Gaston de Rocquemaurel 'Notes hydrographiques' compiled on his voyage commanding La Capricieuse

MLMSS 12220

fonds

July 1850 - September 1851

9680871

0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder) - 23 x 19 cm

Gaston de Rocquemaurel (1804—1878) was given command of La Capricieuse and sent to the Pacific in 1850 with orders to visit the major French settlements and particularly to complete the survey of Korean and Japanese waters. The ship sailed in May 1850, visiting Tenerife, Montevideo, Cape Horn, Valparaiso, Marquesas, Gambier islands, Tahiti and Guam before making Macao in March 1851. La Capricieuse returned to Toulon in March 1854. The crew had not even finished disembarking their equipment when France and England declared war on Russia. The harbour soon filled with steam ships being prepared for the Crimea. An official account of Rocquemaurel's voyage was never published.

Reference:
Library acquisition file

One quarto notebook of 96 pages (a few blank), in the original marbled paper wrappers, containing hydrographic notes compiled by Gaston de Rocquemaurel while on board the corvette La Capricieuse. The manuscript is in ink with pencil annotations, and contains two printed excerpts (one tipped-in, one loosely inserted).

The manuscript was begun by Roquemaurel as he prepared to sail to the Pacific in command of La Capricieuse in 1850, the last great voyage of exploration in the age of sail. It contains his hydrographic notes documenting ‘généralités’ such as seasons, wind and currents but also hydrographically significant information, including dangers, changes to navigational aids or charts and amendments to details included in publications. The notes are Rocquemaurel’s systematic geographical review of the books and journals he must have been carrying on board, as well as reports he had picked up en route, and a summary of that information by geographical area. Most of the notes are from the one source – the Annales Maritimes – as indicated by the AM in the title column, followed by year, volume and pages. Rocquemaurel added remarks about information that was especially useful, where cross references were available and whether notes needed to be checked or corrected.

Geographic areas covered include the Atlantic, Mer de la Sonde (former name for the Flores Sea), Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, Philippines, Sulawesi, Malacca, Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan, the Pacific Ocean and many small archipelagos in the South Pacific including the Dangerous Archipelago, Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, Kingdom of Tonga Archipelago, Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands as well as the coast of South America.

With reference to everything from phosphorence to sea-temperature, from the latest discoveries in navigation to long accounts of recorded wrecks in the South Seas, and with a great roll-call of predecessors in the Pacific (Cook, La Pérouse, Dixon, d’Entrecasteaux, Freycinet, Roquefeuil, Duperrey, Dumont d’Urville, King and Fitzroy), these notes on the entire region were clearly used and updated by Rocquemaurel constantly during his voyage.

Out of copyright:
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