Life In 1771, aged only 27, Fleuriot de Langle was admited as a member of the Académie de Marine. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1778. Death at Samoa On the return voyage in 1787, fearing scurvy among his crew, Langle and La Pérouse landed on the Samoan island of Maouna to look for drinking water and fresh food, which they were running out of (Langle and La Pérouse both recognised the importance of fresh food in fighting scurvy, and – unlike La PérouseIn his account of the Maouna drama, La Pérouse wrote of Langle that "he adopted Captain Cook's system and believed that fresh water was a hundred times more preferable to casked water" – was persuaded by the observations of Captain Cook that fresh water was also valuable in this regard). With their boats laden with water barrels, they waited for a tide high enough to rejoin their ship, but, according to the survivors' accounts, they were in the meantime faced with ravishing young women, their hair decorated with hibiscus, advancing across the beach towards them and offering them sex. After many weeks at sea, these advances were evidently not unanimously rebuffed and extreme confusion and disorder followed. Legacy  Fleuriot de Langle was posthumously promoted to chef de Division (Rear-Admiral) on 24 April 1788. La Pérouse said of Langle that "He died for his humanity" and "I have lost by the most horrific of treasons my best friend, my friend for thirty years. A man full of spirit, judgement, knowledge, and certainly one of the best officers in all the fleets of Europe". His remains were buried in the choir of the church of Saint-Louis at Brest. Epilogue Death of Langle, as depicted in 1846 After the massacres, Astrolabe and Boussole arrived at Botany Bay on 24 January 1788, and had some contact with the officers of the First Fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip (but not Phillip personally), who had arrived that same week to set up the colony of New South Wales. They remained until 10 March and then set off, never to be heard from again. Missions to discover its fate determined that the expedition 's ships were sunk at Vanikoro, to the north of New Guinea, probably in March 1788. It was only in 1826 that the debris of Langle's ship was found on Vanikoro — a fragment of sculpted wood, a silver bowl stamped with a fleur-de-lis, and a bronze ship's bell, all of which are now in the Musée de la Marine. It is impossible to reconstruct the exact circumstances of her sinking. An expedition to Vanikoro in 1999 dived on the wrecks of Boussole and Astrolabe, finding a Graphometer similar to one found at Numbo in 1885. This follows finds of a silver fork with the coat of arms of Fleuriot de Langle , a Louis d'or, Spanish and Russian coins, an alcohol thermometer, a ship's whistle, part of a bilge pump, an anchor, a cask of dragon, a crucifix, a human statue, ship's débris, a copper sieve, musket balls, an engraved domino, bottles, pitchers, goblets, trivial trade items and officers' medals and high collars .
Biography In 1771, aged only 27, Fleuriot de Langle was admited as a member of the Académie de Marine. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1778. On the return voyage in 1787, fearing scurvy among his crew, Langle and La Pérouse landed on the Samoan island of Maouna to look for drinking water and fresh food, which they were running out of (Langle and La Pérouse both recognised the importance of fresh food in fighting scurvy, and – unlike La PérouseIn his account of the Maouna drama, La Pérouse wrote of Langle that "he adopted Captain Cook's system and believed that fresh water was a hundred times more preferable to casked water" – was persuaded by the observations of Captain Cook that fresh water was also valuable in this regard). With their boats laden with water barrels, they waited for a tide high enough to rejoin their ship, but, according to the survivors' accounts, they were in the meantime faced with ravishing young women, their hair decorated with hibiscus, advancing across the beach towards them and offering them sex. After many weeks at sea, these advances were evidently not unanimously rebuffed and extreme confusion and disorder followed. Legacy Death of Langle, as depicted in 1846 Fleuriot de Langle was posthumously promoted to Chef de Division on 24 April 1788. La Pérouse said of Langle that "He died for his humanity" and "I have lost by the most horrific of treasons my best friend, my friend for thirty years. A man full of spirit, judgement, knowledge, and certainly one of the best officers in all the fleets of Europe". His remains were buried in the choir of the church of Saint-Louis at Brest. In 1999, an archaeological expedition to Vanikoro in 1999 dived on the wrecks of Boussole and Astrolabe, and found a silver fork with the coat of arms of Fleuriot de Langle .
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Life
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Death at Samoa
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Death of Langle, as depicted in 1846
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chef de Division (Rear-Admiral)
Chef de Division
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Epilogue Death of Langle, as depicted in 1846 After the massacres, Astrolabe and Boussole arrived at Botany Bay on 24 January 1788, and had some contact with the officers of the First Fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip (but not Phillip personally), who had arrived that same week to set up the colony of New South Wales. They remained until 10 March and then set off, never to be heard from again. Missions to discover its fate determined that the expedition 's ships were sunk at Vanikoro, to the north of New Guinea, probably in March 1788. It was only in 1826 that the debris of Langle's ship was found on Vanikoro — a fragment of sculpted wood, a silver bowl stamped with a fleur-de-lis, and a bronze ship's bell, all of which are now in the Musée de la Marine. It is impossible to reconstruct the exact circumstances of her sinking.
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An expedition to Vanikoro in
In 1999, an archaeological expedition to Vanikoro in
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finding a Graphometer similar to one found at Numbo in 1885. This follows finds of
and found
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, a Louis d'or, Spanish and Russian coins, an alcohol thermometer, a ship's whistle, part of a bilge pump, an anchor, a cask of dragon, a crucifix, a human statue, ship's débris, a copper sieve, musket balls, an engraved domino, bottles, pitchers, goblets, trivial trade items and officers' medals and high collars