Forwarding of the Solid

the forwarding of the Solide (1790-1792) is the second Circumnavigation successful by French, after that of Bougainville. It remains ignored, because it aimed before a whole commercial goal: the draft of the Fourrure S enters the North-western coast of the America and the China.

Forwarding was directed by the navigator French Etienne Marchand (1755 - 1793).

Preparation of forwarding

Merchant was born in 1755 in the island from Grenade, with the the Antilles. In 1789, he is captain of a Tradind ship, and returns of the Bengal where he delivers to the trade spice S and The. At the time of a stopover in the island of Grey waxbill, it meets Nathaniel Portlock, another merchant, former companion of James Cook, which returns to make the draft of the furs on the north-western coast of the North America.

This trade had been initiated at the time of the last voyage of the Britannique explorer. It had piled up furs of Sea otters on the coasts of current the British Columbia and Alaska, and had started the crossing of the Pacific Ocean. After his death in the islands Hawaii, its crew had continued the voyage as far as China, where the skins could have been sold with much profit, the mandarins wanting at all costs skin of otter for their court dresses. Once returned to occident, the sailors of Cook made known their good fortune, and that drew the attention of private Armateur S which assembled forwardings of draft of furriery.

When Etienne Marchand arrives at Marseilles, he seeks investors to launch out in his turn in the adventure of the fur. He finds the brothers Jean and David Baux, who make quickly build a ship for the occasion: the Solid , of twenty-three meters length on eight broad, doubled out of copper, which measures three hundred barrels, and accommodates a crew of 50 men. Merchant is the captain. With him sail its seconds Pierre Masse and Prosper Chanal, and the surgeon Claude Roblet. As of June 1790, the Solide is ready to install. But of the incidents burst between the the United Kingdom and the Spain, which assert both the Anse of Nootka, right in the middle of the zone of exchanges of furs, and incite Marchand to delay the departure.

The voyage

It is finally on December 14th, 1790 that the ship leaves the wearing of Marseilles.

After a supply in the islands of the Cape Verde, Marchand decides not to make stopovers more, in order to prevent that its intentions end up arriving at the ears of the Spaniards. He thus sails round the South American continent by the Cape Horn without touching ground only once. But it needs to be supplied with drinking water. Rather than to approach the continent, it chooses to move towards the Marquesas Islands, whose position is known thanks to the Spaniard Alvaro de Mendaña in 1595, and more recently to the second voyage of James Cook in 1774. It reaches the archipelago on June 12th 1791. Two days later, it drops anchor in the Madre bay of Dios in the island of Tahuata, where it meets and trades with Marquisiens.

The 20, the Solid sets out again towards north. The following day, it arrives for an island which is not reproduced on any chart. Merchant believes to have discovered a new ground. He is unaware of that, two months earlier, the navigator Étasunien Joseph Ingraham crossed in same water. It is the island of Ua Pou, which Étasunien had named Adams , and which Marchand baptizes of its own name. Nevertheless, Ingraham had not unloaded there. It drops anchor at broad Western coast of the island, while it sends its second Mass to ground, in bay of Vaieo. It is the first contact between a Westerner and Marquisiens of this island, and the name chosen by Etienne Marchand for this split, “Bay of Warm welcome”, proves that this meeting proceeded under good omens. Besides as of the next day, Marchand decides to go itself to ground, this time in bay of Hakahetau. There, it takes possession of the island in the name of the king Louis XVI, and names this bay “Bay of the Possession”. After Ua Pou, he discovers the other islands of the northern group of the Marchionesses, Nuku Hiva, Ua Huka, High Iti, Eiao and Hatutu. He gives them names drawn from his forwarding, respectively Île Beams in the honor of his financier, Île of the Solid , Two Brothers because High Iti is made of two small islands, Masse , and Chanal . The whole of these islands is baptized Îles of the Revolution , this one beating full sound at the time of its departure of Marseilles.

Restocked, Etienne Marchand leaves the Marchionesses and for North America. But the summer season being too advanced, it chooses not to go more to north that the area of Sitka. There, it trades with the tribes Tlingit, to which it buys more than one hundred of skins of sea otters. The Roblet surgeon notes signs of Variole in the population, which has been for a few years in contact with the Russian , which are established little by little in Alaska, and of the Occidentaux sailors.

Merchant then decides to go down towards the south to continue to trade. August 22nd, the Solide arrives in the islands of the Queen-Charlotte. It sends its second, Chanal, to recognize the islands on board a Barge. It explores the area, naming some places always existing today, like Port Louis and Port Chanal . But it does not meet many Haida S, the Amerindian S living this area. One makes him understand that they left to drive out. That, more the fact that he discovers some equipped with Western clothing, leaves him think that other merchants passed there before him and have raid the skins available. The latest to date, two months before, was to be Joseph Ingraham, who had already preceded them with the Marchionesses.

The captain decides not to remain longer in this water, and goes down still a little more towards the south. He reaches the Vancouver Island on September 4th, where he still gets some furs, before leaving towards China the 8. The Solide crosses the Pacific quickly, in eleven weeks only, via Hawaii.

November 25th, Commercial Etienne reached Macao. It discovers other Occidentaux ships there, come like selling their fur skins to him. Among them, Joseph Ingraham, whom it had followed without the knowledge in several places of the Pacific. Étasunien is sick, and the surgeon Claude Roblet is dispatched on the Hope to look after it. All these merchants are blocked in the same situation: following an agreement with the tsarina Catherine II, the emperor of China Qianlong ordered that the importation of furs is exclusively reserved to the Russians. Rather than to await a hypothetical recovery, the French prefers to turn over with his skins to Europe. He takes again the sea as of on December 6th.

The Solid having wiped some storms, and after one year of navigation, drops anchor for repair in the island of France (current Mauritius, then Frenchwoman), where there remain eleven week. Finally, it is of return to Marseilles on August 30th 1792, twenty month after its departure of France. But the situation that Marchand discovers then is still worse than that of Macao: the Révolution turned to the Terreur, and a cargo of furs, goods rather intended for noble or the middle-class rich person, is not seen of an good eye… The brothers Beams, owner of the skins, are made them confiscate with Lyon.

Etienne Marchand nevertheless is accommodated with the honors: the government offers the command of a warship and the Marseillais to him that of the National guard. But Marchand prefers to refuse. He would have preferred to withdraw himself with the Mascareignes, far from the metropolis and of his Revolution, or he would have died it May 15th, 1793 in the island Bourbon (today the Meeting). The surgeon of the Solid , Claude Roblet, will follow the same way, being established in Mauritius, where his descendants still today are found. This version of died of Merchant nevertheless is disputed today, a letter post-mortem having been found with the Departmental records of the Rhone delta.

As for the furs, raison d'être of forwarding, they were finally returned with the Baux brothers, but… mitées, because of the bad conditions under which they had been stored.

Assessment of forwarding

From a financial point of view, the voyage was a complete failure. The international context appeared particularly unfavourable with the company: a too strong competition with the other Western sailors and the Russians, a prohibition to trade with the Chinese, and the Revolution with the return in France…

It was on the other hand a success from a scientific point of view. The notebooks of voyages of Chanal and Roblet made it possible to better know Marquisiens de Ua Pou, Tlingit de Sitka and Haidas of the islands of the Queen Charlotte, and constitute an invaluable testimony of the life of the Polynesians and Amerindians of this time. Chanal also charted with precision the south-western coast of the Graham island, and the geographical knowledge of the Marquesas Islands and the north-western coast of Americas progressed much.

From the navigation point of view of, it was also crowned success, with a very fast voyage for the time: twenty month, including sixteen only of navigation, the whole without Stop watch of navy to measure the Longitude. Only one death was to regret, of an attack of apoplexy.

On its return, the Log book of Merchant remained been unaware of, while Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu made known in 1798 the voyage of the Solid starting from the Journal of the Second of Chanal, and that of Roblet. Fleurieu, which had prepared the Expédition of Lapérouse, récrivit the voyage of the Solid, by adding its own comments.

Notes and references of the article

Exposure '' Marseilles, Merchant, Marchionesses ''
Odile Gannier and Cécile Picquoin “Log book of Commercial Etienne. The voyage of the Solid around the world (1790-1792)”, Loxias; Loxias 10 Doctoriales II.
Site on explorations of the Pacific at the XVIIIe century
'' Journal of the surgeon Roblet ''
Joseph Ingraham' S newspaper off the brigantine Hope one has off voyage to the northwest coast North America, 1790-92

See too

External bonds and documents

islands of the Queen Charlotte

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