{"id":1748,"date":"2017-01-30T08:30:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T22:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=1748"},"modified":"2016-12-12T14:54:26","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T04:24:26","slug":"baudins-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2017\/01\/baudins-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Baudin’s names in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most familiar impacts of the voyages of Flindes and Baudin around Australia is the names that they gave to places. While many of Flinders names are still in use today, Baudin left very few place names in his wake<\/em>. Jean Fornasiero, Peter Monteath and John West-Sooby explain why in\u00a0<\/em>Encountering Terra Australis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Encountering<\/a>

Detail of Laurie & Whittle\u2019s New map of the World showing Terra Australis as known in November 1800, State
Library of New South Wales<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the most distinctive and recognisable symbols of any nation is the\u00a0outline of the country its citizens inhabit. Determining the shape of Terra\u00a0Australis was a process in which mariners over many centuries played a role.\u00a0Even after Flinders and Baudin, who in the end were unable to fulfil their\u00a0respective goals, the map was not entirely complete \u2013 parts of the coastline had\u00a0still been filled in with only a tremulous hand. But it was thanks to the joint\u00a0efforts of Flinders and Baudin in 1802 that the one large piece then missing\u00a0from the Australian puzzle was finally added \u2013 namely, the stretch of coastline\u00a0that corresponds roughly to the coast of present-day South Australia. It was\u00a0not merely a matter of filling in the details of an unknown stretch of coast; it\u00a0was also a matter of confirming once and for all that they were dealing with a\u00a0single, massive continent. Baudin and Flinders were among those who had\u00a0speculated that there might be a strait running from the unknown coast in the\u00a0south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, separating New Holland from\u00a0New South Wales. Together, on 8 April 1802, they established from each\u00a0other\u2019s experience that no such strait was to be found.<\/p>\n

\"Encountering<\/a>

General chart of Terra Australis or Australia, Matthew Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis (1814)<\/p><\/div>\n

Baudin seemed well placed to emerge the winner of the race to finish the\u00a0map, having been the first to set out on his mission. But we now know only too\u00a0well that his advantage was soon lost and that his lasting contribution to the\u00a0definitive map was relatively small. Moreover, the tragic end to his life and the\u00a0eventual settlement of Australia by the English ensured that he would not have\u00a0the opportunity to compete with Flinders when it came to naming the continent\u00a0whose shape he had helped to define. There have been so few opportunities in\u00a0history to name a new land that Baudin and the French might be considered\u00a0to have lost heavily on that score. Baudin\u2019s death also cost him naming rights for the geographical features that he identified in the rough charts made\u00a0during the voyage.<\/p>\n

Many French names still survive in parts of Australia that the Baudin\u00a0expedition charted. However, in most cases these are the names used by P\u00e9ron\u00a0and Louis Freycinet on the maps published in the official account of the\u00a0voyage, and not those originally given by the commander himself. To make\u00a0matters worse, P\u00e9ron and Freycinet themselves featured prominently in the\u00a0resulting nomenclature, while Baudin\u2019s own name was as pointedly omitted\u00a0from the map as it was from the written record of the voyage. Admittedly,\u00a0Baudin might well have adopted a similar approach, had he been given the\u00a0chance. There was little in the way of flattery or homage to his officers in his \u00a0original nomenclature; one can therefore imagine that Baudin\u2019s faithful companions,\u00a0such as Ri\u00e9dl\u00e9 or Maug\u00e9, would have received more recognition\u00a0from him than the likes of P\u00e9ron and Freycinet.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, circumstances would probably have forced Baudin,\u00a0like P\u00e9ron, to revise his nomenclature to account for other considerations\u00a0than personal point-scoring. The same bureaucratic and political factors that\u00a0influenced P\u00e9ron\u2019s choices would certainly have weighed heavily on the\u00a0commander in his review of the names in his drafts. After all, the official\u00a0cartographers at the Ministry of Marine would have had some say in the\u00a0matter. It is also a constant fact of life that Ministers change and that the new\u00a0incumbents require some form of flattery to ensure that funds continue to\u00a0flow. Baudin did not have to face that particular dilemma; it was P\u00e9ron, and\u00a0later Freycinet after P\u00e9ron\u2019s death in 1810, who had to deal with the political\u00a0obstacles that impeded publication of the voyage\u2019s map and official account.<\/p>\n

One of P\u00e9ron\u2019s strategies was to name a relatively large number of\u00a0features after prominent political figures of Napoleon\u2019s regime. Some of these\u00a0were the cause of a certain amount of embarrassment even before the Freycinet\u00a0map of Terra Australis appeared \u2013 particularly the twin gulfs of what is now\u00a0South Australia, which were named after Napoleon and his by then repudiated\u00a0spouse, Josephine. However, since it was Flinders who had first charted\u00a0and named the two gulfs, he had every reason to object, as he later did, to the\u00a0ill-inspired nomenclature of P\u00e9ron and Freycinet.<\/p>\n

Baudin was, of course, long gone before controversy erupted over the\u00a0political ramifications of the French nomenclature. P\u00e9ron had not just chosen\u00a0to name the French expedition\u2019s discoveries after political figures, but he had\u00a0also assigned politically inspired names to Flinders\u2019 section of the unknown\u00a0coast. As if this were not bad enough, of these names Napoleon\u2019s was the one\u00a0that was guaranteed to cause the deepest offence to the English. When the first\u00a0volume of P\u00e9ron\u2019s account appeared in 1807, the English reacted most angrily\u00a0to the naming (and implied claiming) of the entire unknown south coast as\u00a0Terre Napol\u00e9on.<\/p>\n

It is hard to imagine that Baudin would have been party to this, even\u00a0under pressure. From the conversations and exchanges of information between\u00a0Flinders and Baudin, we know that both captains were scrupulous about\u00a0noting what the other had done \u2013 and that this was to serve as the basis for\u00a0their final maps. Flinders found it hard to believe that this etiquette had been\u00a0breached and that his own discoveries on the south coast had deliberately\u00a0been ignored by P\u00e9ron, whom he would have known well from the stay in\u00a0Port Jackson. The case against P\u00e9ron was, in fact, so damning that Freycinet\u00a0felt the need to remedy the situation in the second edition of the Voyage de\u00a0d\u00e9couvertes aux Terres Australes, published in 1824 \u2013 although he took care to distance himself from the controversy, attributing the original nomenclature to\u00a0P\u00e9ron alone. In defence of his deceased colleague, however, Freycinet stated\u00a0that P\u00e9ron had not intended to claim as discoveries the features he wrongfully\u00a0named; he had simply not known the names Flinders had given, since the\u00a0English map was published much later, in 1814. Once Flinders\u2019 names were\u00a0known, the French accepted them without question.<\/p>\n

\u2026 It is thus unlikely that the two captains [Flinders and Baudin] would have fallen into disagreement\u00a0over the delicate issue of prior rights. In fact, in naming generally, they\u00a0adopted similar practices. Their charts bore homage to celebrities, often maritime\u00a0figures, as in the case of Cape Borda on Kangaroo Island, named by\u00a0Baudin after the eighteenth-century French naval officer and mathematician.\u00a0The French expedition\u2019s major discoveries were also commemorated in other\u00a0ways. The captain\u2019s ship, for instance, provided the inspiration for the naming\u00a0of Geographe Bay in Western Australia. To prominent landmarks Baudin\u00a0often gave names that corresponded to their physical appearance. This was also\u00a0a conventional category, in that it signalled recognisable features to future\u00a0explorers \u2013 a practice illustrated by Baudin\u2019s \u2018Ile du dragon\u2019 (Dragon Island)\u00a0off the Victorian coast, now known more prosaically as Lawrence Rock.<\/p>\n

Baudin\u2019s names sometimes went a little further than mere appearance.\u00a0The steep columns he saw at Cape Hauy in Tasmania led him to adopt the\u00a0name \u2018Cap des Organistes\u2019 (Organists\u2019 Cape) in an attempt to describe the\u00a0grandiose nature of the spectacle, with its tall columns reminiscent of organ\u00a0pipes, rather than just evoke the sheerness of the cliffs. In another category,\u00a0Baudin also conformed to conventional usage by conferring names that\u00a0reflected incidents on board ship. Of course, he could not refrain from adding\u00a0the occasional dash of his characteristic humour and sarcasm \u2013 though, not\u00a0surprisingly, the humorous names disappeared entirely from the list of P\u00e9ron\u2019s\u00a0names, which overwhelmingly favoured the use of clusters of philosophers\u00a0and scientists. While the commemoration of such celebrated figures is an\u00a0interesting heritage that reminds us of the scientific nature of the Baudin\u00a0expedition, it does not entirely compensate for the loss of such colourful names\u00a0as those that Baudin gave to parts of Geographe Bay: \u2018Anse des Maladroits\u2019\u00a0(Cove of the Clumsy \u2013 today Wonnerup Inlet \u2013 where Baudin\u2019s longboat was\u00a0grounded) or \u2018Cap des M\u00e9contents\u2019 (Cape of Discontent \u2013 now Cape\u00a0Naturaliste \u2013 where Baudin reprimanded Sub-Lieutenant Picquet for his\u00a0failure to land).<\/p>\n

While there is no definitive record of place-names comparing the names\u00a0conferred by Baudin with those that finally appeared on Freycinet\u2019s charts, it\u00a0is clear that both lists draw to a similar extent on the conventional categories.\u00a0The differences are to be found in the relative frequencies of certain categories,\u00a0but these can be telling. P\u00e9ron and Freycinet used more proper names,\u00a0whereas Baudin\u2019s nomenclature reflects a more evenly balanced use of the\u00a0various naming principles. On the other hand, his use of descriptive names was\u00a0no more conventional than the man himself. This fact alone may have caused\u00a0him later problems with the official cartographers, had he lived to supervise\u00a0his map.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to read more about the fascinating voyages of Flinders and Baudin, and the legacy they left behind.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Encountering<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most familiar impacts of the voyages of Flindes and Baudin around Australia is the names that they gave to places. While many of Flinders names are still in use today, Baudin left very few place names in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[563,566,561,562,565,564,568,567,451],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extract","tag-encountering-terra-australis","tag-freycinet","tag-jean-fornasiero","tag-john-west-sooby","tag-matthew-flinders","tag-nicolas-baudin","tag-nomenclature","tag-peron","tag-peter-monteath"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-sc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1811,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions\/1811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}