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45-519: The Crozet Islands were discovered on 24 January 1772, by the expedition of French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne , aboard Le Mascarin . His second-in-command, Julien-Marie Crozet, landed on Île de la Possession, claiming the archipelago for France. The expedition continued east and landed in New Zealand , where Captain Marion and much of his crew were killed and cannibalized by Maoris . Crozet survived

90-522: A bad reputation as a dangerous land unsuitable for colonisation, and challenged the stereotypes of Pacific Islanders as noble savages then prevalent in Europe. There are different possible reasons for the Maori military assault on the landing site, including that the chief Te Kauri (Te Kuri) considered that Marion was a threat to his authority or Te Kauri became concerned at the economic effect of supplying food for

135-687: A familiar appellation in New Zealand and Tasmania. He first went to sea in 1741 on a voyage to Cadiz aboard the 22-gun Saint-Ésprit . During the War of the Austrian Succession Marion commanded several ships as a privateer, including the Prince de Conty where he transported Charles Edward Stuart from Scotland to France. In the Seven Years' War , he was engaged in various naval operations including taking

180-697: A military assault by the Ngare Raumati iwi (tribe) of Maoris. He is commemorated with the toponyms Marion Island , South Africa and Marion Bay , Tasmania , as well in the name of two successive French oceanic research and supply vessel the Marion Dufresne (1972) and the Marion Dufresne II , which service the French Southern Territories of Amsterdam Island , the Crozet Islands ,

225-462: A nature reserve since 1938. Introduction of foreign species ( mice , rats , and subsequently cats for pest control) has caused severe damage to the original ecosystem . The pigs that had been introduced on Île des Cochons and the goats brought to Île de la Possession—both as a food resource—have been exterminated. Another on-going concern is overfishing of the Patagonian toothfish , as well as

270-516: A one-month period as the ships were prepared for departure. A month later on 7 July Roux searched Te Kauri's deserted pa and found a sailor's cooked head on a spike, as well as human bones near a fire. They left on 12 July 1772. The French buried a bottle at Waipoa on Moturua, containing the arms of France and a formal statement taking possession of the whole country, with the name of "France Australe." However, both published and unpublished accounts of Marion's death circulated widely, giving New Zealand

315-459: A present of fish. Roux said the Maoris were astonished at the blunderbusses he had mounted outside his tent. He noticed the visiting chief taking a close look at the weapons and how they worked, as well as the defences of the camp, and became suspicious of his motives. The chief asked for the guns to be demonstrated and Roux shot a dog. That night more Maoris were found on Moturua Island prowling around

360-515: A significant vegetable garden on Moturua Island. Sixty of the French sailors had developed scurvy and were on shore in a tent hospital. They had been invited to visit local Maoris at their pa – a very rare event – and had slept there overnight. Maoris in return had been invited on board the ships and had slept in the ships overnight. The French officers made a detailed study of the habits and customs of Maoris including greetings, sexual mores, fishing methods,

405-646: A twofold mission to the Pacific. Marion's fellow explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville had recently returned from the Pacific with a Tahitian native, Ahutoru . Marion was tasked with returning Ahutoru to his homeland, and then to explore the south Pacific for the hypothetical Terra Australis Incognita . For these purposes Marion was given two ships, the Mascarin and the Marquis de Castries and departed on 18 October 1771. Marion spent most of his personal fortune on outfitting

450-571: Is a small colony of gentoo penguins . There is also an endemic subspecies of the duck Eaton's pintail . Other birds include black-faced sheathbills , petrels , and albatross , including the wandering albatross . Mammals living on the Crozet Islands include fur seals and southern elephant seals . Killer whales have been observed preying upon the seals. The transient killer whales of the Crozet Islands are famous for intentionally beaching (and later un-stranding) themselves while actively hunting

495-535: Is high, with over 2,000 mm (78.7 in) per year. It rains on average 300 days a year, and winds exceeding 100 km/h (62 mph) occur on 100 days a year. The temperatures may rise to 18 °C (64.4 °F) in summer and rarely go below −5 °C (23 °F), even in winter. The islands are part of the Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra ecoregion that includes several subantarctic islands. In this cold climate, plant life

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540-463: Is mainly limited to grasses, mosses and lichens , while the main animals are insects along with large populations of seabirds , seals and penguins . The Crozet Islands are home to four species of penguins . Most abundant are the macaroni penguin , of which some 2 million pairs breed on the islands, and the king penguin , home to 700,000 breeding pairs; half the world's population. The eastern rockhopper penguin also can be found, and there

585-453: Is staffed by 18 to 30 people (varying by season). They perform meteorological , biological , and geological research, and maintain a seismograph and a geomagnetic observatory ( IAGA code: CZT). The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization has listening equipment on the island and it was disclosed that two of its stations, the other being on Ascension Island, detected what is believed to be an underwater, non-nuclear explosion off

630-601: The Crozet Islands before sailing towards New Zealand and Australia. His ships spent several days in Tasmania , where Marion Bay in the south-east is named after him. He was the first European to encounter the Aboriginal Tasmanians . Marion sighted New Zealand 's Mount Taranaki on 25 March 1772, and named the mountain Pic Mascarin without knowing that James Cook had named it "Mount Egmont" three years earlier. Over

675-511: The Kerguelen Islands , and Saint Paul Island . Born in Saint Malo in 1724 into the non-noble, but wealthy, Marion family of shipowners and merchants, he eventually inherited a farm 'Le Fresne' near the village of Saint-Jean-sur-Vilaine and styled himself Marion Dufresne (or in some instances Dufresne-Marion). He was never known simply as (or signed himself) 'Du Fresne', but this has become

720-478: The albatross population, which is being monitored. The waters of the Crozet Islands are patrolled by the French government. A 2012 French film, Les Saveurs du Palais , begins and ends with scenes in the Crozet Islands. The film's protagonist, a grandmotherly chef from the Périgord region of France who signed on as cook for the research station, had once been the personal chef to President François Mitterrand . In

765-460: The subantarctic Crozet Archipelago in the South Indian Ocean . The station is located at the eastern end of the island on a plateau 143 m (460 ft) above sea level. Depending on the season, there are 15 to 60 personnel living and working at the base. Their scientific work includes meteorological , seismic , biological and geological research. It was first established during

810-488: The 1978 novel Desolation Island , the fifth book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series , the fictional naval vessel HMS Leopard is severely damaged by a collision with an iceberg in the southwestern Indian Ocean. The crew attempts to make landfall for repairs on one of the Crozet Islands, but they miss the island and continue to drift towards the east, unable to reverse direction. In Herman Melville 's Moby-Dick ,

855-399: The Maoris fleeing back to Te Kauri's pa. The French attacked the pa, firing at the defenders, who showered them with spears. The remainder got into canoes and fled. About 250 Maoris including five chiefs were killed in the battle. Many of the French were wounded. Roux, Julien–Marie Crozet and Ambroise Bernard-Marie du Clesmeur took joint command and undertook reprisals against the Maoris over

900-560: The Pequod sails near the ‘distant Crozetts’, ’a good cruising ground for Right Whalemen’ in Chapter 52, ‘The Albatross’. See also chapter 58, ’Brit’. Biggles Cuts it Fine by Captain W. E. Johns is set mainly in the Crozet Islands, where a fictional Russian base is discovered on, what is called in the book, “Hog Island”. Download coordinates as: Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne (22 May 1724 – 12 June 1772)

945-579: The astronomer Alexandre Guy Pingré to observe the 1761 transit of Venus in the Indian Ocean. In January 1762 Marion received a grant of 625 argents of land at Quartier Militaire in Mauritius . Although he returned to France in 1764 and 1767, he made the island home in 1768. In October 1770 Marion convinced Pierre Poivre , the civil administrator in Port Louis, to equip him with two ships and send him on

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990-455: The austral summer of 1963–1964, replacing a temporary scientific base built in 1961. The new station was named after Alfred Faure, the site's leader in the early 1960s. Alfred-Faure is visited a few times a year by the Marion Dufresne , an oceanographic research vessel which delivers supplies and rotating crews of scientists. There is a 1.6 km road that connects the research station to

1035-412: The bush, where they had been ambushed, with all the others being killed. In the following days the French came under relentless attack. The next day about 1,200 Maoris surrounded the French, led by Te Kauri. As they approached, Roux ordered Te Kauri shot. Later even more Maori reinforcements arrived. The French decided to abandon the hospital camp. The Maori then stole all the tools and supplies and burnt

1080-425: The camp down. They were close enough that the French could see they were wearing the clothes of Marion and his fellow dead sailors. The French retreated to Moturua Island. That night Maoris again attacked the camp and this time the French opened a general fire. The next day even more Maoris arrived taking their forces to about 1,500 men. The French charged this huge force with 26 armed soldiers and put them to flight,

1125-646: The coast of Argentina and believed to be the fatal accident of the ARA ; San Juan submarine in 2017. The islands lie on the Antarctic Plate , roughly between the Kerguelen hotspot and Madagascar and southern Africa. The oldest island, Île de l'Est , formed roughly 9 million years ago from a hotspot, which has continued forming islands to the west until, ostensibly, the present. Despite this apparently young age, no volcanic activity has been observed to date on any of

1170-421: The coast. Alfred Faure Station has a very mild tundra climate (Koppen ET ) with cool to cold summers and cold (but still averaging above freezing) winters. Due to its oceanic location near the subpolar low, it has a very cloudy and rainy climate with just 600 hours of bright sunshine per year (one of the lowest in the world) and over 70 inches (1750 cm) of rain a year. Similar to other subpolar oceanic islands in

1215-460: The coast. Subsequently, whaling was the main activity around the islands, especially by the whalers from Massachusetts . In 1841, there were a dozen whaleships around the islands. Within a couple of years, this had increased to twenty from the United States alone. Such exploitation was short-lived, and the islands were rarely visited for the rest of the century. The islands were uninhabited during

1260-417: The disaster, and successfully led the survivors back to their base in Mauritius . In 1776, Crozet met James Cook at Cape Town , at the start of Cook's third voyage . Crozet shared the charts of his ill-fated expedition, and as Cook sailed eastward, he stopped at the islands, naming the western group Marion and the eastern group Crozet . In the following years, sealers visiting the islands referred to both

1305-422: The eastern and western groups as the Crozet Islands, and Marion Island became the name of the larger of the two Prince Edward Islands , which had been discovered by Captain Marion on the same expedition. In the early 19th century, the islands were often visited by sealers, and the seals had been nearly exterminated by 1835. Between 1804 and 1911, 153 vessels visited the island for seals, seven of which wrecked on

1350-531: The expedition with supplies and crew. He hoped to make a significant profit on the journey by trading with the reportedly wealthy islands of the South Pacific. No part of Marion's mission could be achieved; Ahutoru died of smallpox shortly after embarkation, and the expedition did not locate Terra Australis or make a profit from trade. Instead, Marion discovered first the Prince Edward Islands and then

1395-824: The hospital camp but ran when sentries approached. Captain du Clesmeur alerted Marion to the rise in suspicious activity, but Marion did not listen. On the afternoon of 12 June 1772 Marion and 15 armed sailors went to Te Kauri's village and then went in the captain's gig to go fishing in his favourite fishing area. Marion and 26 men of his crew were killed. Those killed included de Vaudricourt and Pierre Lehoux (a volunteer), Thomas Ballu of Vannes, Pierre Mauclair (the second pilot) from St Malo, Louis Ménager (the steersman) from Lorient, Vincent Kerneur of Port-Louis, Marc Le Garff from Lorient, Marc Le Corre of Auray, Jean Mestique of Pluvigner, Pierre Cailloche of Languidic and Mathurin Daumalin of Hillion. That night 400 armed Maoris suddenly attacked

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1440-446: The hospital camp but were stopped in their tracks by the threat of the multiple blunderbusses. Roux held his fire and realised that they had narrowly escaped being killed in their sleep. One chief told Roux that Te Kauri had killed Marion. At this point longboats full of armed French sailors arrived with the news that Marion and the sailors had been killed. One survivor, who had been spared, told them Maoris had tricked them into going into

1485-405: The islands as a dependency of Madagascar . In 1938, the Crozet Islands were declared a nature reserve. The Crozet Islands became part of the French Southern Territories in 1955. In 1961, a first research station was set up, but it was not until 1963 that the permanent station Alfred Faure opened at Port Alfred on Île de la Possession (both named after the first leader of the station). The station

1530-471: The islands' breeding seal population. This is a very rare behaviour, most often seen in the Patagonia region of Argentina , and is thought to be a learned skill passed down through generations of individual orca families. These killer whales also seem to stay around the Crozet Islands year-round, feeding on mostly seals during the summer, and then feeding on penguins for the winter. The Crozet Islands have been

1575-452: The islands. Not including minor islets or rock reefs etc., the Crozet group consists of six islands. From west to east: Group of two major islands (Grande Île—Big Island, and Petite Île—Little Island) and about 20 pinnacle rocks. The Eastern and Western Groups are 94.5 km (51 nmi) apart (from Île des Pingouins to Île de la Possession). The Crozet Islands are uninhabited except for

1620-408: The landing. Tapu had been placed on Manawaora Bay after members of the local tribe drowned here some time earlier, and their bodies had been washed up at Te Kauri's (Tacoury's sic) Cove. Since the interlopers did not leave, a military resolution was required. Alfred Faure Alfred-Faure or Port Alfred is a permanent French scientific station on Île de la Possession (Possession Island) of

1665-480: The late 19th century. There were many shipwrecks on the Crozet Islands. The British sealer, Princess of Wales , sank in 1821, and the survivors spent two years on the islands. A castaway wrote 'The land affords no shelter whatever, there being neither tree nor shrub, and the weather is at most times extremely wet, and snow frequently on the ground'. In 1825 the Aventure was wrecked and 7 men survived. The Strathmore

1710-556: The next month, they repaired their two ships and treated their scurvy , first anchoring at Spirits Bay , and later in the Bay of Islands . Apparently their relations with Maoris were peaceful at first; they communicated through the Tahitian vocabulary learned from Ahu-toru and sign language. They befriended many Maoris including Te Kauri (Te Kuri) of the Ngāpuhi iwi (tribe). The French established

1755-470: The research station Alfred Faure (Port Alfred) on the east side of Île de la Possession, which has been continuously staffed since 1963. Previous scientific stations included La Grande Manchotière and La Petite Manchotière. The Crozet Islands have a maritime-influenced tundra climate ( Köppen climate classification , ET). Monthly temperatures average around 2.9 °C (37 °F) and 7.9 °C (46 °F) in winter and summer, respectively. Precipitation

1800-410: The role of females, the making of fern root paste, the killing of prisoners and cannibalism. In these months there were two instances where Maoris were detained. The first had sneaked on board ship and stolen a cutlass. He was detained for a brief period to give him a fright, then released to his friends. Later the Maoris made a night raid on the hospital camp taking away many guns and uniforms. While

1845-524: The soldiers chased the raiders, Maoris slipped back and stole an anchor. Two men were held as hostage against the return of the stolen goods. One of them admitted he had been involved in the theft but accused Te Kauri of being involved. Marion, finding the men bound, ordered them unbound and released. Later an armed party of Maoris approached the French as if to challenge them, but the French understood enough tikanga to make peace with them by exchanging gifts. No French witness to Marion's death survived and it

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1890-472: The two crews, or that Marion's crew, possibly unwittingly, broke several tapu laws related to their not carrying out the rituals required before the cutting down of kauri trees, or breaking of tapu by fishing in Manawaora Bay. An account told by a Ngāpuhi elder to John White (ethnographer 1826–1891), but not published until 1965, describes Te Kauri and Tohitapu as leading the military resolution to

1935-416: Was a French privateer, East India captain and explorer. The expedition he led to find the hypothetical Terra Australis in 1771 made important geographic discoveries in the south Indian Ocean and anthropological discoveries in Tasmania and New Zealand . In New Zealand they spent longer living on shore than any previous European expedition. Half way through the expedition's stay Marion was killed during

1980-417: Was some time before his crew were aware of his fate. Two contemporary accounts were written by French officers, Jean Roux and Ambroise du Clesmeur. During the night of 9 June 1772, French sentries at the hospital camp noticed about six Maoris prowling. In the morning it was discovered that Maoris had also been prowling around a second camp where the French had been making masts. The next day Maoris arrived with

2025-693: Was wrecked in 1875 and 44 people survived on a small island for 7 months. In 1887, the French Tamaris was wrecked and her crew stranded on Île des Cochons. They tied a note to the leg of an albatross , which was found seven months later in Fremantle, Western Australia , but the crew was never recovered. For some time, the Royal Navy dispatched a ship every few years to look for stranded survivors. The steamship Australasian also checked for survivors en route to Australia. Between 1924 and 1955, France administered

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