---
title: "European and American voyages of scientific exploration"
chunk: 4/11
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_and_American_voyages_of_scientific_exploration"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:39:10.846547+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Captain: Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (1741–1788) (on the  Boussole) and Paul Antoine Fleuriot de Langle (1744–1787) (on the Astrolabe)
Chief Engineer: Paul Mérault Monneron (1748–1788)
Geologist: Robert de Lamanon (1752–1787)
Artists: the uncle and nephew Prevost, Duché De Vancy
Naturalists: Jean-André Mongez (1751 – c. 1788)
Interpreter of Russian: Barthélemy de Lesseps (1766–1834) landed at Petropavlovsk, and in charge of bringing to France the log, maps and drawings of the trip.

==== 1785–88: King George ====
Global circumnavigation.

Captain: Nathaniel Portlock

==== 1785–94: Slava Rossii ====
A Russian expedition commanded by the British Captain Joseph Billings, astronomer on Cook's third voyage. This expedition lasted more than ten years attempting, unsuccessfully, to find the Northwest Passage that had remained undiscovered after Cook's explorations.

Captain: Joseph Billings (c. 1758 – 1806)
Naturalists: Carl Heinrich Merck and Carl Krebs
Surgeons-naturalists: Michael Robeck and Peter Allegretti
Cartographer: Gavriil Sarytchev
Publications: J. Billings, An Account of a Geographical and Astronomical expedition to the Northern parts of Russia. (1802), translated into French the same year under the title of Voyage made by order of Empress Catherine II Russia, in the North of the Asian Russian the icy sea, in the sea on the coasts of America, from 1785 until 1794, by commodore Billings and Anadyr (Paris, 1802); Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811), Zoographia Rosso – Asiatica (1811), where he described the species discovered by this expedition.

==== 1790–91: La Solide ====
The Solide expedition was the second successful circumnavigation by the French, after that by Bougainville. It occurred from 1790 to 1792 but remains little known due to its mostly commercial aims in the fur trade between the northwest American coast and China.

Captain: Étienne Marchand (1755–1793)

==== 1789–94: Descubierta and Atrevida ====

The Spanish Malaspina Expedition explored the coasts of Spanish possessions in America and Alaska, always looking for the Northwest Passage. More than 70 crates of natural history specimens were sent to Madrid. On return Captain Malaspina was forced into exile because of his ideas, suggesting, among other things, that Spain abandon the military domination of its colonies in favour of a Federation. The scientific journal of the trip was lost but recovered in 1885.

Captains: Alessandro Malaspina (1754–1810) (Descubierta) and José de Bustamante y Guerra (1759–1825) (Atrevida)
Naturalists: Antonio Pineda (1751–1792), Thaddäus Haenke (1761–1817), Luis Née (c. 1789 – 1794) and Tomas de Suria
Artist: José del Pozo and José Guío
Publication: Pedro de Novo y Colson (1846–1931), Viaje político-científico alrededor del mundo: por las corbetas Descubierta y Atrevida al mando los capitanes navío d. Alejandro Malaspina y Don José de Bustamante y Guerra, desde 1789 á 1794. (Madrid, 1885).

==== 1791–94: La Recherche and L'Espérance ====

An expedition to find the two vessels commanded by Jean-François de La Pérouse (1741–1788), and of which there was no news after they had left Port Jackson heading for southern Tasmania and southern Australia. The two captains of the search expedition both perished en route: Captain Kermadec died in May 1793 of tuberculosis and Captain d'Entrecasteaux died of scurvy in July of the same year. The expedition was headed by a royalist, and heard of The Terror in France when putting into the Dutch colonies. The crew was arrested and collections of natural history confiscated and offered by the Dutch to the British. These were however, on the express request of the scientist Joseph Banks (1743–1820), returned to France.

Captains: Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux (1737–1793) (Recherche) and Jean-Michel de Kermadec (1748–1793) (Espérance)
Naturalists: Jacques-Julien de Labillardière (1755–1834), Claude Riche (1762–1798), Jean Blavier (1764–1828), the father Louis Ventenat (1765–1794) and Louis Deschamps (1765–1842)
Hydrographer: Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré (1766–1854)
Gardener: Félix Delahaye (1767–1829)
Artist: Piron (?–1796)
Publication: J.H. La Billardière, Relation of the voyage for the Perugia, made by order of the constituent Assembly during the years 1791, 1792 and during the first and second years of the Republic Françoise (Paris, 1799); Elizabeth Rossel, Voyage of Entrecasteaux, sent for Lapérouse, 2 vols, 1809.

==== 1791–93: HMS Providence ====
The Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce offered a reward of fifty pounds for living breadfruit plants. Bligh completed this in Providence, his second mission to collect breadfruit plants and other botanical specimens from the Pacific. These he transported to the West Indies, specimens being given to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Saint Vincent. This expedition was a success, returning to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew with 1,283 plants including varieties of apple, pear, oranges and mangoes. In addition to these specimens, the expedition accomplished many observations and cartographic surveys in the South Seas.

Captain: William Bligh (1754–1817)
Surgeon-naturalist: Thomas Dancer (c. 1750 – 1811)

==== 1791–95: HMS Discovery and HMS Chatham ====

A mission to the South Seas and Pacific Northwest coast of America. In 1791, Discovery left England with Chatham. Both ships anchored at Cape Town before exploring the south coast of Australia. In King George Sound, the Discovery's naturalist and surgeon Archibald Menzies collected various plant species including Banksia grandis, the first recording of the genus Banksia from Western Australia. The two ships sailed to Hawaiʻi where Vancouver named Kamehameha I. Chatham and Discovery then sailed on to the Northwest Pacific. Over the course of the next four years, Vancouver surveyed the northern Pacific Ocean coast in Discovery wintering in Spanish California or Hawaiʻi. Discovery's primary mission was to exert British sovereignty over this part of the Northwest Coast following the hand-over of the Spanish Fort San Miguel at Nootka Sound, although exploration in co-operation with the Spanish was seen as an important secondary objective. Exploration work was successful as relations with the Spanish went well; resupply in California was especially helpful. Vancouver and the Spanish commandant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra were on such good terms that the original name of Vancouver Island was actually Quadra and Vancouver's Island.

Captains: George Vancouver (1757–1798) (Discovery) and William Robert Broughton (1763–1822) (Chatham)
Naturalist: Archibald Menzies (1754–1842)
Physician-naturalist: Alexander Cranstoun

==== 1800–04: Le Géographe and Naturaliste ====