La Pérouse, Comte de Jean François de Galaup

Born Aug. 22, 1741, in Le Gua, near Albi; died 1788 (?). French navigator.

La Pérouse joined the navy in 1756. From 1785 to 1788 he led a research expedition in the Pacific Ocean on the frigates La Boussole and L’Astrolabe. Rounding Cape Horn, La Pérouse reached Easter Island, the Hawaiian Islands, and Mount St. Elias on the Gulf of Alaska, followed the western coast of North America from 60° N lat. to 36°30’ N lat., turned southwest and west, crossed the Pacific Ocean at about 20° N lat., and, sailing from the Philippines across the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan, penetrated into the Tatar Strait up to 51°30’ N lat. (Gulf of Chikhachev). Sailing next along the shore of Sakhalin from Cape Zhonkier south to Cape Kril’on, La Pérouse discovered the Moneron Island on his way and sailed up the strait (subsequently named after him) between the islands of Sakhalin and Hokkaido, reaching Kamchatka. From Petropavlovsk, La Pérouse sent de Lesseps via St. Petersburg to Paris with a report and maps and himself led the frigates to the Samoan Islands, where he discovered Savaii Island, and to Australia, into the Gulf of Port Jackson. From Sydney the expedition sailed north and was never heard from again. In 1826 the British captain Dillon and in 1828 the French navigator Dumont d’Urville found some belongings of the expedition on Vanikoro Island (of the Santa Cruz group) and on nearby reefs, and, in 1964, Brassard’s French expedition found the remains of a sunken frigate.