 1800 |
| Fate: | 6 April 1819 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Serpente class |
| Displacement: | 350 tonnes |
| Length: | 40.3 m (132 ft) |
| Beam: | 9.7 m (32 ft) |
| Draught: | 3.8 m (12 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Armament: |
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Géographe was a 20-gun Serpente class corvette of the French Navy. She was named Uranie in 1797, and renamed Galatée in 1799, still on her building site. Her builder refused to launch her, as he had not been paid to that time. Finally launched in June 1800, she was renamed Géographe on 23 August 1800.
On 19 October 1800, under captain Nicolas Baudin, she departed Le Havre with Naturaliste for an exploration of Australia. She carried a number of scholars, painters, and designers, as well as Anselme Riedlé, the gardener, who had already accompanied Baudin on a previous expedition, and Charles Alexander Lesueur, an artist. The two vessels reached Tenerife on 13 November. They then crossed the equator on 11 December and arrived at Isle de France (Mauritius), on 16 March 1801.
For some 18 months Naturaliste and Géographe explored the less-known regions of New Holland (Australia), and Van Diemen's Land. On 30 May Baudin made his first major discovery. Baudin named the bay they found that day on the coast of Western Australia Geographe Bay. Later, the cape at the south of the bay was named Cape Naturaliste.
Riedlé died at Timor on 21 October 1801 where he was collecting specimens in the region of Kupang. Lasueur, with François Péron, took over the duties as naturalist after the death of the expedition's zoologist René Maugé. Together Lasueur and Maugé collected over 100,000 zoological specimens. In 1802 Lasueur made the only known sketches of the King Island emu in its natural habitat (the bird became extinct in 1822).
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