Astrolabe 1811 - A History of the French Exploration Ship The Astrolabe was a horse barge converted to an exploration ship of the French Navy. She is famous for her travels with Jules Dumont d'Urville. The name derives from an early navigational instrument, the astrolabe, a precursor to the sextant. Her first major expedition as Coquille was from 1822 to 1825, she explored the southern hemisphere. She was renamed Astrolabe after one of La Perouse’s ships. She sailed the Australian and Western Pacific Islands and visited 120 Islands.
The Astrolabe skirted the coast of southern Australia, carried out new relief maps of the South Island of New Zealand, reached the archipelagos of Tonga and Fiji, executed the first relief maps of the Loyalty Islands (part of French New Caledonia) and explored the coasts of New Guinea. He identified the site of La Pérouse’s shipwreck in Vanikoro (one of the Santa Cruz Islands, part of the archipelago of the Solomon Islands) and collected numerous remains of his boats. The voyage continued with the mapping of part of the Caroline Islands and the Moluccas. The Astrolabe returned to Marseille during the early months of 1829 with an impressive load of hydrographical papers and collections of zoological, botanical and mineralogical reports, which were destined to strongly influence the scientific analysis of those regions. Following this expedition, he invented the terms Micronesia and Melanesia, distinguishing these Pacific cultures and island groups from Polynesia.
In 1836, the French Emperor Louis-Philippe mounted an expedition to locate the magnetic pole under the command of Dumont D’urville. During her career, the ship helped catalogue and collect a vast amount of knowledge in the field of botany and fauna.
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 | Astrolabe (L) 1811 France
Wooden Plank on Frame Model of Museum Quality
Length: 33" (84 cm)
Width: 10" (26 cm)
Height: 27" (68 cm)
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Price: £570.00 (Euro 661.20) |
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 | Astrolabe (M) 1811 France
Wooden Plank on Frame Model of High Quality
Length: 21" (54 cm)
Width: 7" (16 cm)
Height: 18" (45 cm)
Click for Detailed Pictures
Price: £320.00 (Euro 371.20) |
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 | Astrolabe 1811 France
Astrolabe Ship Models Page
Teak Plank on Frame Model of Museum Quality
Length: 21" (54 cm)
Width: 7" (16 cm)
Height: 18" (45 cm)
Click for Detailed Pictures
Price: £300.00 (Euro 348.00) |
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See Also: Nelson, The Battle of Trafalgar & The Napoleonic Wars The HMS Victory Ship Models Page
Page dedicated to the HMS Victory, the Battle of Trafalgar and Nelson. Find out about all our models of the HMS Victory and some history about Trafalgar 1805. |
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Further Facts about the French Exploration Ship Astrolabe http://en.wikipedia.org/
More details of the Astrolabe in close association with the achievements of Jules Dumont d'Urville. From the round the world trip under the command of Duperrey in 1822 and the exploration voyages of 1826 and 1838.
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