Espérance (1781 - 1794)

Summary

Esperance was a Rhône-class scow of the French navy launched in 1781 and named Durance. She was originally a troop ship and saw service in the Caribbean. In July 1791, recommissioned as a frigate and renamed Espérance, she was selected to undertake a voyage to Van Diemen's Land and Pacific islands in search of traces of the explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse. Espérance left Brest in September 1791 under command of J. M. Huon de Kermadec and in company with Recherche. The crew included naturalist Claude Riche. In April 1792 the expedition reached Van Diemen's Land. By July they were in the Admiralty Islands and, after sailing through the Indonesian islands, reached Cape Leeuwin in November and returned to Van Diemen's Land. From there they headed for New Caledonia. No trace of La Pérouse was found. On the voyage home some political difficulty with the Dutch was experienced at Surabaya. The ships finally reached France in February 1784. Both ships ultimately were sold for scrap in November 1794. The town of Esperance, Western Australia, was named after her.

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Published resources

See also

• Brosse, Jacques; translated by Hochman, Stanley, Great voyages of exploration: the golden age of discovery in the Pacific (Lane Cove, N.S.W.: Doubleday Australia, 1983), 228 pp. Details
• Douglas, Bronwen; Veys, Fanny Wonu; and Lythberg, Billie eds, Collecting in the South Sea: the voyage of Bruni d'Entrecasteaux 1791-1794 (Leiden, Netherlands: Sidestone Press, 2018), 340 pp. Details
• Evenhuis, Neal L., 'Localities of Fabrician Types Collected by Labillardiere on the Voyage of the Recherche and Esperance, with Special Reference to the Diptera', Archives of Natural History, 15 (2) (1988), 185-196. Details
• Labillardiere, Jacques Julien Houtou de, Relation de la voyage à le recherche de la Pérouse, fait par ordre de l'Assemblée Constituante pendant les années 1791, 1792 et pendant la 1e la 2e années de la République Française Paris 2 vols, 2 vols (Paris: H. J. Hansen, 1799-1800). Details
• Labillardiere, Jacques Julien Houtou de, Voyage in search of la Pérouse performed by order of the Constituent Assembly during the years 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1794, 2 vols (London: John Stockdale, 1800). Details
• Plomley, Brian; and Piard-Bernier, Josiane, The general: the visits of the expedition led by Bruny d'Entrecasteaux to Tasmanian waters in 1792 and 1793 (Launceston, Tas.: Queen Victoria Museum, 1993), 379 pp. Details