Nicolas Thomas Marion-Dufresne , or Marc-Joseph (or Jean-Baptiste) Marion-Dufresne , (May 22nd 1724, Saint-Malo - June 12th 1772, New Zealand), was a navigator and Explorateur French of the 18th century, it was in particular the discoverer in 1772 of the island Marion, of the island of the Prince Edouard and the islands Crozet.

Native of a rich person family inhabitant of Saint Malo, Marc-Joseph Marion-Dufresne begins in 1745 a career from naval officer in the Royal one by obtaining the ranks from captain, then of lieutenant of frigate. He leaves the army for the trade in 1752 while engaging in the Compagnie of the Indies.

After the dissolution of the Company of the Indies in 1769, Marion-Dufresne assembles a forwarding aiming at taking back with Tahiti the Aoutourou native brought to Paris by Bougainville in 1768. The navigator will be also charged to reach the southern continent of Gonneville, and to make sure of the feasibility of the way by the Mer of Tasman towards the New Zealand. Forwarding installs on October 18th 1771 of Port-Louis on the island of France (old name of the Mauritius). Marion-Dufresne orders the Mascarin , assisted by Julien Crozet, Ambroise Bernard-Marie the Gravel bank of Clesmeur is with the head of the Marquis de Castries . But Aoutourou dies of the Variole at the time of the stopover with Madagascar on November 6th, 1771.

The priorities of the voyage are then modified, and Marion-Dufresne travels towards the south. It reaches on January 13rd 1772 the Marion island and the island of Prince Edouard, whom it names Ground of the Hope and island of the Cave. These islands, discovered in 1663 by Barent Barentszoon Lam and today South-African possessions, had remained forgotten because of a bad estimate of their position. This same day, because of the fog, the stem of the Mascarin approaches the Marquis de Castries , whose mast of Misaine crumbles; its Beaupré is broken. From now on, forwarding seeks a ground in order to carry out repairs.

On January 22nd and 24th 1772, Marion-Dufresne discovers a Archipel, to which Cook will give the name of Crozet. It takes possession of it by depositing a bottle containing a parchment with the weapons of king de France on the island of the Taking possession (current island of the Possession).

Marion-Dufresne reaches the Tasmanie on March 3rd, 1772, then sees the New Zealand the 10 of the same month. It carries out the exploration of the New Zealand coasts then. May 4th, 1772, the two boats wet in bay of the islands ( bay off islands ), famous Port-Marion by the French.

The first contacts with the Maoris are rather cordial and friendly. The French are established for a time with Port-Marion, repairing their boats, filling the tank with food, looking after their patients of the scurvy, and making trade with Maoris. However, after the demolition of kaori S, which was trees crowned for the natives, the latter decide to sacrifice Europeans; they then massacre Marion-Dufresne and part of its crew on June 12th, 1772.

Of Clesmeur takes the command of forwarding then, and Julien Crozet becomes the commander of the Mascarin . July 7th, a forwarding, sent to the village of the chief of Maoris to try to find the traces of Marion-Dufresne, discovers horrible remainders, and in particular indices of practices cannibals.

See too

Internal bonds

• the ships Marion Dufresne

External bonds

• Marion-Dufresne in philately
• its genealogy on the site geneanet samlap
• the site of France-culture (unintermitting Sciences of Stephan Deligeorges)