Distillation de l'eau de Mer - Development de l'appareil

Engraver Victor-Jean Adam (1801-1866)

Date1825

Object number00001487

NameEngraving

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 435 mm

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionEngraving titled 'Distillation de l'eau de Mer - Development de l'appareil' which are technical drawings of the sea water distillation plant used on board the French vessel URANIE during Louis de Freycinet's 1817-1820 circumnavigation. HistoryLouis de Freycinet was a French naval officer who had participated in the Baudin expedition (1802/03) as the expedition's hydrographer/cartographer. As one of the crew of LE NATURALISTE, he was held in high regard by Captain Baudin and eventually entrusted with the command of one of the expedition's auxillary vessels - the CASUARINA, a 20 ton schooner purchased in Port Jackson - in which de Freycinet was tasked to carry out independent surveys of parts of the southern and western Australian coast during 1803. Because of Baudin's death in 1803 towards the end of the voyage, de Freycinet collaborated with Peron (who had been on board LE GEOGRAPHE as the naturalist during the voyage) on the analysis and presentation of the findings of the Baudin expedition; two volumes and several charts were published between 1807 and 1816. On the strength of this work, de Freycinet was promoted to the rank of ''Capitaine de vaisseau'' and was offered command of another exploring expedition to complete the objectives of Baudin's original mission in Australian and South Pacific waters. De Freycinet sailed from Toulon in September 1817 in command of the URANIE and subsequently spent three years at sea. His expedition explored and charted Shark Bay in Western Australia as well as many islands in the East Indies and Pacific Ocean, including the Moluccan, the Caroline and Mariana islands. The expedition finally put in at Sydney in November 1819 before returning home one month later via Cape Horn. The URANIE was wrecked in the Falkland Islands in February 1820. De Freycinet's voyage in the URANIE was especially remarkable for the fact that Rose de Freycinet, Louis' wife, accompanied him during the entire voyage. She had joined the expedition clandestinely, having come on board disguised as the son of one of De Freycinet's officers. A journal kept during the voyage by Rose de Freycinet survived the shipwreck and was published in the 1930s; an English translation was published by the National Library of Australia in 1996. (A Woman of Courage, translated by Professor Marc Serge Rivière) Bibliography: F. Péron and L. Freycinet, Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes: Exécuté par Ordre de sa Majeste, l’Empereur et Roi, sur les Corvettes le Geographe, le Naturaliste et la Goelette le Casuarina, Pendant les Annees 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804, vols 1-2 (Paris, 1807-16) L. Freycinet, Voyage Autour du Monde, Entrepris par Ordre du Roi ... Exécuté sur les Corvettes de S. M. l'Uranie et la Physicienne Pendant les Annees 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820: Historique, vols 1-2 (Paris, 1825) Marc Serge Rivière - A Woman of Courage (National Library of Australia ISBN 0 642 10676 2)SignificanceThis engraving is significant as a representation of attempts to overcome the problem of providing good-quality water to the crews of ships engaged in long-distance voyages.