Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn
Encyclopedia
Louis Francois Marie Aleno de Saint Aloüarn (25 July 173827 October 1772) was a notable French naval
officer and explorer
.
St Aloüarn was the first Europe
an to make a formal claim of sovereignty
— on behalf of France
— over the west coast of Australia
, which was known at the time as "New Holland
". While indigenous Australians
had lived there for thousands of years, the European empires
of the early modern era
frequently did not recognise the sovereignty of indigenous peoples.
Much of the west coast had already been charted
by mariners from the Netherlands
, following a landing by Dirk Hartog
in 1616. James Cook
, in 1770, had charted and claimed the east coast for Britain
. When St Aloüarn visited New Holland in 1772, neither British nor Dutch officials had issued a formal claim over the west coast. However, the French claim over Western Australia was never secured by a permanent settlement.
, at Saint-Aloüarn, near Guengat
, in the Pays Bigouden of Brittany
.
The family had a history of naval service and St Aloüarn joined the Gardes de la Marine
in 1754. He was promoted to Lieutenant
and joined his uncle, Rosmadec St Aloüarn, on the 74-gun warship Espérance. In November 1755, as it returned from a campaign off Canada
, Espérance was attacked and destroyed by HMS Oxford
; St Aloüarn and his uncle became prisoners of war and were held in England for two years, before they were returned to France.
The war continued and St Aloüarn was posted to Martinique
on the 74-gun Défenseur. His father and uncle were both killed when the Juste was destroyed in 1759, at the Battle of The Cardinals
(also known as the Battle of Quiberon Bay).
During 1759–62, St Aloüarn served in France on smaller vessels and on shore.
In 1761, he married Marie Jeanne Corentine Drouallen, with whom he had a daughter and three sons.
Between 1762 and 1767, St Aloüarn served on the 116-gun Royal Louis
and the frigate Infidèle, at Martinique and Brest
.
St Aloüarn took command of the storeship Ecluse in 1767, followed by the Aber Wrac'h in 1770.
, who asked him join an expedition to New Holland. This reflected a broader French drive to annex territories adjoining the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Kerguelen and St Aloüarn first travelled to Port Louis
, Île-de-France
(later known as Mauritius). On 30 April 1771, they left Port Louis in two small vessels: Kerguelen on board the 24-gun flute
Fortune and St Aloüarn — still a Lieutenant — commanding the 16-gun storeship Gros Ventre.
On 11 February 1772, in the southern Indian Ocean, the expedition sighted a large mountainous island that Kerguelen took for Australia. (The island was later named after him.) The two ships lost sight of each other during bad weather. After a party from Fortune had made a brief visit to the island, Kerguelen returned to France.
After also landing a party on the island, St Aloüarn continued towards Australia and a rendezvous point at Cape Leeuwin
, arranged earlier with Kerguelen. On 17 March he arrived off a bay
(later Flinders Bay), near the cape. With no sign of Kerguelen, St Aloüarn followed the coast northward.
At Baie de Prise de Possession ("Bay of Taking Possession"; later Turtle Bay), Dirk Hartog Island
on 30 March 1772, St Aloüarn became the first European to formally claim possession of Western Australia, on behalf of King Louis XV. Members of his crew buried a bottle containing a document stating what had occurred, alongside two silver écu
coins, worth six Livres tournois
(Francs). This occurred in sight of Cape Inscription, where in 1696 the Dutch mariner Willem de Vlamingh
had left a commemorative plate recording his visit and that of Dirk Hartog
in 1616.
. St Aloüarn made for Portuguese Timor
, where he and his crew recuperated for a short period. Gros Ventre then visited Batavia (Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies
, where St Aloüarn and some of his crew contracted "tropical diseases". On 5 September, they arrived at Port Louis, where they had been given up as lost. St Aloüarn was hospitalised and dictated a letter to Kerguelen, advising that he had taken possession of western New Holland. St Aloüarn failed to recover from his illness and died on 27 October.
In 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip
established a British colony on the east coast of Australia, at Sydney
. However, other French expeditions followed St Aloüarn to Western Australia. In 1792, Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
named the St Alouarn Islands, south east of Cape Leeuwin
after St Aloüarn. In 1800, Nicolas Baudin
was the first to map the Western coast and a part of the Southern coast of Australia.
By 1826, following an expedition to the south coast of Western Australia by Jules Dumont d'Urville, British authorities were seeking to forestall French settlement in Australia. A British Army
force, under Major Edmund Lockyer
, was despatched from Sydney, establishing a permanent British settlement at King George Sound
, named Frederick Town (or Frederickstown), later known as Albany
.
Searches continued for a bottle known to have been buried by the French, containing a document proclaiming annexation. In April 1998 the site was examined by a team led by Myra Stanbury and consisting of archaeologists, museum staff and remote sensing specialists and a series of test excavations completed, without result. After that phase was completed a remote sensing team comprising R. Creasy, M.McCarthy and R. Sheppard located a bottle capped with a seal of lead surrounding another écu, although the bottle contained only sand. A comprehensive excavation of the site failed to locate further artefacts.
There is anecdotal evidence that the proclamation was found decades earlier by a stock worker, was kept at the homestead of a sheep station
operating on Dirk Hartog Island at the time and was later destroyed by fire.
The proclamation site was later protected by State and Commonwealth legislation and a commemorative plaque was placed at the spot.
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
officer and explorer
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
.
St Aloüarn was the first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an to make a formal claim of sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
— on behalf of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
— over the west coast of Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, which was known at the time as "New Holland
New Holland (Australia)
New Holland is a historic name for the island continent of Australia. The name was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman as Nova Hollandia, naming it after the Dutch province of Holland, and remained in use for 180 years....
". While indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
had lived there for thousands of years, the European empires
Colonial empire
The Colonial empires were a product of the European Age of Exploration that began with a race of exploration between the then most advanced maritime powers, Portugal and Spain, in the 15th century...
of the early modern era
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...
frequently did not recognise the sovereignty of indigenous peoples.
Much of the west coast had already been charted
Nautical chart
A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a maritime area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land , natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and man-made aids...
by mariners from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, following a landing by Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog was a 17th century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the third European group to land on Australian soil. He was the first to leave behind an artifact to record his visit, the Hartog plate. His name is sometimes alternatively spelled Dirck Hartog or Dierick...
in 1616. James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
, in 1770, had charted and claimed the east coast for Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. When St Aloüarn visited New Holland in 1772, neither British nor Dutch officials had issued a formal claim over the west coast. However, the French claim over Western Australia was never secured by a permanent settlement.
Early life and military career
St Aloüarn was born to a naval officer named François Marie Guénolé Pantaléon d’Aleno and Marie Josèphe Pélagie de Quillien, members of the aristocracyAristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
, at Saint-Aloüarn, near Guengat
Guengat
Guengat is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.-References:** ;-External links:*...
, in the Pays Bigouden of Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
.
The family had a history of naval service and St Aloüarn joined the Gardes de la Marine
Gardes de la Marine
In France, under the Ancien Régime, the Gardes de la Marine , or Gardes-Marine were young gentlemen picked and maintained by the king in his harbours to learn the navy service, and to train to be officers. They were organized in companies, divided up between the harbors of Brest, Toulon, and...
in 1754. He was promoted to Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
and joined his uncle, Rosmadec St Aloüarn, on the 74-gun warship Espérance. In November 1755, as it returned from a campaign off Canada
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
, Espérance was attacked and destroyed by HMS Oxford
HMS Oxford (1674)
HMS Oxford was a 54-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Francis Baylie in Bristol and launched in June 1674. Her guns comprised twenty-two 24-pounders on the lower deck, with twenty-two large sakers on the upper deck and ten smaller sakers on the quarter deck.On 23...
; St Aloüarn and his uncle became prisoners of war and were held in England for two years, before they were returned to France.
The war continued and St Aloüarn was posted to Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
on the 74-gun Défenseur. His father and uncle were both killed when the Juste was destroyed in 1759, at the Battle of The Cardinals
Battle of Quiberon Bay
The naval Battle of Quiberon Bay took place on 20 November 1759 during the Seven Years' War in Quiberon Bay, off the coast of France near St. Nazaire...
(also known as the Battle of Quiberon Bay).
During 1759–62, St Aloüarn served in France on smaller vessels and on shore.
In 1761, he married Marie Jeanne Corentine Drouallen, with whom he had a daughter and three sons.
Between 1762 and 1767, St Aloüarn served on the 116-gun Royal Louis
French ship Royal Louis (1758)
The Royal Louis was a first-rate 116-gun ship of the line of the Royal French Navy, built in 1757-59 by Jacques-Luc Coulomb at Brest. She was the fourth ship to bear the name, and the only ship of the Sans-Pareil design ever built....
and the frigate Infidèle, at Martinique and Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
.
St Aloüarn took command of the storeship Ecluse in 1767, followed by the Aber Wrac'h in 1770.
Career as an explorer
In 1771, shortly after the death of his wife,. St Aloüarn was approached by a colleague, Yves de KerguelenYves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec
Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec was a Breton explorer and French naval officer.- Early life:He was born in Landudal, Finistère. During the Seven Years' War, Kerguelen-Trémarec was a privateer, but without much success....
, who asked him join an expedition to New Holland. This reflected a broader French drive to annex territories adjoining the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Kerguelen and St Aloüarn first travelled to Port Louis
Port Louis
-Economy:The economy is dominated by its port, which handles Mauritius' international trade. The port was founded by the French who preferred Port Louis as the City is shielded by the Port Louis/Moka mountain range. It is the largest container handling facility in the Indian Ocean and can...
, Île-de-France
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
(later known as Mauritius). On 30 April 1771, they left Port Louis in two small vessels: Kerguelen on board the 24-gun flute
En flûte
Arming a ship en flûte means removing some or all of the artillery. Since ships have a limited amount of cargo space, they may be armed en flûte to make room for other cargo, such as troops and ammunition...
Fortune and St Aloüarn — still a Lieutenant — commanding the 16-gun storeship Gros Ventre.
On 11 February 1772, in the southern Indian Ocean, the expedition sighted a large mountainous island that Kerguelen took for Australia. (The island was later named after him.) The two ships lost sight of each other during bad weather. After a party from Fortune had made a brief visit to the island, Kerguelen returned to France.
After also landing a party on the island, St Aloüarn continued towards Australia and a rendezvous point at Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia.A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south. The nearest settlement, north of the cape, is Augusta. South-east of Cape Leeuwin, the coast...
, arranged earlier with Kerguelen. On 17 March he arrived off a bay
Flinders Bay
Flinders Bay is a bay and locality that is immediately south of the townsite of Augusta, Western Australia, and close to the mouth of the Blackwood River and lies to the north east of Cape Leeuwin.-Bay:Flinders Bay...
(later Flinders Bay), near the cape. With no sign of Kerguelen, St Aloüarn followed the coast northward.
At Baie de Prise de Possession ("Bay of Taking Possession"; later Turtle Bay), Dirk Hartog Island
Dirk Hartog Island
Dirk Hartog Island is an island off the Gascoyne coast of Western Australia, within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It is about 80 kilometres long and between 3 and 15 kilometres wide and is Western Australia's largest and most western island. It covers an area of 620 square kilometres and is...
on 30 March 1772, St Aloüarn became the first European to formally claim possession of Western Australia, on behalf of King Louis XV. Members of his crew buried a bottle containing a document stating what had occurred, alongside two silver écu
ECU
ECU may refer to:Automotive terms* Electronic control unit, a generic term for any embedded system that controls one or more of the electrical systems or subsystems in a motor vehicle...
coins, worth six Livres tournois
Livre tournois
The livre tournois |pound]]) was:#one of numerous currencies used in France in the Middle Ages; and#a unit of account used in France in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.-Circulating currency:...
(Francs). This occurred in sight of Cape Inscription, where in 1696 the Dutch mariner Willem de Vlamingh
Willem de Vlamingh
Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh was a Dutch sea-captain who explored the central west coast of Australia in the late 17th century.- Vlamingh and the VOC :...
had left a commemorative plate recording his visit and that of Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog was a 17th century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the third European group to land on Australian soil. He was the first to leave behind an artifact to record his visit, the Hartog plate. His name is sometimes alternatively spelled Dirck Hartog or Dierick...
in 1616.
Aftermath
By the time of the annexation, many of the crew of Gros Ventre were exhausted and suffering from scurvyScurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
. St Aloüarn made for Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor was the name of East Timor when it was under Portuguese control. During this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Netherlands East Indies, and later with Indonesia....
, where he and his crew recuperated for a short period. Gros Ventre then visited Batavia (Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
, where St Aloüarn and some of his crew contracted "tropical diseases". On 5 September, they arrived at Port Louis, where they had been given up as lost. St Aloüarn was hospitalised and dictated a letter to Kerguelen, advising that he had taken possession of western New Holland. St Aloüarn failed to recover from his illness and died on 27 October.
In 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip
Arthur Phillip
Admiral Arthur Phillip RN was a British admiral and colonial administrator. Phillip was appointed Governor of New South Wales, the first European colony on the Australian continent, and was the founder of the settlement which is now the city of Sydney.-Early life and naval career:Arthur Phillip...
established a British colony on the east coast of Australia, at Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. However, other French expeditions followed St Aloüarn to Western Australia. In 1792, Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux was a French navigator who explored the Australian coast in 1792 while seeking traces of the lost expedition of La Pérouse....
named the St Alouarn Islands, south east of Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia.A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south. The nearest settlement, north of the cape, is Augusta. South-east of Cape Leeuwin, the coast...
after St Aloüarn. In 1800, Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...
was the first to map the Western coast and a part of the Southern coast of Australia.
By 1826, following an expedition to the south coast of Western Australia by Jules Dumont d'Urville, British authorities were seeking to forestall French settlement in Australia. A British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
force, under Major Edmund Lockyer
Edmund Lockyer
Edmund Lockyer, – 10 June 1860) was a British soldier and explorer of Australia.Born in Plymouth, Devon, Lockyer was son of Thomas Lockyer, a sailmaker, and his wife Ann, née Grose. Lockyer began his army career as an ensign in the 19th Regiment in June 1803, was promoted lieutenant in early 1805...
, was despatched from Sydney, establishing a permanent British settlement at King George Sound
King George Sound
King George Sound is the name of a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Located at , it is the site of the city of Albany.The sound covers an area of and varies in depth from to ....
, named Frederick Town (or Frederickstown), later known as Albany
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
.
Searches for the annexation site
While there had been numerous earlier searches, some led by maritime historian Leslie Marchant, one of whose specialities was the French discoveries in Australia, the location of St Aloüarn's proclamation was not confirmed until January 1998, when an expedition led by French/Australian adventurer and author Philippe Godard assisted by local shipwreck enthusiast Max Cramer visited Dirk Hartog Island and located an écu coin in a lead capsule, at Turtle Bay. The site was inspected and confirmed by staff of the Western Australian Maritime Museum.Searches continued for a bottle known to have been buried by the French, containing a document proclaiming annexation. In April 1998 the site was examined by a team led by Myra Stanbury and consisting of archaeologists, museum staff and remote sensing specialists and a series of test excavations completed, without result. After that phase was completed a remote sensing team comprising R. Creasy, M.McCarthy and R. Sheppard located a bottle capped with a seal of lead surrounding another écu, although the bottle contained only sand. A comprehensive excavation of the site failed to locate further artefacts.
There is anecdotal evidence that the proclamation was found decades earlier by a stock worker, was kept at the homestead of a sheep station
Sheep station
A sheep station is a large property in Australia or New Zealand whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or south-west of the country. In New Zealand the Merinos are usually in the high country of the South...
operating on Dirk Hartog Island at the time and was later destroyed by fire.
The proclamation site was later protected by State and Commonwealth legislation and a commemorative plaque was placed at the spot.