Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec
Naval Officer and Explorer · 1734–1797
Who is Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec?
Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec was a French Navy officer born in Quimper, Brittany, who commanded a 1771-1772 expedition sent to search for the hypothetical southern continent Terra Australis. On 12 February 1772 he sighted an archipelago of rugged, fog-bound islands in the far southern Indian Ocean, but poor weather prevented him from landing. Convinced he had found a fertile new land, he named it "France australe" and returned to report enthusiastically to King Louis XV that it held rich resources and colonial promise. A second expedition in 1773-1774 finally allowed a landing, revealing the islands to be barren, wind-scoured, and effectively uninhabitable, in stark contrast to his earlier claims. On his return, Kerguelen was court-martialed for exaggeration and for failing to properly explore the land he had described, and served a period of imprisonment. Despite the scandal, the archipelago was ultimately named the Kerguelen Islands in his honor, and today forms the largest and most populous district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF), home to the Port-aux-Français research station.
Sources: Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec, Relation de deux voyages dans les mers australes et des Indes, faits en 1771, 1772, 1773 et 1774 (Paris, Knapen et fils, 1782) · Service historique de la Défense, Mémoire des hommes — procès de Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec · TAAF (Terres australes et antarctiques françaises), official historical archives